Is it weird to be in love with a wall?

It's done. And I am in love.

I have finally gotten the gallery wall where I want it to be! Soon will be getting other bedroom accessories up to snuff.. but for now, I will just lay in bed and stare at my pretty wall. :) ahhhhhh

To recap, this is where we TRAGICALLY START... with a terrible "Pinterest fail"(can read about it here) and a stack of frames on my bedroom floor.

So.... off to find INSPIRATION and my favorite was from Style Me Pretty. I liked the combination of colors, looks very classic, and it was easy to imagine around our TV obviously.

IN-PROGRESS included laying out some frames and following a "paper-hanging method". I got my paper method hanging by following these awesome blogs' instructions at Young House Love and A Beautiful Mess. They do an awesome detailed job explaining that I would not even come close to.

And after sitting like that forever, eventually frames came up in the paper's places and nothing went in them.... UNTIL I slowly filled it with meaningful things for Tim and I. :) I made some of the "written" prints and purchased a few printable quotes from Etsy (here, here, and here) and got them printed @ Nations Photo Lab. They were very easy to upload your items, pick your paper/size/etc, printed quickly with good customer service, and overall very reasonably priced. I definitely have a few more things around the house I want to get printed and I will be going back to this company.

Now I am not so great taking pictures of this and our room does not have much natural light (so sorry for the creamy/yellow overhead light look.. it does seem a bit more crisp in person. Eventually I will try to take some better photographs.)

Anywho, without further ado, THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

The overall look from our bed... well technically standing on it so I can prevent some glare ;)

Clockwise from left: The 6 photo frame holds personal things between the husband and I such as our lucky number 13, favorite quote "It's the little things", important dates in our lives/relationship, first dance song lyrics, Mr. & Mrs. ring art I did, and a photograph of the Normal Theater's marquee for "It's A wonderful Life". Next, just another quote we like that translates to "I regret nothing"- very positive outlook we think. Next, a canvas of one of our engagement pictures in "our seat" at Normal Theater.  Lastly, an old school picture of the 2 of us from... 2005?

Clockwise from left: A map of our new home of Chicago <3, a photo from a night out with friends in Milwaukee this year, a picture from our first dance at our wedding, XO (no comment needed right?), the quote "Let's grow old together" (reminds me of "i wanna grow old with you- from the wedding singer" which I LOVE and Tim would always let me know when it was on :) ), and lastly another photo from our wedding. 

AS I SAID- I AM IN LOVE! 

I'm just going to go lay in bed and stare at it!

happy monday!

xo jess xo

Picture This

I have definitely been all up on Pinterest and one of the first things I would like to do is.... put up a gallery wall in our bedroom. Above our tv and dresser. I had made some art for right over it when we moved in and immediately disliked it. We shall call it a Pinterest Fail.

The inspiration was something like this:

 

with amazing artistic painting penmanship and very original... however I had some issues and kept messing up so I thought, grey is in our bedroom decor.. I can have a grey background and wah-la. This is what I ended up with:

Needless to say...  I am embarrassed to even post this. I have hated it from Day One. The dimensions in the space, my handwriting, the coloring, everything. And I did not do a single thing to fix it.  EYESORE!!  (also, sorry for the terrible pics)

SO last trip to Ikea, I stocked up on a few cheap frames. I have a few old ones and a few from Target. Definitely need some more and of course to figure out what I want to put IN them... BUT here are some of my new inspirations for our bedroom. A nice little gallery wall :)

 

Debating which style of frames I like best.. should I stick with photos or also add phrases/quotes/etc? Should I keep it all picture frames or add a canvas (because I have a cute small one from our engagement photos)?  Ahhhhh who knew a gallery wall would have so many decisions? 

I think I like first one best... but maybe because that one is actually around a tv so I can picture it better.... What should I do?!