Gallery Wall

We’ve been in our home now almost a year. It’s kind of amazing to see where we were in life then and where we are now. When we first moved in, one of the first things I did was hang this photo of our little family (but it’s in black/white – see below).

Taken when R was just a week old…I wanted to have it in a prominent place so it’s at the top of the stairs. R loves to point and smile at it.

The more I looked at the photo the more I thought, “it needs something else…” But I wasn’t sure what. That’s when I turned to Pinterest for inspiration (click on the link there or here to see my Gallery Wall board). I searched “gallery wall” and “collage wall” for ideas, many of which were over the top (too busy) or way too cookie-cutter for me. I wanted ours to be different and made up of things that mattered to us – not just pictures. Which also meant this wasn’t going to be just a weekend project.

I debated on things like a paper mâché zebra head….truly, I did. Something like this:

One of our first real dates was at an amazing restaurant in Charlotte called Zebra. So I have a thing for zebras now. Andrew wasn’t a fan of my idea so that was scratched. What else? I thought about several pictures but then decided that I would rather keep going with the things that matter….with gold and black as the main colors.

Here’s what we have so far:

On the left: I found this cute little craft idea on Pinterest and knew I could make it myself…SC + GA; the L came from Michael’s; the shadow box I inherited from Dana which houses R’s hospital bracelet as well as Andrew’s boutonnière from our wedding. I hope to add a few more small things to this as the kids (that’s plural…) grow. The verse board was another sweet gift that Dana picked up for the space and then the cross I purchased at a great little boutique, Just the Thing, here in town.

On the right, we got R’s silhouette done last fall at our local Learning Express; I added a little clock (because I like to know what time it is…always); and a mirror (R loves to see himself in it) I found at Target and purchased with my cartwheel app :-). I hope to have a matching silhouette done for Eliza Jane this fall to put next to Reynolds’ since that’s currently an empty spot…