Create a Shiplap Gallery Wall

I've been working on our gallery wall for a while.  3 years to be exact.  I'm not one to make quick decisions.  Or to make decisions at all, really.  I like to plan, and pin and get inspired.  Then I like to sleep on my plan.  Or hibernate on my plan.  Bottom line, I'm afraid of making mistakes.  And of putting holes in my wall.   

After several seasons of watching Fixer Upper on HGTV and my husband begging me to put something together, we forged ahead.  And by we,  I mean that he started making the plans and putting them in motion.   I was still hibernating with my plan and spending way too much time thinking about it.   

We decided that we wanted to shiplap the accent wall in our family room that was going to become our gallery wall.   Our contractor recommended that we use a tongue and groove style board and he was able to find boards that were 16 feet in length.  That helped with the installation and gave us the farmhouse look that we were hoping for.  

If you haven't starting shiplapping all the things yet, you should know that it's very contagious.  We ended up adding shiplap to three walls in our home because once you start it's impossible to stop.    We did a knee wall in our foyer, a wall in our kitchen and the big wall in our family room.   Having the three walls in three separate but integrated rooms helped to create a good flow and some much needed symmetry.    

Here are some photos of the work in progress.

After the shiplap was installed it was time to pick a paint color.  Since we didn't have three more years for me to decide, I grabbed our Sherwin Williams paint wheel and chose a soft off white color for the walls and a bright white color for the trim.   It makes our family room look so much bigger and brighter and is the perfect backdrop for our new gallery wall.  

Once the walls were painted, it was time to create our gallery wall.  I hemmed and hawed and wasted a few weeks making excuses and then my husband threatened to start hanging things.  I knew he was serious, so i gathered all the things I've been collecting for the last three years and got to work.  I started by measuring the TV and making an outline of it on my floor with painters tape.  Then I started with the biggest pieces, like our wooden gear and laid them out on the floor first.   Then I  started filling in the other areas with the smaller pieces.  As you might imagine, I needed to sleep on the idea before i could hammer a nail in the wall.  The new, freshly painted shiplap wall.  so i moved things around.  For two days.  On the floor.

By the third morning, my husband was getting anxious.  And we were all tired of tip toeing around the family room.  So we grabbed a hammer and we started hanging things.  We started with the family arrow since it was in the middle above the TV and then we  worked our way out and up until all the pieces had found their new home.   We are thrilled with the way it turned out, and we are so excited to share it with you.  

I wanted a black and white theme on the wall in the hopes of hiding our ridiculously large TV.  But as i worked through the process, our weathered heart accidentally became the color inspiration for our wall.   I pulled in a few accent pieces in varying shades of blue and green and I'm thrilled with how it all came together.

Here is the view from our kitchen into the family room.  

And here's the knee wall that you see when you first walk into our home.  

I'm not proud that it took three years to create our gallery wall.  But I  must say, that waiting that long afforded us the opportunity to become obsessed with shiplap thanks to Chip and Joanna Gaines.  And if i hadn't hibernated for so long, our wall wouldn't be the same today!  

Do you have a gallery wall?  Are you looking for inspiration to start one or do you want to freshen up your home decor with new, unique pieces?   Many of the pieces that you see on our wall our available in our Gallery Wall Collection.  We've also created several bundles that can help you jump start your gallery wall.