Gallery photo wall.

We have officially completed our first decor project for our new home! We are pretty proud of ourselves :) In fact, I was so excited to post about it that I haven't even put all the pictures in the frames yet. Whoops.

I've been dreaming up this project since before we even moved in. I LOVE photos and feel like they should be displayed. I have seen different gallery walls all over pinterest but wasn't sold on any particular "template." So, with a little pinterest inspiration, we went to work on designing our own gallery wall.

Read on to find out how to build your own gallery wall! If you're just in it for the photos, please look at your leisure and skip all the nonsense :)

Cost:

Depending on how many tools and frames you already own, this project could cost anywhere from $10-$70. I ended up spending around $60 (for 9 frames, nails and hanger clips and the letter).

Tools:

1. Hammer
2. Pencil
3. Level
4. Nails and hanger clips
5. Paper
6. Frames (and photos to go in them, of course!)

Time commitment:

This took us a total of 4-5 hours over the span of a few days.

First, decide on what "theme" you want. Gallery walls are a great way to make a house a home and it can say a lot about you. Take the time to consider photos, color, art and other wall decor that you want to include.
I started with a trip to Hobby Lobby who had their frames for 50% off that week. We already had a few black frames and I felt like black always looks classy, so we went with all black frames, some with mats, some without. I also picked up that fun letter at Hobby Lobby for $3.

 Next, I arranged all the frames on the ground the way that I wanted them to be on the wall.

After I got everything exactly where I wanted it, I measured the distances between each piece and sketched it out. I'm a perfectionist and needed to be sure that everything was going to hang the way I had planned.

This is when I recruited my husband to help me with the actual hanging. We started in the center and worked our way out. The first thing that went up was the K and then the frames around it.

Our "frame hanging" check list:

1. Place the frame on the wall and measure distances to the closest frames to make sure it is where you want it in relation to the other frames.
2. Check to make sure it is level.
3. Lightly trace the corners of the frame with a pencil.
4. Check to make sure the markings are level.
5. Measure how far down and inside the hanger is from the corners of the frame. (I found a hint on pinterest that says to put a dab of toothpaste on the hanger and then place the frame where it should go in order to get the nail in the right spot! Too bad I read that two days after we had hung all the frames.)
6. Measure this same distance on the wall where the corners have been penciled in. Mark that spot with a pencil.
7. Nail the hanger into the wall.
8. Hang the frame.
9. Check to make sure it is level.
10. Erase any pencil marks that are visible.

After the second night of working on the gallery wall, this is what we had up.

A few tips:

1. The level part is EXTREMELY important. Don't skip those steps or you will end up having to start over. Trust me on this :)
2. Make sure you stand back and check the look of your wall after each frame is hung. This way you can avoid having to move multiple frames if you decide you don't like the look.
3. Laying out the frames AND taking a photo of the configuration while it was on the floor helped us tons! Not having to think about where to hang the next frame was a huge plus, especially for the extremely indecisive :)
4. Don't hang frames while a baby is sleeping in the next room...whoops.

We LOVE our new photo wall. It is hung on the hallway from the entry way to the great room, which is a perfect way to welcome guests and make them feel at home. Let us know what you think of our first of many home decorating projects!

Next on the list is a lovely little crate bookshelf to go under the gallery wall : ) 

Pallets, pallets, pallets!

As Chuck and I have started to decorate our new place, we have discovered that our 500 dollar decoration budget isn't going to go very far when you need (okay, okay...want) to furnish, paint and decorate. We have only spent about 200 dollars of that budget so far on our photo wall (coming soon!), Jackson's nursery decor and paint, an antique trunk for the entry way and other miscellaneous Michael's and Hobby Lobby purchases. However, my mind is bursting with decorating ideas that our budget just doesn't have room for.

Solution? FREE THINGS. Kind of a no brainer, right? Thanks to my mom, dad and Leah our whole place is pretty much already furnished (super duper blessed). However, we are seriously lacking in the book case/storage area and wall art. 

Solution? FREE THINGS. Duh. So, I've been checking the craiglist "free" section almost daily for wood. Any type of wood. I have been seeing tons of awesome pallet and reclaimed wood projects all over pinterest and wanted to try my hand at some of them. 

So during Jackson's morning nap, I went to peruse craigslist. BAM. There was a post not an hour earlier listing TONS of pallets sitting in a parking lot a whole THREE miles from our house. Joy. So, I gathered all of my things, called my dad to borrow his truck and waited rather impatiently for Jackson to wake up. Eventually we made it and they were still there!

I am now 9 pallets richer. I would have grabbed more if they would have fit. Thank you, craigslist for making my life happier, yet again.

