Upstairs Hall ...

(via Kate Spade's apartment)

 I have been working on our upstairs hall for what seems like forever.  No matter what I did it just didn't seem quite right for me.  Since you can see it from the first floor and of course, it is the first thing I see each and every morning, I want it to be amazing.  

With the downstairs hall and foyer striped I don't feel like I can add pattern to the upstairs hall, yet I haven't completely abandoned that idea.  In my perfect world it would look just like the photo above, with striped wallpaper, amazing pendants and the best framed pictures. 

I have always loved Kate, and the pictures of her home are one of my favorite pins on Pinterest.  I love their style, so many pieces of framed art and pictures that tell the story of their lives.  I keep coming back to these pins time and time again and it finally occurred to me that I just needed to start a gallery wall on the walls in the upstairs hall and keep it going.  

I have gathered pictures of our family, art from the kids, many vintage silhouettes, plates, trays, mirrors and so many other goodies from the house and just started hanging.  That is pretty much my recipe for a gallery wall.  Pick up one piece and just start hanging.  It becomes organic and starts to take shape with each piece that is hung!

I have been working on it for a few weeks.  Adding some each day and it is turning out to be one of my favorite things in the house.  I changed the pendants a while back to reproduction wedding cake sconces and I absolutely love them and the light they produce.  Not to bold, just enough and the way the light bounces off the pieces is speaking to me!

Now to just decide what to do with the wall itself.  Leave it the neutral it is?  Add pale blue?  Stripes?  Pattern?  I can't decide!

For now I just keep hanging and adding pieces of our life to the wall.  The rest will come and I can always photograph the pieces hanging and recreate once I chose a back ground.  Not exactly the proper way to go about this ... but I do want it to be exactly what I want.  And since that has taken basically 12 years, I can figure it out as I go along!

As I walk out of my bedroom each morning I get excited.  The pieces of my life look good hanging on my walls.  But ... why wouldn't they?


  1. Sometimes you just have to start somewhere. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

  2. I just found your blog and Instagram and am an instant, huge fan! You are adorable and I wish we were neighbors so you could pop over, have a glass of wine and show me your latest treasures (or vice versa!) In addition loving many of the same things (including and especially Jesus!) I am also working on our upstairs hall. Random! I've been collecting 8x10s of our family's Christmas card photo for 13 years now and have finally decided to hang them and make a gallery wall. I love your idea of including other items, like the children's art, to make it more interesting and beautiful. Thanks for the great idea and your many others as well! :)



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