How to make a Gallery Wall for $20 {or less!}

I’m so excited to share this tutorial from the very talented Rachel Petersen from The Style At Home Mom!

Gallery walls have been on my to-do list for ages. However, with a toddler running around and working/mothering/wifeing, it just hasn’t happened…till now that is. So, I’m going to show you how to make a beautiful, customized gallery wall that is easy and affordable.

I’ve had several reasons why it hadn’t happened yet. I had grand plans to paint the walls with metallic shimmery gold stripes in the hallway. I needed to paint the ceiling (I still need to do this but I prefer to just not look up at this time). The hallway needed a new light fixture (I can check this one off the list now, as we got a very pretty vintage chandelier from Lowes) because when we bought the house, the hallway just had exposed wires where the light was supposed to be.

Let’s see …. other reasons I hadn’t done it yet. Oh yeah.

Cost.

Frames are expensive and I don’t have a huge chunk of free money to spend on things like that. I ordered prints of our family photo shoot from last fall, because that’s how on top of things I am. I also ordered a few prints from my son’s first birthday, which was in MARCH. It’s now November, so I’m excited to finally see the pictures up on my wall.

I printed all the photos off as 8x10s. I like having them all the same size, cause ain’t nobody got time fo’ measuring out 18 different sizes and fitting those together as a puzzle. Am I right?

I prefer to print my photos from Winkflash.com, especially since every Tuesday, they offer 8×10 prints for $1.00 each. This saves you a significant amount of money on printing, and their quality is superb.

Okay, now about those frames. The Dollar Tree has frames for …. $1.00 each. They aren’t super fancy, and you have to check them over to make sure they aren’t broken before you buy them, but they work for this project.

I keep metallic spray paint on hand cause I like EVERYTHING GOLD. I kid you not. It wears my husband out. My favorite is the one on the far right (from Hobby Lobby). It gives a beautiful rich gold color, but I used all three for this project. You can choose any color you like for your frames. Make it something that compliments your house.

Take the frames apart and keep the glass and backs sorted away so you can easily put them back with the appropriate frames. I keep this cardboard in the garage for when I get the urge to goldify something.

Spray each frame thoroughly, but be careful to not over spray in certain areas. You just want to make sure that the edges are covered, but it’s better to do a few light coats than to spray it all at once.

Once they are fully dry, you can add your photographs and start measuring out the area on the wall. I’m not very technical about this. I eyeball it a lot, and often have to take things down and rehang them, but this time I tried to measure it out and mark everything before I actually started hammering away.

The slightly different tones in each frame catch the light and are very pretty. I bought multiples of each design of frame from the Dollar Tree, so they aren’t completely uniform, but I like that. I feel like it gives some character to them.

My son absolutely loves seeing the family pictures on the wall. He stands and talks to them all day long. It’s fun to see the changes in him from infanthood to toddlerhood, and I can’t wait to add more photographs to the wall as we grow as a family.