Before and After: Blank Wall to Gallery Wall

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Confession: I love gallery walls, but I hate putting them up. I like arranging them and I love the end result, but they’re so much damn work – and I have to say, doing my sister’s gallery wall (which, for the record, I begged and badgered her to let me do), has not helped to sway my opinion. It was a complete disaster basically from start to finish, including but not limited to: nail after nail that bent when I tried to hammer them into the wall, necessitating a despairing call to my dad asking what the heck I was supposed to do, his brilliant suggestion that I move to Plan B – 3M Command strips to the rescue! That involved walking to three different drugstores that were out of stock on 3M strips, until I was informed that actually there was a 24 hour 2-story hardware store a block away from my sister’s apartment, which amazingly had every type of Command strip under the sun…followed by a trip back to said hardware store when it turned out I hadn’t bought enough of the Command strips…so yeah. A lot of blood sweat and tears. Honestly thank goodness for my dad otherwise my sister wouldn’t have a gallery wall so much as a few holes in the wall that would need to be spackled, and a lot of art still sitting on the floor!

Anyway, here is the before:

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And after!:

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I have to say, I’m really happy with how it turned out, especially since it was so torturous to put together. Fingers crossed those Command strips hold!

The NYC map print on the top left was a gift from Mapiful, a company I really love. Isn’t it great looking? I really wanted to keep it for myself but I didn’t have a spot for it! On the top right is a macaron print from my Etsy shop 🙂

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Flamingo print // Paris vs. NY print // Zodiac print (in love with this).

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In case you missed it, be sure to check out the bedroom makeover I also did in my sister’s apartment!

photography by Jacqueline Clair

Leave a Comment

  1. I love this — looks so good! I feel the same about gallery walls: Love the way they look, hate the physical process of putting them up. My roommate and I both used command strips and they’re still holding up pretty well after 2+ years!

    Published 9.29.16 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      So glad to hear that!

      Published 9.30.16 · Reply
  2. Dorothy wrote:

    Love all the pieces separately and together they really make a pretty group. Great job. The bedroom is also beautiful, best before and after I’ve seen in a while!

    Published 9.29.16 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thank you!

      Published 9.30.16 · Reply
  3. Love it! Yes, gallery walls can be hard to execute, thank God for command products. 🙂

    Published 9.29.16 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Seriously…major life saver in this situation 🙂

      Published 9.30.16 · Reply
  4. Julie wrote:

    Jackie, when you are creating a wall gallery, do you have a method? For example, do you pick a theme, or color? Not sure how to begin…

    Published 10.1.16 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      This is a great question and I’m going to write a full post on it for this upcoming week. There’s a lot to cover so I want to make sure I explain it all with pictures so it makes sense. Thank you for asking!

      Published 10.1.16 · Reply
  5. Ali wrote:

    Love the idea of a follow up post about gallery walls. Feel like that is a really popular topic. And, I love my new gallery wall. THANK YOU!!!!

    Published 10.4.16 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      So happy you like it!

      Published 10.4.16 · Reply
  6. Erin wrote:

    I love the wall and I also love the coffee table. Where did she get that?

    Published 10.6.16 · Reply
    • York Avenue wrote:

      Thanks Erin! The coffee table is West Elm – we found it at the outlet store on Long Island 🙂

      Published 10.6.16 · Reply