Creating an in-home gallery (Part 1)

When I moved in 2008 I had one big wall that I wanted to turn into a gallery, but didn’t have much art to fill it up with. The vintage walls are also quite “rubbery” which makes putting nails in the walls a tricky process.

So the project lingered until 2012, when I started collecting pieces from my newfound artist friends. My hallway was home to a family gallery with lots of funky frames, but over time the photos became dated and I took them down with the intent of updating them, which never happened.

So I had all these random nails in the walls that I started using as art storage. Anyone one with a touch of perfectionism will understand that this is NOT working (especially since some fell out)!

I have picture rail molding and knew there were hooks to use, so I gathered ideas on Pinterest on how to hang pictures from moulding hooks as well as gallery-style systems.

The Frame Warehouse introduced me to a hook with a tulip style pattern, which spoke to my Dutch roots, so I ordered a whole bunch of them.

I had seen some fun ideas with ribbons, but given the volume of pieces I plan to hang and the varied content within each frame I decided to use fishing line instead so my wall wouldn’t become a visual nightmare.

To test the look and feel I started with my own art first, reasoning that if any of those glass-less pieces fall I have a way of repairing or re-creating the piece.

I started stringing pieces together based on the tutorial.

It took a bit of trial and error to manage the spaces between pictures and account for stretching.

Trusting the knots is hard, but thus far nothing has come tumbling down.

I am glad to have this practice wall to get used to the way everything floats. My inner perfectionist is too used to having pictures flush against the wall.

Obviously hanging pieces 4 feet with just a sawtooth hanger isn’t working very well. And heavy pieces (the dragonflies have metal frames–as do the Malachites) shouldn’t be hung from 3 feet or longer, as that creates more of a tilt.

But since this isn’t meant to be permanent, I will keep this set-up until my next exhibit.

It is nice to get an overview of my pieces in this solo show setting.

I cannot wait to show you my ‘real’ art collection, which has been in the works since mid-April.