Almost there...

My daughter is almost 8 months old and I'm still decorating her nursery-- I really need to pick up the pace.  Soon she'll grow out of her crib  *tear* and I'll have to start all over again.  Well, I finally got around to putting something up on the bare wall above her change table.  I was stalling on this one, because I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  Finally I decided to just find things around the house and create a cute little gallery wall.  And here it is... an almost free mini gallery wall for Eme's room...

I know you're all thinking... almost free?  How did you manage to pull that one off?  Well I happen to be a bit of a picture frame junkie.  I don't buy expensive ones... I have a problem with buying cheap ones.  Over the year's I've developed quite the stash.  I find cute little frames at MCC for $2.00 or $3.00 a piece, I find them in the as is section of Ikea... and let me tell you, there's a reason why they're so cheap.  They always need some major care-- sanding, painting, new mattes, new hanging hardware... lots of TLC.  In this arrangement of frames the only one that was purchased for full price was the big one.  I had it sitting around in my stash for a couple of months so it got to make its way into the collection.

Next I had to find some really cheap stuff to put into those frames.  Here's what I found.

To the left... a painting Caleb did during our at home morning art class.  And at the bottom, some super cute butterfly stickers I found at Walmart.  They were seriously 8 for $4.00.  I have a few left over if anyone wants to make their own butterfly art.  The two pictures in the middle are some pictures I had blown up and printed at London Drugs in black and white.

To the right... more butterfly art.  And the hot little pink number is a free printable from here.  I got the idea from 6th Street Design School.  I just downloaded the image and printed it off on my own printer.  The blog has other free images you could use as art for kid's rooms-- just click on the "freebie" label and print until your heart's content!

And now, some lessons learned from the process of creating this gallery wall:

1.  A painting project is NEVER as easy as you think it will be.  It is way harder.  It will take way longer than you anticipate.

2.  Always prime first.  Especially if you're using really cheap "gold" frames.

3.  Never spray paint in sub-zero conditions.  The finish will crackle as it dries.

4.  Oil paint can cover anything and make it look great.  I tried latex paint first.  The finish kept chipping and scratched really easily.  I finally switched to oil paint it finally gave me a nice glossy durable finish.

5.  My husband is a genius with a tape measure.  I never hang pictures in this house because Doug can do it 100 times faster than me and does a way better job.  For this one, he just took a quick glance at the arrangement I had on the floor, asked me where I wanted it on the wall and within a matter of minutes had the wall of frames hung PERFECTLY-- only using his tape measure and some quick math.

6.  Never start to hang a picture wall in your child's room 5 minutes before bedtime.  As fast as Doug is, Emerson was in quite a cranky state by the time we had finished up in her room.

7.  And lastly, never assume that your child will appreciate all the effort you put into her room...

Since I already had the frames this gallery wall was pretty cheap to create.  I paid $4.00 for the butterfly stickers and $7.00 to have the two pictures printed.  Grand total?  $11.00.  Not bad.  I may add more pictures to the wall over time and switch up the art in the frames, but it certainly does the trick for now.