The making of the kiddos gallery wall

We live in a 1941 bungalow.  It's cozy living, and we love it.  Iris and Sam have had their own little table in our dining room for the last few years and as they get older, my Mom box full of special art pieces that are meaningful to me has grown and grown.

Whether it is the first actual recognizable image Iris has drawn or a picture they've made that has a story they've created around it, these are just memories I don't only want to not forget, but would like up to remind me daily of the unique qualities both my kiddos have.  Plus, I've been wanting to do to show the kids how proud we are of their self expression and beautiful  artwork.

{before}

{after}

So, here it is!  

At first, I was going to buy more expensive art frames but, I wasn't sure how long the art wall would remain and I wanted to get the most pieces up in the smallish space so, I bought 6 very inexpensive $3.99 frames from Target all in white and did it like most of my DIY projects... meaning, it was spontaneous, not methodical or well planned out.  Measuring perfectly is great. Really.  I have nothing against perfect spacing.  It's just not so me.  I'm more of a look and feel type of girl.  So, that's what I did and I actually like how the imperfect spacing worked out.

I decided to make it more of a vertical space since the dining room is small and knew I wanted a few pieces that were multi-dimensional.  Sam's cracker making machine (on the left made out of a shoe box and all kinds of found objects), Iris's horse paint by numbers canvas and horse shadow box were just the pieces I was looking for.  

Each of the drawings have a story behind why I love them so much, so I decided to take some orange construction paper I had on hand and wrote the significance and age they were when they created their little masterpieces and placed them in the frame.

So, check out Kristin at The Hunted Interior's tutorial here on how to hang a gallery or art wall.  There are lots of different styles.  I love her advice:  Think first, nail later.  

That doesn't mean I take that advice but, looking at her examples, it was fun and fitting that my style was haphazard.   I kind of love that.  It's funny how in my work life, I'm extremely organized, but in my personal, much more loosey goosey.  

It just feels more like our family to just go with it, whatever it may be and to do it with a little joy :)