{Home Tour Friday} - Gallery Wall

Long before Pinterest (when I would tear out sheets of magazines and save them in a big binder), I had hundreds of gallery walls saved for future reference. When we were first looking at homes, I always tried to picture where my big gallery would go. I loved the idea of a long hallway with pictures all along one side, or a long staircase with pictures flanking both sides.

Aside from my family & friends, pictures are probably the thing I cherish the most. I take more photos than I know what to do with (I took over 5,000 pictures in A’s first year - and that is not an exaggeration), so displaying them in our home is extremely important to me.

When we bought our split-level home, I had to modify my dream gallery wall. I knew I could fill the stairwell and hallway with photos, but they would be separate from each other. I figured by using the same frames throughout, I could make them appear as a cohesive unit. I spent a lot of time with newspaper taped to the wall, trying to find the perfect arrangement of frames. I didn’t want to rush into putting them on the wall, and regret my arrangement later.

I love love LOVE our gallery wall. It is one of the first things you see when you walk into our home, and the little sneak peek you get from the foyer draws your eye up the stairs. It is a wonderful snapshot of our life - our wedding, baby pictures of A, puppy pictures of Otto, and some family pictures thrown in there too. My only wish is that I had more wall space!

view from bottom of the stairs

close up of frames

second part of the gallery wall - upstairs hallway

wedding shadowbox - small hallway to bathroom & playroom

view from hallway looking down the stairs

I try to change out pictures every few months, but part of me loves looking at the older pictures, too. We have all of our wedding pictures in an album in the living room (which I love to look through!), but having some pictures and our shadow box in the hallway are sweet reminders of our day. You can see a little bit of the gallery wall from every room upstairs, and of course, from the living room.  This wall is one of my favorites parts of the house!

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner SUYL - How you display photos.

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Friday!