Gallery Wall completed (almost)

My favorite part of the house is my Study.  Not that it's big or lavishly decorated, it's just comfortable.  The only furniture in there is a 'tired old' sofa (that I find sooo comfortable) a desk, that was given to my son years ago that I have since repainted a TV and my desktop.   It's situated in the middle of my house, with two entrances and no doors for privacy.  So, usually, everybody who comes to visit, either me or my son, find themselves in my study chilling and relaxing.  So it only made sense that when I decided on a gallery wall that I put it in my Study.

About six years ago I started with this

With a busy schedule, I let a few years slip by.  After adding some texture to the wall I decided to approach getting my Gallery Wall completed.

I stopped again, got sidetracked, started working on other projects while trying to figure out what else to do with the wall.  So after another 2-3 year sabbatical I decided to approach it again.  I gave it a theme, selected some pictures of my family, adjusted the color to a faded black & white using photo editor, added a letter big & bold to each picture and printed them.

To get the look I wanted I balled up the pictures and stained them with tea. 

With my first attempt I dunked the pictures in tea, loved the vintage look, but the paper was too soggy and almost ripped away so I resulted to using a brush.  I let them dry overnight.

After cutting out the pictures I burnt the edges and then got some heavy board paper that I had cut and painted black.  I glued the pictures onto the boards and mod podged them I wanted to mod podge them but I didn't have any and I was too lazy to run to the store,  so I had to resort to making my own using fabric medium.

I remembered I had a strip of trim leftover from another project, so I cut it to size, 

I painted it black and used hot glue to stick the pictures onto it

I then hung it on the wall.  Anyone coming into my Study would know this was my Family Gallery Wall.

My son drew this picture in the 2nd or 3rd grade, both his teachers and I were amazed at his talent at that age.  I'm not sure who it's a picture of, but I immediately framed it, because I knew it would always be on my wall.

I had a very dear aunt that passed away some years ago.  I remember visiting her and she always kept this particular fan displayed in her front room, maybe it's a souvenir from a vacation she went on, or maybe someone had given it to her from their vacation...whatever, I decided to give it a spot on my gallery wall.

My son had won several ribbons while in school, unfortunately I could only locate two of them (does that make me a bad mommy???)  I removed the pendants from the ribbons (the colors clashed with my color scheme) and attached them to a neck piece I found in his room.  I think he's going to hate knowing I was rummaging through his stuff in his room. ;-)

While in his room I spotted his hat & tassel from his graduation party, it's been roughly handled, dropped, walked on, etc.  it looked pretty beat up, but hey isn't vintage the new "in thing".  Actually, I was just too lazy to touch it up.

My family gallery wall isn't totally completed, but I'm getting there.  There's enough space for a few pictures, keepsakes, etc.

Who knows in another year or two when I complete my family gallery wall, my humble sofa will have either been painted, upholstered or updated!

So, until then, I'll work on a few other projects until I can decide on how to finish my wall.  LET YOUR CREATIVITY FLOW!