A Gallery Wall in the Master Bedroom + Tips on Creating Your Own!

The master bedroom has been our side project the last few months. I work on in my spare time, continually improving it when I can carve out a few minutes here and there or when I need a break from the reno dust. We love having a smaller, decorating only, project in our back pockets. In the past couple weeks, I found a beautiful king-sized ivory blanket with dark navy ticking stripes on clearance at Macy's and I snatched it up faster than I could say Calvin Klein. It adds an extra layer of subtle pattern to the room, ties in to the ivory curtains (team ivory, it is!) and we've actually been using it instead of our duvet the last few weeks since it is lighter weight.

Above our bed got a few new additions, as well. :)

A couple months ago, Artfully Walls contacted me to see if I would be interested in curating a gallery from their collection for our home. I knew I wanted a lot of art in our bedroom--it's not for everyone, but it is for us. Goodness, is it for us! I took over two weeks to browse their entire inventory, pulling my favorites constantly and placing them on a virtual wall in their wall designer feature. Once I had gone through everything--really!--I went back to my favorites and narrowed it down to 6 pieces to add to the three I already owned and wanted to hang in the bedroom. Here's how they all look hanging above our bed (slightly skewed around the edges thanks to a bathroom wall jutting out and a wide-angled lens) :

Deciding on the pieces for our room took some time and planning so I thought I'd share a few tips on how I personally go through the process of putting together any sort of art grouping whether it be a gallery wall or art ledge.

1. If it doesn't mean something or make you happy--it doesn't belong on your walls. While putting together the grouping for our room took more thought than a simple "I like that!", that is definitely the most important thing and first step. You have to like the art in your home. You just gotta. Art is 100% subjective, although don't even try to tell my professors in college that. In fact, almost every time someone comes into our house, I get a comment about the Kai Samuel Davis piece leaning on our art ledge in the living room. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's…interesting. (haha!) but art is wonderful because it invokes opinion and thoughts and emotion. If it makes you happy, that's all that matters.

2. Decide on a Color Story. Our whole house has a color story of warm neutrals, blacks and a thread of navy and green so it felt natural to choose that color story for this gallery wall. That doesn't mean that every piece of art had navy in it, but balancing the color across the whole wall (the navy kind of zig-zags here) keeps everything feeling cohesive, while some completely neutral pieces flank the collection.

3. Varied Subjects and Mediums keep it interesting. I think a mix of portraits, landscapes, abstracts, etc., are good, but throwing in photographs and ink drawings and paintings and, boom, you got yourself a killer gallery wall that feels collected and varied and interesting for a long time.

4. Pay attention to size and orientation. After you spent all this time curating the pieces you love, the last thing you want is for them all to be the same size, or all of portrait orientation. Make sure you have a good variation of sizes (Artfully Walls usually has several sizes available for prints) and some horizontal and vertical pieces (as well as squares!) to take your gallery to the next level.

Here are the links to the pieces that ended up on our wall:

1. Knuba, 2010 by Alex Kotinskyi | 2. previously owned | 3. previously owned | 4. previously owned | 5. Slumber by Jan Weiss | 6. Andrew by Tali Yalonetzki | 7. Evening Beach by Tricia Strickfaden | 8. Flowers in a Salsa Jar by Megan Williamson | 9. Stone Pile by Kelly Witmer (originally a portrait orientation that I turned on its side)

The art really turned this room into something that feels like us, which is why I have loved art for as long as I could remember. This room went from being a collection of furniture, to acquiring that lived-in feeling. In my next post, I'd love to share some tips on how to arrange and hang a gallery wall. So easy! Stay tuned!

Update: See my easy tips for hanging art right here. 

Special thanks to Artfully Walls for allowing me to browse their endless collections, curate a gallery wall and for providing me with the art of my choosing to hang in our room.