Like a black rectangular painting...

My friend, Wendy, recently moved back to Halifax and asked if I would help her figure out what to do with all of the art she’d brought with her – one of my favourite types of projects! We hammered it out (literally) in an afternoon, thanks to some hammer-wielding assistance from her brother. (Side note: You toured her sister’s place here). It’s a family affair, yo.

After looking through all of the pieces she’d brought, we sorted them based on colour scheme and medium. Most of the furniture for the living space was cream, blue, or red – so I pulled aside all pieces in that colour scheme for use in the living room. Pieces with more pastel tones were hung in the bedroom. My preference is for a wall with mixed mediums - paintings, prints, photography, etc., so we made sure to mix it up a little, still working with stuff Wendy already owned.

I was pretty excited because Wendy’s living room was the perfect spot to try out a type of gallery wall that I’ve been coveting for ages. I love (LOVE) when televisions are made to look like another piece of art – that way, they’re still totally functional but they blend right in when turned off. Of course, this is easiest to accomplish when the TV is wall-mounted, but can totally work when the TV is on a stand.

We laid the pieces out on the floor, estimated where the television would be, and then moved things around until the layout looked balanced. In addition to shapes, we also paid attention to visual weight (e.g., using the thick dark frames to balance out the TV). This was the winning layout:

I think the best part of this wall is that there's still plenty of space to add new pieces as she finds them. When a  gallery wall is on too much of a grid, it can be difficult to add new pieces to the mix without it looking lopsided. With nothing being perfectly lined up, Wendy can add things as she sees fit. We considered adding this Toronto poster to the gallery wall as well, but decided that out of all of her pieces, this one looked best over the chaise.

Also - note the lamp. This family is famous for their quirky lamps ;)