The Stairwell Gallery Wall

When I did Oliver’s gallery wall in the nursery, I carefully planned out every detail on brown kraft paper using levels and rulers. It was very precise. For the stairwell on a diagonal, this was way too difficult and time consuming. Especially with a rambunctious toddler. So I decided to wing it and put it up piece by piece organically.

First I figured out a loose order of the frames for an even distribution of sizes and shapes. I knew which pictures I wanted to start with and how I wanted them to look against the stained glass window. I also decided that I wanted to see as many pictures as possible from the living room, which meant starting the frames much lower than eye level.

I hung them one at a time, choosing the placement as I went. It was a very organic process. The spacing is not exact, it’s not perfect, but with the multiple types and sizes of frames there’s already so much variation you don’t really notice. I only had to reposition a few nails - it went much faster than I thought!

I really love the way it came out. It needs to be a little bit taller in some places to reach eye level, but for now I think it looks great. I’ll slowly add more frames as I make trips here and there to Target and Michael’s and other inexpensive frame sources.