It has been 9 months since we moved into our new build out in Lakeway and we are just now starting to get into the swing of decorating. The extremely open floor plan and massive windows drew me to this home. I was so excited about all of the natural light and beautiful white walls that I didn’t think of the practicalities of decorating a space like this. I’m used to having areas to put decor like built in shelving, a fire place with a mantle, etc. Not super open, large walls and tall ceilings that require art!

I don’t know why but it takes me ages to decorate a new house. I have to find the perfect pieces to fill a space and if it’s not perfect, it stays blank. Am I the only one like that?? Most people can mindlessly wander Home Goods and come out with so much stuff they don’t even have a place for! That right there stresses me out! I have to know exactly what will go where and if it’s not going to work I just leave that space alone.

Grayson and I decided to start out with the master bedroom. I wanted a wood wall like we had in the master of our previous home but reclaimed wood pricing has risen exponentially. Instead of reclaimed wood I decided to stick with wood planks to give it a shiplap look. My goal was to have something really dramatic so we ended up painting the planks black to make the decor in the room really pop.

Once the planks were installed and painted we started the search for a new bed. I’m sure most of y’all saw my struggle with finding a new bed on Instagram Stories. I decided to keep the Pottery Barn bed! Hooray!

Since we got that figured out it was now time to figure out what was going to go on the walls! I knew I wanted some type of gallery wall but I couldn’t figure out what I actually wanted up on the wall or where it was even going to go. Nations Photo Lab had recently worked with us on our beautiful wedding photo album. If you missed that post click here.

We were so happy with how that album turned out we knew we wanted to order from them again! I saw that they work on canvas prints so we thought it might be cute to get some black and white prints done from our wedding.

Before I go into more details they gave me a special discount code for $5 off your ENTIRE order! Use code DTKAUSTIN5 at checkout!

Nations Photo Lab Canvas:

I wanted to decorate both sides of the bed’s headboard with something. A small gallery wall seamed like a great idea. You never really see unique gallery walls next to a bed. They are always in large spaces, hallways, or in living rooms. Our ceilings are so high it was really hard to find pieces that would actually work in those spots so these canvas prints were a great option.

After looking over the site we decided on sticking with 7-8 canvas prints. I had the idea in my head to put 2 larger prints side by side and then a few smaller prints next to those. We weren’t really sure on what sizes would work well and we had no idea which images to make large and which to keep small.

Nations Photo Lab was so amazing and eager to help us figure out the details. I sent them high resolution photo options and told them what I had in mind and they sent over rough drafts with different large and small images next to each other which was a huge help.

We ended up going with 8×12” for the little prints and 16×24” for the two larger prints. We ended up going with 2 larger options and then 6 smaller options not knowing if we would use them all but we liked having the variety just in case. I went with the 0.75″ depth but it also comes in 1.5″ depth. All the Nations Photo Lab Canvas Prints are available in 20 sizes, from 8×10″ to 30×40″.  All images are printed on museum grade cotton canvas. Plus they are all laminated by a protective gloss for added longevity.

We received our order so fast and everything was packaged so well and carefully. I absolutely loved the fact that each print was ready to hang as is. Each piece arrives ready to hang with wall bumpers and a pre-installed sawtooth hanger or wire hanger.

Once we looked over each print we started figuring out how we wanted this gallery wall to look. I’m one of those people that has to specifically plan out every single detail when it comes to hanging art.

If you are looking to plan a gallery wall in your home I would definitely suggest measuring each print and making a paper version the exact same size of the art work. This way you can easily measure and tape up a pieces of paper instead of hanging art site unseen. If you’re like me you always have minor changes to make so this is a major time and wall saver.

I’m extremely glad we started planning this out because the first layout we taped up looked so bad! Grayson and I probably made 3-4 full layout changes before we came up with this layout. After we chose our layout we put Command Hooks up before we actually put nails in the planks. Like I said earlier, everything has to be perfect and I hate filling nail holes!

I definitely wanted something unique looking in this space. Our Master Bedroom wall is so large it is really hard to decorate. I think our ceilings are 16 feet tall so we really needed something to balance everything out. All I can say is that I am really happy with how it all turned out. Besides some of the images being crooked in these photos!!!! That always drives me insane! So if you notice any of that, please disregard! 😂

My goal was to create a layout that looked as if you were dreaming these images. Almost like a thought bubble but thought prints. We still have a lot of work to do on this wall and the wall that the other larger print is hung on. It’s kinda of like the lone print all alone so I definitely need to find something to add underneath to fill that open space.

Overall, I am so thrilled with how everything came out. From the ordering process, to the packaging, to how the actual prints came out to the entire after. I couldn’t recommend Nations Photo Lab canvas any more!!

And don’t forget to click HERE and use code DTKAUSTIN5!

Loving this Nations Photo Lab Canvas feature? Take a look here for more of my home favorites!