Changing The World
August 29, 2012
There’s been an ongoing debate in our house over the past few months around the wall map that used to sit in the kids’ playroom which we’re converting to a study. It was a giant 8’ x 10’ wall map in earth tones from National Geographic and a definite conversation piece in our home, it took up the entire wall, and it was very cool. The debate was about whether it should stay or go.
Then I got to the point where I loved the idea of a map but wanted to have more of a gallery wall instead to display a collection of special prints and drawings, so we recently changed the world and opted for a smaller map surrounded by family artwork.
I actually bought second map from National Geographic (this one) and framed it in a Ribba frame from IKEA to save money. You can see the old wall map here. To frame the new smaller one, I had to trim the mat but that was easy, all it requires is a ruler, a box cutter or X-acto knife, patience, and precision!
Since the mat covered some of the countries on the new NG map, I subtracted as many inches as were necessary to reveal the “new world”, marked it with a pencil and carefully trimmed the mat with a X-acto knife on top of a cutting board.
As for the other prints that surround the new map, I don’t have an exact method for hanging, I just lay it all out on the carpet and start playing with placement.
If you need help, I really love this idea for deciding on placement before pounding nails!
I picked up some landmark prints from street artist on our recent trip to Québec City and Montréal so those made it up on the wall.
The “golden” state print above is by one of my favorite illustrators Katie Daisy, so is the Emerson “live in the sunshine” print.
I followed this handy trick for hanging the wall art once I decided where it would go, using painter’s tape to set the distance between hangers for the wall. You simply use the painter’s tape to establish the position of the nails on your wall, use a level to keep them straight and hammer the nail into the right spot, brilliant Aimee!
Inspired by the new display, the kids turned the side table into an unexpected impromptu station to make even more artwork for the wall – yes!
It’s just the beginning of our curated collection, but I imagine there will be a many more masterpieces that end up there. Although the bigger wall map was a great room accent, these little works of art are also great little conversation pieces plus they’re surrounded by prints of memorable places and created by favorite artists- it’s the best kind of art gallery in my world!
Do you have a special gallery where you display personal and/or kid’s art in your home too?
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Tags: art wall, gallery wall, world map
