Since Geoff and I moved into our new place, the home office (a.k.a. the book nook) has been the one room I’ve taken the most time setting up and decorating. As I write from home often, having a cozy space to work was important to me. Coming from a smaller apartment where my writing desk was directly beside my bed, it’s really exciting to have a dedicated room for all of my books, typewriters, writing projects, etc.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with this blank wall until a few months ago when “someone else’s trash became my treasure!” :)

Geoff and I were walking through our new neighbourhood (on our way to get breakie/coffee - an irrelevant detail, but I'm hungry and craving another cup currently so felt it a necessary addendum!) - in any case, we walked by a house with a large bag of New Yorkers on the lawn with a sign taped to the tree above it: "FREE, PLEASE TAKE.” I don't think Geoff has heard me squeal so excitedly before (except maybe when we walk into a bookstore).

I lugged the bag of magazines around all morning, ideas percolating of all kinds of creative crafts I could use them for...and then they sat un-touched in our office (at the intersection of perfectionism and procrastination) for months.

This past weekend, spurred by the dawn of a new decade (anyone else motivated to tie up loose ends before 2020?), I poured myself a glass of wine and dedicated an evening to finishing THE NEW YORKER project once and for all!

I am SO HAPPY with how it turned out and love our home office even more than before. I’m also thankful for that anonymous neighbour who has no idea their pile of discarded magazines provided so much joy.

Below you’ll find a list of everything you’ll need to complete your own DIY gallery wall and a short 1-min process video to show you how we did it! Let me know in the comments below or on Instagram if you have any questions :)

What You’ll Need

• 8 of your fav magazine covers (dimensions are typically 8.5” x 11”)

  • If you don’t have a stack of magazines or you’d rather do a mini gallery wall, these New Yorker postcards are such a cute alternative!

• 8 frames — I like the clean, modern look of white mating to make the art pop so I went for these 16”x 20” simple black frames from Amazon. If black isn’t your thang, here are some other great options:

  • White 16” x 20” frames

    • I also like these White 11” x 14” frames (depending on what you’re framing, sometimes it’s nice not having a large mat)

  • Gold 16” x 20” frames

• Scissors (to unwrap the frames)

• Measuring tape (to make sure your frames are lined up evenly on the wall — you can also use a level, but I was too lazy haha, so I risked going without and I’m very happy with the results!)

  • Note: I measured two inches between each frame horizontally as well as vertically so everything looked symmetrical

• Pencil (to mark the wall where you want to place the top and sides of each photo so you don’t have to keep going back and measuring in-between)

• Command Tape (!!!) This was a game-changer for me after I put so many holes in the wall on our bedroom gallery wall (oops!) I was a little hesitant to use them as I wasn’t sure if they would actually hold the frames, but I was convinced to try it out after Taylor Swift said using command tape was one of the “Top 30 Things She Learned Before Turning 30” in ELLE magazine (if that’s one of her top 30 things in life, I’ll trust that vote of confidence!)

  • Note: There are different ‘weights’ you can buy, so I got the pack of 14 pairs that holds the heaviest weight (16 lbs) which is more than enough for each frame. So far, so good! No broken or fallen frames at the time of this post so I am extremely happy with the result and wish I’d used them earlier to hang everything in my house!!

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