Three and a half years after moving into our home, we’re finally putting things on our walls. I take the full blame for that. Just about every inch of our garage/mancave/multi-purpose room walls where Pat has free reign were covered within a few months of moving in. I’m the slow one, whose perfectionism blares strong when it comes to interior decorating. Did I mention THREE AND A HALF YEARS?

Wicker mirror (Anthro clearance) | Ikea Frames (this and this) | World Market frame (really old!) | Rummage sale vase

The Nesting Place book really helped push me to just play around a little with my ideas, put things up, and see if they worked. Most specifically, it helped me not to be afraid of nail holes! The photo above is of the first space that Pat and I really tackled. It was very helpful that it was a small space. We ended up doing a gallery wall, taking frames from other places around the house. Everything was just eyeballed on this wall, with Pat holding things up and me telling him where I thought things should go. The mirror and the two larger frames went in first, the smaller frames took a while to figure out. It’s now my favorite wall in our home.

Then we moved on to this beast of a wall. One of the things I LOVE about our home is the high slanted ceilings and it’s beams. The height makes our small home feel more spacious and the beams give it a cozy, rustic feel. This wall is HUGE though and it was hard to figure out what to do with it. We started by adding the 3 white ledges on the side, stolen from Caleb’s room (sorry buddy!). This tip was given by my Uncle, who said that putting something up toward the high point of the wall draws the eyes up toward it, making the room feel bigger. It’s really true.

I think I’ve changed around the frames on those ledges a billion times, and they’re actually different even since I took this photo. I haven’t figured out exactly what works here yet.

Shelf Ledges | Square Mirror (old Ikea) | Rummage sale brown and white square frames | Target Frames for prints (on sale in store, similar)

The pieces we used on the main body of the wall are recent purchases. I love art and specifically wanted pieces that had some sort of connection to us. We took an end of the summer trip to a hermitage in Big Sur, a place with lots of special relationships and meaning for our family, to visit friends but also explore artwork. We LOVED the canvas of the ocean view of the hermitage, made by one of the monks, and I found some prints in the clearance section of the gift store that I thought would work with it. The spacing between these was really hard because of the wall’s size and the ceiling slant. I had the general idea but Pat worked on getting getting even measurements between the frames so that it would look right.

Our walls all still feel like a big work in progress and I’m still feeling it out. Most important to me is that Pat and I like them and that they contribute to making our home feel cozy, peaceful, and warm. And.. one last look at my current favorite wall in our house.