Meaningful Gallery Wall in the Master Bedroom

Operation master bedroom makeover is full steam ahead with this new gallery wall.  The monochromatic and sweet are swiftly becoming the bold and cheerful.

If you missed it, you might want to check out how I planned and hung the gallery wall.  At that point it looked like this:

Which meant it was time for the fun part – painting the frames and choosing the art.  Now I absolutely love a clean, white gallery wall – in fact I have one in G’s nursery.  But I knew that for this room, what I really needed was some color.  I pulled out all of the paint I already had on hand and chose four colors to work with – white, a light aqua, a deeper turquoise, and a lime green.

**Tip: paint samples from the home improvement store are perfect for this type of project.  One paint sample covered the huge mirror frame and two other frames with paint to spare.**

Once I had painted my frames and turned the little cabinet door in the lower right into a hand painted sign, things were looking pretty good…but a little flat.  Even though I liked the colorful frames, they really needed some texture.  I sanded a few of them with sandpaper so the wood could peek through.  To tone down the lime green frames, I wiped on some chestnut stain with a rag and then wiped most of it back off with a clean rag and some mineral spirits.

Once I had my frames all ready to go, it was time to fill them up and give the wall some life.  I definitely did NOT want this to be any old generic gallery wall.  This wall is in our master bedroom and it was important to me that it was meaningful for that space.

The leaning mirror was the starting point for the whole gallery wall so it made sense that one of the wall’s purposes was as a dressing area.  Which made it the perfect spot for the jewelry display I made a couple of years ago. And since my jewelry collection has grown some since then, I also decided to turn one of the empty frames into an earring holder.

I wanted the rest of the wall to be special for my husband and I since this is the master bedroom.  We absolutely love being parents to our little man, but I wanted this room to be just about us as a couple.  I have already shared with you the Hello Sexy sign I made (definitely veering into the couple zone with that one).

I also turned one of the signs into a magnetic board and added magnetic letters that say you & me.  I love how easy it is to change out the message on this one – or even add a picture instead.  (Full tutorial for that project coming up soon).

Finally, it was time to add some pictures.  I have to admit, I really had to restrain myself with the pictures.  We have so many adorable pictures of our little man that it was really hard not to include them.  But, as I reminded myself, we have pictures of him in all the other rooms of our house and this one room is supposed to be just for us.  So I chose pictures of the two of us along with some beautiful beach shots.  Because in my opinion nothing says calming retreat like the beach.

I have to say, between this gallery wall and the new headboard, I am really thrilled with where the master bedroom is going.  Now I just need to figure out some super cheap curtains, lampshades, and pillows and it will be like a brand new room!

What do you do to keep your bedroom a special space for you and your spouse?  Or have you just given up on that completely?