Industrial Gear Gallery Wall

A gallery wall of painted picture frames and industrial gears is a simple project and was just what we needed on the big, empty wall in Michael's room.

While painting the old frames for the gear art in Michael's room, I questioned my life choices.  Why am I spending this Sunday painting in my garage while my parents play with my kids at a park?  Why have Mike and I devoted so much of our time and energy to DIY nonsense?  Why have I started a stinkin' blog to document this garbage?  Why not just hit up Home Goods, slap that stuff up on the walls, and just live our dang lives?  I am not a decorator.  Hardly anyone looks at this stuff.  Why do I DO THESE THINGS?

It was a tad humid in the garage.  It made me cranky for a bit there.

Then, within 24 hours, there was this:

  

Chances are one might still support my painting ponderings and not be aesthetically affected by a balanced gallery wall of repurposed industrial gears for a trains-, planes-, and automobile-loving a little boy's bedroom.  It's possible the fact that the frames previously held that little boys' parents' honeymoon photos in their old home holds no emotional weight for others.  But for me this screams, "This is why!"

To take you back a bit, I bought the gears through eBay back in the fall.  A search for "industrial gears" will turn up a bunch.  I bought two lots, one of the four pulleys and the other of the gears, spending a total of $35.  (I explained more about the frames in the last post.)

 

I've never arranged a gallery wall before and decided to try the method I have seen in various places which involves laying the items out on paper, outlining them, and marking where the nails will go.

 

 

 

This method was extremely helpful.  I just stuck the paper on the wall with sticky-tack and was able to adjust it as needed to get it centered and level before pounding in the nails.  I was quite pleased with myself to get his far without any help from my handy husband.

But at this point his assistance was needed.  Along with actually hanging the gears and pulleys on the wall, Mike determined how we would attach them safely.  It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I hadn't inspected the gears enough to discover they all have holes specifically for screws, and the pulleys have large holes in the center.  I was making things far more complicated than necessary by overlooking the obvious solution: a combination of screws, washers, and anchors through the holes of the gears. 

 

If you're thinking we are pushing Sophie into overly traditional girlishness with the flowers and butterflies in her room while encouraging Michael toward engineering pursuits with the transportation motif in his, you should know that Mike's biggest helper at this point was Sophie.  She wanted to know what every tool was called, how the anchors worked, and assisted Mike as much as a four-year-old can. Picture that four-year-old fresh out of the bath with wet hair and a Cinderella nightgown on to get the full, adorable impression.

 

Michael was very excited to see the industrial gears and pulleys decorating his gallery wall.  However, he was disappointed that none of them turn, which did not surprise us about our boy in the least.