Turns out, “someday” was 21 years later.
We finally pulled our long-stored travel prints out of the closet and onto the wall—and in the process, I realized that gallery walls don’t need to follow anyone’s rules but your own.
After years of overthinking it, we finally just went for it. No blueprint, no fancy tools—just a measuring tape, some wrapping paper, a little trial and error, and a handful of memories that deserved to be seen. For the longest time, I didn’t know how to use the prints we’d saved—mostly because I thought I had to follow the latest trends. You know the ones—those perfectly curated gallery walls where every image blends together just right, the frames match, and it looks like something straight out of a design magazine.
But leaning back into tradition and choosing to fill our home with our own stories was just the push I needed.
Here’s how we made it come together—and how you can too.
When we renovated this house, we created a banquette seating area, and after finishing it, I toyed with several ideas for the white shiplap wall behind it. It needed some warmth—something to add character and make the space feel more like us. I went back and forth: a large mirror, a bold art piece, or maybe just leaving it blank and calling it intentional.
I’ve been craving traditional design—frames up, memories displayed. And then it dawned on me: we had a box of memories sitting in storage. That’s when the plan finally came together.
All of the prints had been collected from places we’d visited, and since this little town is special to us too, I asked a friend to create some watercolors of Fredericksburg. They turned out beautifully. Once we had those, I added a few more I’d found at a local shop to round it out.
Finding frames was the next challenge. It caused a little stress at first, but I decided to shop locally and stick to our budget. I chose a color palette that felt curated but not too coordinated: brushed gold, black, black with gold accents, and the warmth of wood.
Once the prints were framed, we laid them out on the floor and played around with different arrangements until one felt just right. Still, we dreaded the possibility of hanging them, only to hate how they looked—or worse, ending up with 100 nail holes in the wall.
So we tried a little trick we saw online: we took a roll of Christmas wrapping paper, traced each framed piece, and cut them out. Then we taped the paper shapes to the wall, adjusted them until everything looked balanced, measured where the hooks needed to go, and nailed right through the paper. Once the wrapping paper was pulled away, we simply hung the prints. Done!
One of the most unique and fun pieces on this wall is the whimsical Italian deer mount. It arrived flat, like a puzzle, and we had to punch out the pieces and assemble it. It’s probably one of the coolest—and most unexpected—things we’ve added to a wall.
Never did I think I’d be able to pull together a gallery wall using prints we bought 21 years ago, new watercolors painted just for me, local art, and a colorful deer mount puzzle—but we did. And we love it.
This project got me thinking—should we consider adding art and prints to the shop? What about those whimsical deer mounts? We don’t carry them yet, but I’m seriously considering it. I’d love to hear what you’d like to see offered at Cup and Pillar. Your ideas just might help shape what’s coming next.
If you’re not already on our email list or following along on Instagram, that’s the best place to catch what’s new (and get first dibs when we add something special).
