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Pimping your Dutch apartment: creating a gallery wall

Pimping your Dutch apartment: creating a gallery wall
Another final result angle. Image: DutchReview/Supplied

Welcome to autumn 2020! It doesn’t feel too welcoming though — it’s cold, dark, wet and you’re sitting at home once again because of a pandemic. Looking at these same four walls and getting tired of them? So was I! And since neither I nor the walls were going anywhere I decided to pimp our prominent wall in the living room with a gorgeous gallery display.

I mean, why not make your house pretty? Winter is always an indoorsy situation in the Netherlands and now more than ever it’s important to feel at home in…well, your home. A gallery wall and more art in general in my home were on the top of my list. After many hours of surfing online I discovered Desenio.

Desenio was so friendly to team up with us and bring you this post. That’s great for you, because there’s a nice discount code for DutchReview readers at the end of this article!

They have a gazillion choices of posters which were great to browse through, the option to have them delivered to your house — framed and all — was also handy. But the real game-changer was their option to fiddle around with potential gallery wall setups. Desenio has both ready-made walls if you want to keep the whole project in a certain theme or a wizard which allows you to see how your eye candy of choice plays out with various sizes and setups and see if your weird fantasy actually could turn into something pretty.

Selecting the prints

We couldn’t decide on one theme. I like palm trees, my better half likes forests, and we wanted some abstract art in there and some accents of orange, gold and pink. We wanted a shade of green on that wall and so it had to match with this. We also opted for a mixture of gold and black frames to see if we can get a bit of a luxurious feeling going.

If you want to keep the Dutch touch then they have some options for that as well. Beautiful images of Amsterdam are available, but I’m a Rotterdam boy so I got myself a cartographic image of my hometown. If you’re after a particular print you’re seeing in this article, then scroll down to the bottom to find a nice little list there.

The bottom one behind the indoor palm tree (disclaimer: that closet has never been as clean as it is now)
Image: DutchReview

Setting up a gallery wall

If you search for how to set up a gallery wall then you’ll find more tips than there are bicycles in Amsterdam, so sure, if you have a better plan then go for it. Here’s how we did it. First of all, we matched all the frames with prints, a matter of personal taste — and we might switch some up later.

The second step was grouping them all on the floor to see if they match and how they look together. We ended up with a more foresty/gold vibe on the left and some palm trees and bright graphic prints on the right.

Organising the pictures on our floor. Image: DutchReview/Supplied

Next up, actually hanging them on the wall! We got out the good old hammer and nails for this step. I heard good stories about ‘reusable sticky nails’ and ‘magic tape’, but also had some crappy experiences with some of that magic tape (the experience being: it’s not working and the whole thing comes down).

The end result

You’ve read enough words now, time for some pretty pictures! And because 2020 can always use more cuteness I made sure that Ollie the cat is in a few of them (disclaimer: she was bribed with cat cookies for this one).

Final result. Image: DutchReview/Supplied
Ollie the cat sitting on the couch in front of the framed pictures.
Ollie the cat posing like a pro. Image: DutchReview/Supplied
pot plant and picture frames
Loving the vibes in this corner. Image: DutchReview/Supplied
Want to get one up yourself? If you found a few prints you like on DESENIO they currently have 30% off — AND you can get a further discount of 10% if you use the code DUTCHREVIEW!
But heads up, this code is only valid from now till Monday the 12th of October and doesn’t work for frames ‘handpicked’ and personalised prints.

 

What are your indoor redecorating plans for this winter? Let us know in the comments!

Print list:

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (21×30)
Art.nr.: 11973-4
Elegant Flight (30×40)
Art.nr.: 14196-5
Abstract Terracotta (21×30)
Art.nr.: 14327-4
Palm Tree Sunrise (30×40)
Art.nr.: 10934-5
Jazzy Days No2 (30×40)
Art.nr.: 14490-5
Whale in Forest (30×40)
Art.nr.: 10801-5
Woman by Manhattan Bridge (40×50)
Art.nr.: 12030-6
Aperol Spritz Recipe (21×30)
Art.nr.: 2980-4
Rotterdam (30x40cm)
Art.nr.: 8279-5
Lion (30×40)
Art.nr.: 7949-5
Forest Mountain (50×70)
Art.nr.: 8535-8
Green & Gold No2 (21×30)
Art.nr.: 14954-4
Secret Garden (30×40)
Art.nr.: 14222-5
Street of Palm Springs (50×70)
Art.nr.: 10790-8
La Madame Noir (30×40)
Art.nr.: 14186-5
Saturn Space (21×30)
Art.nr.: 14085-4
Peaceful Moments (30×40)
Art.nr.: 14241-5
Vintage Pink Toucans (30×40)
Art.nr.: 14020-5

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