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DIY Botanical Gallery Wall

Botanical Gallery wall FTW!

A botanical gallery wall and I are hollering at ya from the hood, happy as a little cricket! It was a always been one of my ‘project x’ to wake up to an art filled wall- especially flowers because frankly woman, I don’t get modern art at all- and I finally did it. All thanks to Amee from the Paper Journal who sent across one of her beautifully illustrated calendars. Talk about one good thing leading to another.

But why didn’t I have a botanical gallery wall already?

Because I didn’t want to give in to the ready made posters. Ideally, I wanted hand painted, original copies and nothing felt good enough.

Secondly, the frames. It was incredibly difficult to source the right kind of frame. I wanted mounts for sure, and white- a specific 1″ mount and 1″ frame so the options kinda became very scanty. By the way, mounts are those white papers inside frames that mattes a photo. Depending on the photo and the frame you can have a thick mount or a thin mount. I personally love thicker mounts for black and white or landscapes and thinner mounts with same thickness of frames for botanical or hand painted smaller motifs.

And there’s Science behind this

When you choose a black or white frame, keep in mind it’ll highlight the darker features in your photo. So it’s best to choose a photo with some light and dark tones in it. Because my wall is white, I wanted a white frame and a mount where in the light hues can blend in with the rest of the background and highlight only the artwork. If my wall my all black, I would have chosen a black frame and a mount for sure.

The only difference is, white lends a very casual, breezy, candid atmosphere which works just about right for my home. I’ll give out the tips for choosing a frame at the end of the post.

Thirdly, all the frames I looked into by far were super expensive. At 500 a frame- and I needed atleast 12 of them- it’d be 6000 INR just for the frames. Can afford but won’t. So I waited.

Until this day.

When the botanical gallery wall just happened

mainly because of these amazing artworks and the Amazon sale. No, Amazon and Jeffy boy are not paying me to write this here. I paid 1500 bucks for 12 frames which I thought was totally worth the money. Here’s a link to my store in amazon store should you want to buy. Scroll down to the wall edit section and click! I get a commission if you buy from this link, but you pay the same. So be a good fella and use this link.

I had just painted the wall in our bedroom, summer is almost here, we are going back to the cozy cottage roots and it was the perfect time to make this happen.

Here’s how I went about it!

Step 1: Identify the wall. Don’t hit it, just identify. You would want the wall to be one that ideally gets natural sunlight. Also, one that is naturally in your line of sight.

Step 2: Fix a layout. If you do not have photos already, fix a layout first and then according to your layout, you can choose the photos. Alternatively if you already have photos, basis that fix a layout. If you are not sure of the layout, take a photograph of your wall and draw the layout on your phone. This is how mine looked.

I tried 2 layouts. Haha, it me inside the duvet.

Step 3: Choose your nails wisely. I always almost choose 2 inch finishing nails that holds most lightweight photos, impacts very little to the wall and also are easily maskable. Here’s what I use.

Look at the head. It’s kinda non-existent.

Step 4: Add your photos, grab a cuppa tea and enjoy your botanical gallery wall.

A quick look at how to choose your photo frames

Whether a botanical gallery wall or highlighting your family photos or putting those brilliant landscape shots you have taken- a photoframe in an important thing to look at while doing so. Why? Because a) you want your photo to stand out. b) You want your frame to go with the photo and also the overall theme of your home.

Here’s what to see when doing up a gallery wall:

  1. The overall tone and vibe of the image or images. A sepia photo in a modern turquoise frame is a disaster. So while choosing frames look into the mood of the photo. I’d choose neutrals for sepia.
  2. To mat or not. Here’s a rule of thumb. If you want your photo to look its best, mat. Just mat. Mat is when you add an extra border of paper/mount around the photo and then comes the edge of the frame.
  3. For a botanical gallery wall or an anthro gallery wall, choose frames that are simple. You want it to look nice and pulled in. Plus you want the delicate paintings to show. If your frame is too elaborate, it’ll mask the details inside.
  4. Want to frame funky photos? Go for square frames with thick 7″ mount. Very cool they look
  5. Not sure about mixing and matching the size of frame? Get all in the same size and vary the contents inside with plain and mount.

Easy peasy!

PROTIP: What happens when you remove the nail? Mix in a little white cement and fill the holes. With a scraper, scrape the wall for excess. Good as new love!

Alright, off now. Some random cricket match is blaring trance stuff early in the morning and if I don’t mask it with some Liziqi I’ll just perish. Preferably with a cup of joe and a big bad headphone. What has bad commentary and trance musics got to with cricket is something I constantly wonder these days. Would you know?

XO

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