Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Creating a Staircase Wall Photo Gallery

Have you ever wanted to create a staircase wall gallery that includes many of your favorite photos?

  Executing this project is a lot easier than you might think!  
When I first started with this project a few weeks ago I thought I was going to need 10 arms to be able to hold all the frames up on the wall to get the most accurate visual of how it would all appear in the end.  Luckily, that isn't necessary at all!  I was even able to do this project without any additional help!

See the before & after photos from my project, and check out the 
5 STEPS below for putting it all together!

                              Before                                                        After


Creating a Staircase Wall Gallery

1.  Develop an idea for the kind of layout you'd like your frames to mimic (check out Pinterest for ideas! http://pinterest.com/shannonpinno/staircase-wall/)

I started with this layout idea:

2.  Put all the frames you own (or ones you have available to use) together in a large room and lay them all out on the floor.  It's important to have a variety of frames in different sizes to accomplish the best look possible.  You can stick with a traditional style of all light or dark colored frames, or mix it up like I did with a little variety, or make even more of a statement by adding more color, mirrors, empty frames and other decor within your gallery.

The options can be overwhelming and picking out your frames/colors + determining your layout will take the most time (but it's so worth it in the end)!:




3.  After you've picked out your frames, start playing around with a layout you think would work nicely for your staircase.  Narrow down your Pinterest ideas to your favorite 1-2 layouts, work the frames around on the floor, and tweak it as you see fit!  Working on the floor allows you to still get a good visual for where to place the frames in relation to each other and allows you to shape your overall layout.



4.  Once you have a layout planned out on the floor, it's time to start mirroring the layout on the walls!  I picked up this tip in various online articles:  grab some printer paper, newspaper or other type of paper and shape it to the general size of each frame, then tape each individual paper to the wall in the same order you had them on the floor.  

Tip:  I used plain white printer paper and folded them to mirror the frame's sizes or taped papers to each other to mirror the larger frames.  I took a tape measure to determine how many inches each frame was/should be apart from each other.  In my case the frames looked nice about 3 inches apart.  I also made sure that the layout looked clean and consistent and that the tops or bottoms of frames lined up together, so things looked nice and even.



5.  The hardest part is over!  For your last step, check to see what kind of mounting backs each frame has, grab your nails and a hammer and frame away!  You will love the end result and can be proud knowing you did it all on your own! 
When I was hammering the frames to the wall I would always compare one frame to the other to make sure each frame was always about 3 inches apart and that they were all level.  I didn't have a level around to use, so I did what I do best and used my best judgement eying it all as I went and stepping back to ensure everything was leveled.  

I had some frames that needed to be painted to work well with the other frame colors. So once I had my nails up on the wall, I did that project on the side and then hung the finished product.







HAPPY DECORATING!  :)

Have you ever done your own staircase wall gallery or other wall gallery?  

Do you have additional tips to share or have questions not covered in the 5 steps above?  Leave me your questions and comments!





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