Mission Accomplished - Kids Artwork Display

After my inspiration post last week, I was on a mission to finally do something with all of the adorable kids artwork I had collected over the years.  I decided to go with a gallery wall in our playroom.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I actually ended up finding every single frame I used for this wall at Wal-Mart.  They had a ton of frames to choose from so I literally just grabbed a few of each one and the price was right.  All of the frames were between $2-$12 each.  One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the artwork is odd sizes and they don't always make stock frames in the correct sizes.  I didn't want to have the art custom framed (because that would have cost an arm and a leg) and I was totally fine with trimming the art down a bit to fit into the frames I could find.  For things that were an odd shape, I either used burlap or the solid backing that came with the frame as a mat.

After getting it all framed I spaced it out on the floor to see about how I wanted it to look, I called in my handyman husband to help me hang it all.  I picked the largest wall in our playroom and I thought I had a lot of art work framed.  However, because this wall is really big and our ceilings are really high, there is still a lot more blank space than I had planned on.  Oops.  

There was no way I would have even asked my hubby to start over and put more holes in the wall by spacing the frames out a little more. So I've just decided I'm kind of happy about that blank space because it means I have a lot more room to work with and add to over the years.  The kids' schools have art shows as fundraisers where you can purchase their framed artwork each year, so I know I will have those to add to the wall.  And, I'm sure next week I'll have at least 5 more things that come home I can put up there, too.  That's why I like the idea of using all different frames for gallery walls.  It makes it easier to just keep picking up black frames along the way and then I don't have to worry if they match the others.  I did the same thing on my photo gallery wall and have already picked up other random frames to add to this display when I get my beach photographs printed.  

My kids love seeing their artwork hanging and because they spend the majority of their waking time at home in the playroom, I like for the space to feel bright, fun, and personalized for them.  When I was taking pictures of this room, Batman showed up. :-) 

While we were hanging stuff yesterday I also finally got this adorable canvas up that was a HomeGoods find and their first birthday pictures with signed mats hung, too!  

I have one more wall to fill above our little kitchen with some fun red frames I bought ages ago, but until I have pictures to put in them, I decided to hold off on hanging those.  There are several other things I want to do in this room (like curtains), but for now I'm happy with the way it is coming along and so thankful for a fun space for my kids to play.