Living room and the Gallery Wall

I had a blank wall staring me down for months in our living room.  Months!  Then I had the good fortune of a very good friend coming down from Atlanta and "offering" to help me with the project of placing some art.  Ok, so the word offering is used loosely.  I think there was some begging on my part - after a few glasses of wine.  So a huge thanks to CW for all the help on this one. 

Wish I had a good before shot of the plain gray wall - but instead I'll just go for the after shot.

Hanging any gallery wall is difficult.  It is one of those jobs that just requires 2 people.  So we did the "hold it and you go look" many times, then switch - you hold it and I'll go look.  You get the idea.  My friend has a good eye and I knew would be a great partner to come up with something that would somehow please my eye.  I didn't want precision, rather randomly placed pieces I loved. 

The very old oil painting in the heavy frame is a piece that I inherited from my late husband's family.  The contemporary canvas is a relatively new piece, purchased from a FL artist, who just lost his wife to breast cancer.  The matted print of mother and child, I purchased in Paris.  Oddly enough, while with the friend who helped me hang all this. I took one canvas and cut it into 3 pieces and framed them in cheap IKEA Ribba frames.  The carved panel came from an outing to a local shop, which I found in of all places, their bathroom.  Yep, that's me....I look through a whole store and come out of the bathroom and ask how much that panel in the bathroom is.  A couple of the other prints came from another house and most of this has just been in storage, during the merge of the 2 households.

Odd how merging lives brings a mix of things together.  Also after 7 years of being a solo mom, I am again learning the fine art of compromise.  Breakdown on the merge would go like this: sofa and coffee table were his (but I did help pick them out when we were dating), big white chair from Ballards was his too.  I find it huge, he finds it comfy. 

Bergere chair, ottoman and old Asian basket were mine.  Mind you the chairs were recovered from a peach fabric to the natural linen and the wood finish was stained from a lighter wood to a darker color.  At one time I was going to pitch them.  Now I'm glad I didn't.  They look wonderful and completely different than they once did.  Two white garden seats, mine. All the art, mine.  While maybe not his thing, my friend and I did this project while he was at work.  To my surprise he came in later and actually said he liked it. 

Lamps - both new.  The one behind the sofa was my choice.  It looked like a piece of sculpture to me.  His choice:

 

Will admit that I like the lamp too.  The white "thing" he had purchased from Z Gallery and covers a light fixture and ugly cord. 

 

So the merge continues - but I like the way we are working through mixing our things together, or agreeing on a new purchase here or there.  Like my zebra rug!  You just have to love a man that buys you that for a wedding present.  And believe me when I say that I have taken a load of shit from my vegetarian friends and all those animal lovers - #letssavetheanimals.  Oh well, I can deal with a little shit on this one.

 

 

 

So there you have it.  The wall is no longer blank and the room finally looks somewhat finished  Oh yeh, one more thing. Please imagine beautiful orchids in the container on the coffee table and the doors all painted black.  Future project on my to-do list.