The Nursery: Gallery Wall

Our little Sami was born last month on April 19th!  So while he naps, I'm catching up on some nursery posts.

So far we have completed the board & batten wall, painted, installed some star decals on the ceiling, made some reclaimed barn wood shelves, & customized a crib skirt.  Next up - the gallery wall...

Since I am notorious for being indecisive, my mom & I decided the best plan would be to cut out templates before putting any holes in the wall.  We used some brown builders paper (leftover form our mini kitchen reno) & washi tape.  After playing around with the arrangement, we came up with this layout:

Over time, the nursery evolved into having a nautical/travel vibe.  Here are the details on all the pieces...

The round porthole-esque is from TJ Maxx.  To hang it, I actually used one of the original drawer knobs that came with the IKEA Hemnes dresser (since we replaced all the knobs with star knobs):

Since Nader is Lebanese, I wanted to include something to represent where his family is from, so I ordered an 8x10 City Map print of Beirut in taupe from Jenna Sue Design Co.  I used a basic IKEA RIBBA frame to display the print:

The driftwood "S" is from Marshalls & the "and baby makes 3" print was a quick DIY.  I originally saw a similar print @ Hobby Lobby, but I decided to make my own using PicMonkey.  I printed the image @ Walgreens with the rest of the photos:

The cork board world map was the most time consuming project.  The wooden frame was actually made by my great grandpa, which I painted white in a satin finish.  I found a cork board @ Michaels & painted it with one of our leftover paint samples (Glidden-Pebble Grey).  Then I found a world map online - printed it at home, cut it out, & traced it onto the cork board with a pencil.

I filled in the map with about 3 coats of chalkboard paint:

The horseshoe crab shell had been in my shell collection for years - I had found it on the beach during a family vacation when I was little & it had been in a box since then.  I decided to spray paint it high gloss white & display it in a shadowbox:

The shadow box is from Joanns & I used a metallic textured placemat from Target for the matting:

The next project was very special to me, because it involved incorporating some medals that were in my late grandpa's medal collection.  He passed away very suddenly from stomach cancer in 2012, so it's nice to see something daily that reminds me of him:

I purchased a 10 x 10 shadow box from Michaels & a white foam sheet for the mat.  I attached the medals using a hot glue gun:

The next piece is our son's name, Sami, written in Arabic script.  I had Nader design it for me using graph paper - then I cut it out, traced it onto a blank canvas, & painted it using some more leftover paint from the board & batten wall:

Lastly, I framed a profile silhouette of me from Disney World when I was 3, as well as some photos of us:

FYI: we stuck two-sided mounting tape on the back of each piece to make sure everything stayed put on the wall.

We really like the end result - it incorporates the whole nautical/travel feeling & also has a lot of personal meaning to us.  Hope you liked it :)

Mel