DIY: Gallery Wall

So I mentioned in this post that I finally got my gallery wall up. I am so proud of us! We have only lived here a year and we finally got some decorations up! I'm happy that I did it the way I wanted, and didn't just throw something up there for the sake of having something.
And today I am going to show you how I did it, which I like to affectionately call The Lazy Way.
It started with the process of me buying frames at the 99 cent store to hang some prints that I had. After that, I spray painted all of my frames (with the exception of the antique ones from my great grandfather, I felt wrong painting those so I didn't. I wish that I had pictures of this process, but you know how to spray paint yes? It is easy. Thin, quick coats.
And then I sat on the floor and laid it all out how I wanted it. And asked the boys how they thought it should be. I didn't want things that looked similar to be right next to each other. 

And of course, I couldn't just leave it laying there until we hung it up, so I took a picture. This picture proved to be very helpful in the process of hanging it up.
After Dakota got home and I told him I would buy him Taco Bell if he helped me (bribery works well in my house) the process went really smoothly.
We didn't do the newspaper thing where you cut out the paper to match frame sizes. Ain't nobody got time for that.  What I did was pull up that picture on my tablet, and had it sitting right next to us, and kinda just go from corner to corner. 
I'll explain. 
For example, I started m the center with the "love" embroidery (courtesy of Nana) and knew that the drawing was right above that, so I centered it up and Dakota hung it. Next, I lined the anchor up with the bottom of the drawing, and left space next to it, and hung it up. Basically it was a lot of lining up. Some of them are off a little bit, but not too bad. And we didn't have any rogue nail holes to worry about.

I think this is a really easy way to hang a gallery wall. It just clicked for me in my mind, because this is how  I design. Lining things up. Lining things up makes me happy.

Okay, so everything isn't lined up perfectly. And some of the paint is messy. But it kinda goes with the theme of our house. Just roll with it.
Not everything ended up getting hung up, because some of the frames didn't have hangers, so I just left them out for now. And I need to add hangers to the letters, too.
But other than that, isn't it awesome?
And here are some close ups.

I love this print that I got of a local eatery here in town. It was actually a card, but I cut the back off, and centered it up in the frame. Frosty King doesn't look like this anymore, an old lady backed into one of the brick benches, and they ended up remodeling. 
I kinda miss the old one.

This is the "Nautical Anchor Print" from After Nine to Five, a really great store with prints. I loved this print because it reminds me of my brother. And the color matched the ivory frame perfectly. I guess there was water on the glass and it messed up the print a little, but I hope no one notices.

I got this at our yearly Fall Festival here in town. I actually snagged it before Abigail bought it. Don't be jealous, Abigail. This is the relationship that I strive to have with Dakota. But let's be honest, he makes it pretty easy. He's pretty adorbs.
I hope my way of explaining how I did this makes sense to you. If not, leave me a comment and I will reply to you. 
My biggest piece of advice: Have someone tall to help hang stuff. Unless you are tall. Then I envy you.