Bad Behavior and Gallery Walls

A few weeks ago, I finally got myself in a state of mind to spend a significant time at the craft store, Michael's. I love craft stores, but the framing department at Michael's isn't always a pleasant as say, looking at Martha Stewart glitter and holiday fluff. I had a interesting experience at Michael's so read on if you wish. If not, the photos are below...

 I was armed with 9 prints and frames from West Elm that needed to be custom matted and a half caf Starbucks coffee. It was 105 degrees outside and I was determined to finally check this off my list. As I approached the framing center at Michael's with my 60% coupon, there were only a few people in line. After about 15 minutes of patiently waiting, a line of 10 or so more customers had formed behind me. As I approached the desk with my 9 items to be framed, a large woman with a cut-off Nascar t-shirt loudly asked if I wouldn't mind letting someone with not "30 friggin thangs" go first. I politely said "no" and continued my business. I was on a mission. 

There were a few people working at the framing center, and as they continued to help customers and check them out, racing lady continued to comment about "how dumb and incompetent" the people that worked there were, it had taken "over two friggin weeks to get my sh*t done." (My face is growing red with embarrassment for the sweet workers.)  I told my little lady that was helping me not to worry about her and that she was doing a great job. My coffee was starting to kick in and my patience at this point was surprising me minute by minute! 

As I finished my selections in 10 minutes flat, I paid and turned around. The racing lady grimaced as I walked by. I stopped and for some reason, I looked her right in the eyes and  told her "You should be ashamed of yourself!"  Looking back, she could have split me in half so I'm not sure where that courage came from, but the moral of the story is, be patient with the people at Michael's framing department. My 9 frames were done in record time!

So, back to the main point of this post. We have collected prints from one of my favorite websites 20x200 for the past year or so. When I order the prints, I typically order the West Elm gallery frames as well. I like that they are clean and simple and fairly inexpensive. I'm not huge on having personal photos displayed in my house, but these are two of our favorite wedding photos that our wedding photographers gifted to us after so many of our friends used them for their weddings. This blank wall in our kitchen is now filled with photos and art work that we love! 

We first arranged the art work how we thought it would look best on the wall on our kitchen floor, rearranging it a few times until we got it just right. 

When hanging pictures, these little guys are the best because you don't have to find a stud in the wall and they are a lot easier to install than using a nail and hammer. Just push them into the drywall and they can support up to 50 lbs!

Grayson is an expert hanger, so he was the chief on this project. (He would tell you that I was the chief, telling him what to do, but he is really better at this than I am!)

We first started with the center photos

Adding them one by one

And this is the final product! I have really enjoyed having this in our kitchen. I love that it's not 100% symmetrical and they are photos and prints that we have collected over the years. I hope to add more to this wall soon!