Art Gallery Wall

“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.”

                                                                                   ~Junot Diaz

Mr. Cottage and I have gone a year without anything on the walls in our living room.  When we moved, we had so much art on the walls throughout our house, and then some that we couldn't find room for.  I knew what I wanted to put on the wall, but I thought it would look small and not make the statement I wanted it to.  So I started looking around on Pinterest and through my collection in my board titled Home is where the heart is.  If you want to see all my boards, click here.  I decided we had so much art, that I would try creating an art gallery wall...

 

 

I have two of my original watercolors I decided to hang, but didn't want to spend the money for a frame.  So I went to a frame shop and bought two frames, one for each original, that were part of their ready-made frames and glass cut to fit the frames.  I already had everything else I needed, so I framed my own art, including the paper sealed over the opening in the back of the frames.  This is my Stone Cottage...

And my Ever Watchful fox...

Because of my knee replacement surgery, I temporarily closed my Etsy shop, but you can still order prints from me.  I'll be opening my shop, Brushstrokes and More on October 26.  Anyways, I began with trying to lay my framed art on the floor...

I bought a large Newspaper pad of paper from Michael's.  For some of the larger frames, I had to tape them together.  I laid the frame on top of the paper and sketched around it, cutting it to size...

I also took note of where the wires or saw-tooth hanger was on each frame.  The photo below is for Tina, the porcupine photo.  I marked the center of the frame and where I needed to put the hooks into the wall.  After using a level to make sure the paper was straight and taping it to the wall, I put the hooks in the wall, right through the paper where I had marked the location.  Then I just ripped the paper off...

Before starting everything, I also put paint tape on the walls, indicating where the chair, lamp and chest were, so I would keep the artwork up high enough...

After hanging each frame on the wall, I used the level again to make sure they were hanging straight.  I also left some room for a few additional pieces of art that will get hung later...

I'm still debating where to put my beautiful chalkboard.  I've several ideas, one is on top of this hutch.  You can see my chalkboard here and here...

This was another project I crossed off of my big to-do list prior to my surgery.  I also put all our autumn and Halloween items out before I went in for my knee replacement.  I'll show you some of them, next time!