just paint it white: gallery wall

Saturday, 17 March 2012

gallery wall 2nd instalment

Continuing from my first post about my new gallery wall.
Sorry if you've seen some of them before, but for me, my blog is an online diary and I just like to catalogue stuff (I should have been a librarian !).

I did a guest post over at A Place 2 Call Home recently and showed this piece of beach junk.

I've hung it on the wall, just as it is, because I love the patina so much.

I wanted something similar for the other side, so I created this little piece.

I just glued one piece of wood to another, then put a rusty nail through the rusty 'thing' and bent it round to hold in place.

Then, I slipped this old metal piece through the middle.

For some reason, I have given myself a rule with the beach junk. That is, that I can paint it, glue it to something, add pieces together and change it, but never to cut it up. I feel that if I cut it to fit something, then I have taken away the value of a piece of beach junk.

It washed up on the shore having been worn by time and the elements and I only want to enhance it, not destroy it.

You still here, I am not sure telling you all my off the wall thoughts is a good idea but I'm impressed if you've stayed.

Anyway, here it is on the gallery wall, where it balances out the larger piece on the other side.

I also bought this £3 pine frame, to show off some of my favourite things, because I couldn't find a box frame this size and shape.

I painted it grey, and distressed and waxed it, then stuck the pieces onto the glass.

I thought I might just have no background at all, in the hope that it would look like the pieces were floating. This didn't work, so I used some photocopies of fish, which needed a few adjustments to fit behind the glass, and then just put it all together.

The shell in the middle, is just so lovely and worn. The silver pipe has a real softness to it, and I love the circuit board with tiny molluscs.

I'm loving all the grey tones - grey may be the new white in this house.

And because this is on the left side, I also did a grey frame for the right side. I bought this at the local charity shop for £5.

I had to buy this, because the frame is great, but also because it's the Hight Street, Sevenoaks, Kent - where I grew up. This photograph is from 1920 and that building on the corner is now a jewellers !

I kept the photo, but used the frame for a print belonging to the old geezer. He lived in Tenerife for four years and wanted to keep this momento of Puerto de la Cruz.

The print isn't square at all, so I did the best I could, and played about with the frame till it looked ok.

I have been collecting all this stuff for quite sometime. Some things I have made for no cost at all, and the ampersand I already had, but I have worked out that the whole cost for everything is £61, which for 16 items isn't bad at all.

Every time I walk in the room I feel seriously happy with the result.

There is one picture left - I'll leave that for another day !

An ascp finished project coming soon !!

Linking up with
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Sunday, 11 March 2012

eclectic gallery wall

So finally, I've finished the gallery wall. I didn't mind what I had before, but I really wanted to get rid of the red in the room, so I needed to add things and mix up the photos that were at the far end.

I'm not going to go through everything today (it would drag on too long), but I'll just show you the basics.

So this was the before.

And this is the after, with a mix of photos, prints, beach junk, my butterfly and blossom canvas, and wooden block creation .

That's not the corner of a new sofa you might have spied, it's just a throw (the sofa I want is still in a shop down the road - unfortunately it might have to wait a while before it comes home with me).

I wanted to have a break in the middle of the pictures, and a gap around my little hatch which I posted about here. It took me forever because I needed the balance just right. I wanted to have something of each type on both sides ie. white frames, photos, ornate frames, prints etc. I've made loads of holes in the walls, because it just didn't work laying it out on the floor, but I'm finally happy with the result, and the room is due for a lick of paint anyway.

The large photo is one that the old geezer took in New York years ago, and the one saying Madison Avenue was given to us, because that's what we called our cafe. The frames for these two pieces were from a charity shop, just painted white and distressed.

There are another two of his photos on this side, and the botanical prints which I talked about here. The piece of beach junk I found just as it was and the gold ampersand I have had for years.

I wasn't actually going to have any gold in this room, but the whole wall started with this print of Mont St. Michel, which I originally posted about here.

And when I found the perfect sized frame for only £10, everything just worked out so well. This is it, with a landscape print, not my cup of tea at all.