Planning A Vintage Art Gallery Wall in the Pantry

THE FARMHOUSE

We’re getting so close to finishing the pantry, but one thing we’ve been debating is what to do above the faucet and curved marble backsplash. At first we planned to install an upper cabinet with a shelf below (just like we did in the kitchen), but a friendly Instagram follower suggested we might hit our heads on it. Duh! Garrett and I laughed at ourselves for a good minute and then went back to the drawing board. Anything that stuck out from the wall would be a nuisance so we settled on something decorative. And a vintage art gallery wall felt right! So today I wanted to share the art we picked and how we planned the gallery wall.

Farmhouse pantry / faucet, drawer pulls, art (vintage)

Inspiration

As soon as we decided on a gallery wall, I had my inspiration in mind. The following two gallery walls are some of my favorite on the Gram and they helped me confirm that I wanted (1) unframed canvases (for a more casual feel), (2) vintage art and not reproduction, and (3) a mix of landscapes and portraits. My goal: a casual/curated/eclectic/vintage gallery wall that makes the pantry feel welcoming and layered.

@buildingwalnutfarm | @megan.d.miller

Selecting the Art

Ideally I would have been collecting this vintage art over years. But I wasn’t. So I collected it all one Sunday afternoon on eBay. Ha! In the end, we probably paid more by collecting the art this way and none of the pieces have a cool ‘I found it at a Paris flee market while on the most amazing trip of my life’ memory behind it, but c'est la vie.

I lucked out because @megan.d.miller (whose gallery wall I shared above) was doing a roundup of vintage art on Instagram stories. Megan has the best taste and the same kind of style I was going for with this gallery wall, so her curated picks were the start of my collection.

I added all the pieces I liked (from Megan’s roundup and others) to my eBay shopping cart so I could see them all together. That really helped me make sure the tone and styles worked together and gave me a sense of how they’d look together on a wall. Once I was happy with my collection, I ran it all by Garrett. He liked them way more than I expected and only vetoed one landscape for being too “creepy”.

Here’s what we ended up with:

Aren’t they lovely? All the art is one of a kind and came from two shops on eBay (this one and this one) - I’m still waiting to see if the second shop shipped the artwork so not recommending them yet. We’re still waiting on the landscapes to arrive. Apparently they’re coming from France, although the shop said New York. Ebay, you know?! Anyway, they supposedly shipped yesterday (a full 10 days after we ordered them) and we’re expecting them next week. Fingers crossed!

Test before buying

Before pulling the trigger on the art, I wrote down the dimensions of each piece and sketched out where I thought they should go on a piece of paper. Then I taped the dimensions of each piece up on the wall, like so…

I’m sure the layout will change some when the art arrives, but this gave us an idea for the scale and how all of it would fit together. And it helped us to feel confident pulling the trigger on the purchase. Can’t wait to see it all together!

And if all goes well, we’ll be revealing this gallery wall (and the entire pantry) next week.