Remember when I showed you my very calm and serene bedroom? Well, I failed to show you the other side of the room. My bed faces a floor-to-ceiling, black and white gallery wall.
Larger Square Frame // Smaller Square Frame // Rectangular Frame
I have to admit, I was very, very heavily influenced by this jaw-dropping gallery corner that I’ve been in love with since I laid eyes on it years ago (I know, I know, me and everyone else with an Instagram account). This wall is obviously not a corner and doesn’t even come close to living up to the original, but, the combination of sizes and black and white was taken directly from the inspiration photo.
There is something so nice about closing my doors and feeling basically cocooned by the family I love during these past months when we’ve all been separated. The gallery goes from floor to ceiling, and because of the size of the room, it’s very dramatic, but because of the lack of color, it’s not overpowering.
I ordered several of the Icon frames from Crate and Barrel because they’re available in varying sizes of square frames and the mattes approximate those in the inspiration. My favorite CB2 also had black frames that I perhaps would have preferred based on the profile, but they are pricier than the Crate and Barrel frames and I would have wanted to buy different mattes, which would have driven the price up further.
Based on the dimensions of the frames and the wall I was able to determine how many rows across I could fit (three that included the larger frames and an additional row of just the smaller squares). From there I had more leeway for fitting different arrangements of the frames vertically based on which sizes I incorporated and the wall height. I used some of the configuration from the inspiration for help, and then just mapped out something I thought would look nice and ordered the frames.
Once I knew how many/which size frames I was getting, I went through my photo library to pull favorite photos of all my nieces and nephews. I also have some others in there (my parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.), but let’s be serious, it’s the cute kids that I focused on. I converted them to black and white and ordered the prints from FullColor. They had the varying sizes I needed (not everyone carries the unusual 11”x11” size) and the prints came very quickly. I definitely recommend!
I laid out the frames on the floor and played around with a few different layouts that would work based on the frames I had, then I got to hanging, which went more quickly than I thought. And now I wake up every morning to some of my favorite people looking back at me. Because these face my bed and aren’t immediately seen from the main areas of my apartment, it feels like (a very big) secret just for me.