Here are some of my ideas:

An awesome farm table of some kind. I have a few different ideas floating around in my head for this one.

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Bookshelves for Jack's room.

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Bookshelves for the office area or living room.

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An awesome reclaimed wood mirror.

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Storage crates! To replace our ugly tupperware box that is currently holding our blankets.

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More storage/bookshelf ideas.

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Which one is your favorite? Or do you guys have any better ideas? Please share!

Jackson's Nursery Inspiration

Chuck and I have officially moved into the town home! Hooray! Big thanks to my dad for letting us squat in his basement for the summer and to my mom for letting us live in her town home during law school. HUGE blessings.

Now that we are officially in our own space, I've been going crazy with decorating ideas. While our "student" budget won't allow for anything major, I'm still anxious to make our house a home. And what better place to start than the little guy's room? He's 8 months old and he's finally getting a room of his own (no more walk in closets, pack and plays in the living room or cribs in dad's basement). While the room isn't quite finished yet, we are making progress. I wanted to share some of the pinterest finds that inspired Jackson's room.

I LOVE these plain brown letters.

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I've definitely jumped on the band wagon for wall decals. They are such a fun way to spice up walls.

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Trisha at The Sweet Survival made these adorable bookshelves for her son's room. Since Jackson loves his books, we will definitely be putting up some bookshelves!

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This is an awesome site for nursery inspiration! I love this wall gallery. Perfect for over the changing table.

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And here is the space that we are starting with:

Sorry the photos are so dark. I ran through the house taking pictures before we really started to move in because I wanted to get some before shots. You get the idea though, right?

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will be able to show you the transformation! 

New York Adventures.

On July 15th, Chuck, Jack, lil' Glen and I all headed up to Palmyra, New York. Chuck's family has participated in the Hill Cumorah Pageant for as long as I've known them. For the past 6 years, Mom and Dad Krebs have been the "Work Crew" Leaders (the group of boys that set up and take down the stage as well as run the lights and special effects during the show). The Hill Cumorah Pageant is a spectacular show that tells the story of the Book of Mormon, the history of the people living in the Americas and how Christ visited them. The Pageant holds a special place in our hearts. So, we made the 10 hour trek to Palmyra, NY where the church was started to experience the Pageant as audience members (a first for some of the Krebs family!) and to explore different church sites.

We decided to drive through the night because then we wouldn't have to stop to feed the little guy AND we would get more time in New York. It actually went pretty well. Jack did wake up at 3am to eat and took a little while to go back to sleep (poor Chuck hadn't slept yet and was trying to calm the poor tyke down for what seemed like eternity). But by 4:15am, the whole car was sleeping again while I took my shift at the wheel. Needless to say, Sunday we were all a little groggy. 

Jack meeting Bro. Jurgens (a longtime Pageant friend)

 

Hanging out in Zion's camp visiting friends

Awesome things we got to do:
1. Hang out with Pageant friends in Zion's camp
2. Go tubing on Seneca Lake
3. Play in Seneca Lake and go boating
4. Slip n' Slide!
5. Go to the Palmyra temple (Thanks Mom for watching Jack so we could go!)
6. Visit the Sacred Grove where Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ
7. Eat Chill n' grill ice cream
8. Have awesome devotionals
9. See the Pageant
10. Walk around the Hill Cumorah
11. Go to the Wind Tunnel (where Work Crew camps out for the month of July)
12. Hike at Watkins Glen
13. Eat awesome food all the time!
14. Play with awesome friends!

Jackson must have been tired because he just chilled in the grass like this...

for quite some time.

Already a ladies man.

A typical Krebs boy :)

Meeting Britta!

The view of the stage and chairs from the top of Hill Cumorah

The Krebs family!

The Tanners put together a slip and slide for all the kids and it was a blast!

Jack wasn't totally sure about it...

Dev and Chuck racing :)

The little boys were in heaven!

Just sitting on the couch with Mom and Robli :)

This little guy fell asleep like this during devotional!

and so did he!

The Bells. We sure do miss these guys.

"I love my stroller!"

"I love to go hiking!"

"And I love to eat the cup holder!"

The hiking crew

My cute boys :)

This place was absolutely stunning.

Three generations of Krebs boys :)

He was LOVIN' it

Mom and Dad Krebs took Jack and let us go on another short hike.

The stairs of death. Which we tried to race up. I was fourth. Out of four people.

The Pageant! 

The Dye family

The Tribadeau family

We had such a blast! Thanks to everyone who made this trip so fantastic. We love the Hill Cumorah and the happy memories that we've made there.