Gallery Wall {Living Room}

Well hello there! I hope your week has been a delight so far and that you are ready for the forth! Our city always puts on an excellent firework display so we will be out in the crowd enjoying the festivities and probably cooking out.

When I repainted the living room I rearranging a lot of art and pictures. Most did not make it back in the space, therefore that left me with a lot of empty wall space. Although I love that look Dr.J wants the walls filled with art and pictures. We have an abundance of family photos and kids artwork throughout the house but not a photograph that we have taken from travels.

Once upon a time you could not get a camera out of my husbands hands, he loved to take pictures of cityscapes and interesting buildings. I just recently started to take pictures that aren't of events or my own children and we want to incorporate those into our home. Most of his pictures were taken with film and we have to locate the negatives and digital files of others.

Since most of our pictures are lost at the moment, the joy of being unorganized and having multiple computers over the years, I put up some pretty botanical's instead. This is a temporary fix until we find the photographs we want hang.

We used Ribba frames. I did not like that they had to be hung by an wire I had to install myself. I have a system when I hang pictures on the wall and since each frame will hang slightly different I was a tad bit frustrated. I followed this helpful online video on how to wire a frame. I did go out and buy new picture hanging wire that wasn't so rigid and easy to work with. Please believe, your figures will thank me! :)

Whenever I hang a picture on the wall I always make a paper template. I hang the templates on the wall and move them around until I have the right configuration. With normal frames I also put a mark on the template where my screw or nail will go so that everything hangs properly. With a wired frame I had to do things a bit differently.

I found this helpful blog that showed how to hang these frames with an ingenious tool. All you need is a paint stick and a screw. Insert the screw into the paint stick until it just barely goes through. Hang the frame on the screw and hold it up where you want to hang it. Once in the exact spot, hold the paint stick firmly in place and remove the frame. This works better with another pair of hands. Press the screw into the wall so that you are left with a precise mark where you will place your nail or screw. Hang your frame and done!

Ingenious right!?!

Since taking some of these photos, the living room has went through a series of outfit changes, oops I mean rearrangements! I get bored very easily which naturally means I am a chronic rearranger (my husband would much rather things stay put for at least a week or two). I love the botanicals but I can't wait until I have our photographs hanging in it's place. Do you have any advice on hanging frames? I would love to hear! See ya soon!

Happy Independence Day!

UPDATE
I have answered a couple of questions concerning the botanical prints I used for my gallery wall, check out this post!

Linking up with Thirty Homemade Days, Between Naps on the Porch & Thrifty Decor Chick!