05.14
2015

Finally – A Gallery Wall For Our Stairway

As soon as I finished painting this hallway a year a half ago (which was pretty much one of my least favorite painting jobs in this whole house because it involved all those annoying spindles and me balancing on a ladder on top of scaffolding!) I knew I wanted to do a gallery wall going up the stairs. However, gallery walls on stairways always seemed a little daunting to me plus I couldn’t decide on what look I wanted to go with – a mix of different style frames, all black frames, all white frames, a mix of sizes or all the same size…you get the idea, so I kept putting it off.

I finally decided I just needed to pull the trigger though and do SOMETHING because even though we have photos sprinkled throughout the house I missed having some of my favorite memories out where we could see them every day. My parent’s had a gallery wall going up their staircase filled with all sorts of family photos in their last house and my grandmother had photos all over the walls in one of her rooms and I always loved being able to look at all the photographs and see so many different memories every time I climbed the stairs.

Because we went with a mix of frames in the den/study for the gallery wall we did in there, I ended up deciding to keep this more simple.  Plus you can see this wall from the front door, the dining room, the upstairs and downstairs hallway, the upstairs bathroom and two bedrooms so it seemed to make the most sense to keep the frames as simple as possible so it flowed nicely with all of the rooms you could see it from. To keep the cost down I went with the Ribba frames from IKEA. All in all I was pretty happy with them. My only real complaint would be that the large 20″ by 20″ frames are more like shadow boxes and stick out further than the rest of them and that kind of drives me a little crazy but that’s probably just because I have a little OCD.

Because I had no idea how many frames I would need to order and what sizes I used the back of some old wrapping paper I had had for years and never really liked and cut out a million different pieces of the different sizes the Ribba frames came in and started playing around with how to place them. As you can see I wasn’t very precise in how I cut them – I was just trying to get a general idea. Ultimately, I am so glad I did this but I am not going to lie, it was pretty time consuming and kind of a pain in the neck. It definitely saved me the trouble of ordering too many or not enough frames though and helped when it came time to hang the real frames by just kind of hammering through the paper in the spot I wanted the nails and then ripping the paper down and hanging up the real frame. So, although it was annoying it was definitely worth it and I would do it again.

Once that was done I wrote down all the size photos I would need and then used some that I already had in the correct size and then ordered the rest of the prints in the right sizes. 

This angle looks the worst in photos – it actually doesn’t look as crooked in real life – ha! I mean it’s definitely NOT perfect, but it looks really crooked in these pictures because of the lens I had to use for this angle. It warps angles a bit which is especially frustrating when trying to photograph something like this – ha!

And as you can see in that last picture we have a new sign! It will be available in our shop later this month!

SOURCE LIST:
Wall Color – Moonshine in Matte Finish (BM)
Trim Color – Simply White in Semi-gloss Finish (BM)
Door Color – Mopboard Black in Semi-gloss Finish (BM)
Light Fixture – Small Sized Mia Pendant from Pottery Barn
Beadboard Wallpaper – Allen and Roth from Lowe’s
Sign – Dear Lillie
Baskets – HomeGoods
Vase filled with Branches from the Yard – HomeGoods
Runner – RugsUSA (can’t remember what pattern it was, but when I get a chance will try to look it up and add it in later)
Little Mirror – Antique Farmhouse
Frames – Ribba from Ikea in an array of sizes

I hope you all have a fabulous rest of the week! 

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33 thoughts on “Finally – A Gallery Wall For Our Stairway”

  1. Hi Jenny ~ I LOVE your gallery wall! I have put ours off for the very same reasons you mentioned. I am making summer my goal for ours. 🙂 I love how you chose the white frames with b&w photos. I'm not sure if we'll use black or white frames because I have so much white in our home already. But what I love about your white frames is that they blend so well… and the focus is really on the pictures. Was it hard to narrow down which pictures to use? It looks like you used pictures of your sweet girls and maybe some of their cousins? Did you debate family photos too, or did you know you wanted just the kids on this wall? This is part of what is overwhelming to me… how to narrow down which photos to use for the stairway! Great job on your gallery wall and thanks for showing how you taped up the paper – great visual and reminder to do that! 🙂

    1. Thanks so much! And I would agree–deciding which pictures to use was definitely the hardest part! We started with over 100 pictures that we wanted to use and eventually narrowed it down to 19.

  2. I love this gallery wall. I think you made the absolute right decision to go with white frames and keep it simple. I did the same in our master bedroom and love it. Your new sign looks great!

  3. I love me some gallery walls! Haha! And I really love that new print… So reminds me of my first glimpse of my husband:) ~Kim

  6. I don't see a single imperfection, it turned out wonderful! I've been putting off doing the same thing because of the same issues you had, I just can't make up my mind, but I do have to say I love the coordinating frames with the black and white picture.

  7. I have held my opinion close on gallery walls going up the stairs. This has changed my mind ! Thank you – and the new sign is spot on to enhance these beautiful photos. Thank you ! (as always)

  8. Wow Jennifer! This is one of the best stair Wall Galleries I have seen and believe you me I have seen a lot. I've researched them for the past couple of years as I have developed an iPad app to help the world hang Wall Galleries without using a tape measure or doing any math. We'll launch in June and we are so excited to start helping people. You can see a sneak peak on our website. walleries.com

    Cheers!
    Brian Oliver

  12. I LOVE your gallery wall! This looks amazing. As I was looking at that, I also noticed your light switch plates (things you notice one you need to replace them) – can you please tell me where they are from? Thanks!

  13. Can you post how many of each frame did you get? I know it depends on the size of space and the arranging but about how far apart are they?

  15. Thank you so much for your response! Did you have any trouble fitting prints in those size frames. For example, the 16×20 frame fits a picture about 11.5×15 with the mat correct? Also, did you use an 8×10 print in the 12×16 frame with the mat?

  16. Im curious about what Kelly asked as well. I have our stairs all taped up with the sizing of Ribba frames that we will need, and Im currently looking on Mpix. They do 12×12 photos and 8×10 photos so those will fit in the 12×16 frames and the 20 x 20 frames. What sizes did you print to fit the 16×20 frames? I don't see an option for a 12 x 16 photo (which is what that size frame holds). Thanks for your help!

  17. Love the gallery wall, and paint colors. I know moonshine is in the white family, but looks like a soft grey in photos.

  18. How did you hang the ribba frames? Did you use the wire that was included with them from IKEA or did you use hardware from the hardware store?

  19. How many of each size frames did you use? I tried to figure it out from your pictures but I couldn't quite tell. Did you just use 3 different size frames?

  21. i love this!!! do you think it would work exactly as you did it but with color pictures instead of black and white??

  22. I am a little late to the post, but found it on pinterest. I ant to do this use contemporary as well as vintage photos but I want them to all be similar tones of black and white. Some of my older photos are glossy. Do you think it would be best to have them professionally re-photographed (or I guess I could do it and use the same filter through out) but done know if it is necessary. Would love your thoughts. Plus the slightly more in depth frame would for sure drive me crazy too.

  23. hello lilltle late but how many frames did u used for eachone thankl you I have the same stairway thank you

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