Working out how to display kids artwork in a stylish way can be quite the challenge.
I love having the kids artwork on display in our house. It encourages them to be creative and tells them that we are proud of their work. It’s also the kind of personal touch that makes a house feel a lot more like a home.
But I struggle with achieving the balance between cluttered, messy walls, and displaying my children’s artwork in a way that actually compliments the overall style of the room and doesn’t make it feel like a preschool classroom.
Whenever one of our kids has made a drawing they are particularly proud of, it goes up on our wall – just with a bit of washi tape and no particular thought to the positioning or layout of the artwork as an overall feature.
The problem with this method of displaying kids artwork was that the haphazardness of our art wall was starting to stress me out. We have a huge open plan kitchen, dining and family room, which means that when one corner is messy, you can see it from all angles and it makes the whole space look disorganised.
When we first built this room, my grand plan was to have three clear and distinct zones – we’ve done pretty well with the kitchen zone and the dining zone. But the living area zone is lacking. One day I’d love a huge modular sofa to really help section off that area and designated it as the family lounging zone. But with our budget limited, I wondered what I could do right now to make a change that would help lend our living / family area it’s own identity.
I also wanted to keep the children’s artwork, but display it in a more stylish way.
The result
It turns out that you can make a big difference to the feel of a room with a few new cushions and getting some artwork up on the walls.
The cushion covers are from Sainsbury’s and La Redoute, and the prints and frames are from Desenio.
Undertaking this little living area makeover also gave me the impetus to clear out some of the lesser used toys and clutter. So now, the toybox lid closes neatly and the tops of the units are clear.
Choosing prints from Desenio
I browsed Desenio for ages making sure to find colourful prints that would best suit my vision for a fun family vibe, and work well with the colours in the children’s artwork. The frames housing the children’s drawings are also from Desenio. We chose the following prints:
Say Yes
Desenio have kindly offered my readers a 25% discount, valid for orders placed between the 16th -18th of October. Just enter the code ‘MOSTLYCHLOE’ at checkout (discount not valid on frames or handpicked-/collaboration posters)
Creating a gallery wall
When creating a gallery wall, deciding exactly where to place frames on the wall can be seriously anxiety-inducing (I think this is why we put it off for so long!). Sam and I had a rather long debate about the specific spacing between each photo, and the fact that we were creating a photo gallery centred around a corner of the wall rather than the middle of a wall added another layer of indecision. Pulling the sofa out and leaning the frames up against the wall in the rough position we wanted them ON the walls helped a lot in terms of visualisation.
We were initially tempted to bunch the frames close together, but because it’s such a large room with a LOT of wall space, we found that once we stepped back into the further portion of the room, it actually looked much better with larger spacing.
However, if you prefer, you could go down the collage route with all the kid’s artwork displayed in one large frame, almost like in a fancy art gallery. You’ll need a large polycarbonate sheet to protect all the artwork and it becomes a true statement piece.
How to display kids artwork in a stylish way
Creating a colourful gallery wall display of our kids artwork has really helped tie this area of the room together. The colours of the prints we chose, alongside the cushions and the kids artwork really compliment each other, and now you can’t miss the message that this our family zone. The kid’s artwork looks a LOT tidier in the frames, and I think it actually helps to showcase it much better than when it was just stuck on the wall like we used to have it. The kids think it’s amazing that their artwork is all framed and displayed nicely.
We used washi tape to stick the artwork in, so pieces can easily be swapped in and out without damaging the paper. We’ve left a few spaces in the frames to add more artwork as the kids create it. And we have space to add a frame or two more if we decide to expand the artwork wall. Free svg cut files are another way to create personalised and unique wall art.
BEFORE
AFTER
What do you think of our stylish kids artwork display?
Disclosure: This post is part of a paid partnership with Desenio.
