A Salon Wall

Those salon walls have been grabbing my attention lately and since I have decided to do some tweaking in my living room, this seemed like the best place to put one of these gallery style art walls.  I loved reading all your comments from my post on Tuesday. It seems that most of us are on the same page about the art topic and hanging things on the wall that are meaningful and unique.

(Celerie Kemble)

Like the above pic, I just love the casualness of the art on the walls.  Tossed up there without a whole lot of thought (but probably more than you think) to get this artful arrangement just right.

One  of the things I really like about these salon walls is using all different types of art, varying frames and not all matchy-matchy.  I know matchy is great in some instances, like doing a whole wall of botanicals for example. I love the look when everything is the same frame and tone, but I’m also really, really loving this casual look.

(via House of Turquoise)

How about a gallery wall against a vivid turquoise blue like this?  Pretty amazing!

Not sure where this photo came from, but I love the calming and soothing tones of this salon wall.  This room looks so cozy and inviting and again, the art is all mismatched. 

(Domino)

Mismatched, I can definitely do!  I have plenty of collected pieces around that I just love.

(Domino)

(House Beautiful, March 2010)

So, after seeing some pics like this, it got my creative juices flowing and I went around the house and pulled down all my favorite flea market/yardsale/thriftstore art from other rooms to see what I could do with it.

I moved the pretty oil painting I had over this little table to a new home over the fireplace mantel.  This little table will get a new coat of paint too. 

Spread out all my priceless treasures on the floor and went to work on a pleasing layout for my wall.  I did measure the wall first to see how much room I had to play with.  I’m likin’ this arrangement.  Also added in a few extras, like trays and sconces, just to kick it up a notch.  Everything here was scored at a yardsale/thriftstore or flea market with the exception of one piece that came from Grandma Eleanor.  It’s all about getting a balance going.  I started with a main middle focal point and built my pieces out from there.  It was fun being creative!

Are you ready to see MY salon wall????

I adore this!  I will work on the little table too (that was also scored at a yardsale) with a new coat of paint and probably a piece of pottery on top.

I decided that I like everything just as it is, so no trying to match up frame colors or anything, since the UN-matching and randomness appeals to me.

Here’s the Salvation Army oil painting I just scored.  All these other pieces were found all over the place, one piece at a time and many of them I’ve had for years.

This one really old frame in the center is very vintage and beat up, but I love that it’s half falling apart.  I used it as the centerpiece to my wall arrangement and  it was perfect for framing some other treasures.

Again, it has been so much fun to collect these pieces and I was happily surprised at just how great they all look together.  It took me about 1/2 an hour to come up with this arrangement.  I then took pics with my camera, so I could remember how I had them and then started from the middle and worked my way out.  I didn’t use the cut-out paper method of getting them all in the right spot first (probably should have!), but it wasn’t bad. I did move some nails around here and there to get them spaced just like I wanted them.

And I totally am in love with this wall. 

Here’s the one painting that didn’t come from thrifting.  This is one of Grandma Eleanor’s originals, so I was happy it went so well with my grouping.

I’m in love! 🙂

Another shot from the foyer

I took all those pics earlier and then found a few more things to add in, like the painting I found last weekend at the sale (it’s on the far left).

And this heavy iron piece with the round wood medallion above, I picked up years ago at a yardsale and I’ve always loved it.  It’s perfect to add to this wall.

And the bunny heads came from House Parts in Atlanta.  I had them outside  and brought them in for some fun.

So, that’s the wall for now.  I don’t have a lot more room to add things, but I’m sure I can squeeze a few more in there and now I’ve got some empty spaces around the house, so that means I can shop for extras, always a fun thing.

What got the creativity flowing in the living room is this.  I’ve decided to de-formalize this space and make it a little less dressy.  I did have a pretty needlepoint rug in here that I’ve had about 8 years now, but I’m going to put it up for sale.  And my tapestry is coming down. As much as I have loved it, I’m ready to move on from this more formal look, so it’s going up for sale too, as well as the faux piece above it.  I’ve had these over 10 years now.   So you can see, I did the Italian thing myself along the way. 🙂

I’m going with a jute rug (online it says sisal, but when I got it, the tag said jute)  that I got from Overstock.  Just changing out rugs already lightens the space a lot.   That chair there in the above  pic is one that I’ve shown you before.  I love this chair with it’s many fabrics and have no intention of getting rid of any of my furniture in here.  But, this rug will serve it’s purpose and de-formalize my space. Can you guess which color I’ll be bringing in here as an accent?  Yep, that beautiful blue/green.  Can you say yummy? Just by changing the rug, pillows and taking down the tapestry, the mood in here will be altered a lot.

Anyone want to buy a beautiful tapestry or needlepoint rug??  You can go here to see them both.

It’s going to be fun to tweak this space to make it even more comfortable for our family and I think taking it down a notch will be just the ticket.  Of course, I’ll share all the process with you.

So, what do you think about a gallery salon wall?  Would you try this at home? It might be something that you either love or hate and for now I’m lovin’ it.

I had so much fun doing this one and can’t wait to add a few more things to it. In fact, I can cover the whole wall.

The winner of the Olive Rue giveaway is Melinda from Tales from My Empty Nest.  Congrats, Melinda!  I’ll have Crystal contact you for your prize info.