When we moved 6 months ago, we intentionally purged 70% of our stuff and kept things to a minimum. This way we can have a clean slate to gradually create each space the way we love.
Here is what our living room TV wall looked like for the past 6 months: pretty minimal, very slow in the making, and certainly not something we are excited to show our guests this holiday season!
I know this TV wall has great potential to become a picture wall…
It could be more beautiful and more functional. It could become a canvas that changes with the seasons, a place to celebrate life’s beauty and adventures.
Ready to see what this wall looks like now?
Today I am so happy to be collaborating with Samsung to share with you how we transformed our TV wall into a picture wall that we love in 5 easy steps, and how fun it is to change the space with the seasons!
Update: We definitely have been playing with different looks. Below is our indoor jungle stye! 🙂 You can learn about all our favorite beautiful and easy indoor plants here!
18 favorite beautiful and easy indoor plants!
Step 1: Planning the TV gallery wall: hide the functional, show the beautiful.
A few weeks ago, we received a beautiful gift from Samsung that inspired our holiday decorating adventure: their new Frame TV which is also a framed digital art display when the TV Mode is off and Art Mode is on. What a game changer! We had so much fun exploring all the art and photography collections that came with the TV, such as this stunning zebra photo.
Even more exciting is the fact we can upload our own photos! OK, time to end my procrastination and turn the picture wall idea into reality. The holiday season is the perfect time to update our space. This TV totally inspired us to transform our living room TV wall into a fresh new space and a beautiful focal point to celebrate the holidays with our family and friends!
When planning our TV gallery wall, the two main goals are:
1 . Hide the functional. The Frame TV has a One Connect Box that replaces lots of unsightly TV cables with a clean minimal design. Our challenge is to hide the power cable and modem.
2 . Use a mixture of picture / art display methods. A picture can hang on the wall or sit on a bench or floating shelves. This creates more variety and visual interest, and also gives us more flexibility to change things seasonally.
For this holiday season, I decided to decorate with a magical white winter wonderland theme, using an elegant white and green color palette. The giant 3D snowflakes in the photo above is a DIY, you can get the free template downloads with the tutorial here!
Step 2: Add a double-function bench.
We built this double-function wooden bench in a couple of hours. It acts both as a screen for the utilities and a display shelf for pictures, vases, and other pretty things!
The bench has an open side on the back, and is placed a few inches off the wall so it’s easy to reach for the power cables etc if we need to. It’s built in a similar way to these pallet benches – tutorial and building plan here!
DIY pallet benches: tutorial and building plan. We just changed the dimensions to 10.5″ wide x 10.5″high x 48″ long, 1x4s on surface, and 2x4s as supports at the ends and center.
Step 3: Testing the TV picture wall layout.
Use the picture frame packaging or make some paper templates by tracing the picture frames you plan to use. It is much easier to move these templates around than moving actual picture frames.
Through this process, I learned a lot about how to create a photo gallery wall that feels balanced and interesting. I will post a detailed guide next month and add the link here!
Step 4: Add floating shelves and picture frames to the gallery wall.
(Some of the helpful resources are sponsored or affiliate links. Full disclosure can be found here. )
I love floating shelves and ledge shelves because they offer a different way to display pictures, and mix up picture frames with other objects so the photo wall / TV wall looks more interesting.
Our “floating” shelves are actually DIY faux floating shelves. I will share the tutorial in a few weeks! If you don’t want to DIY, there are some great options on Amazon.
Samsung offers customizable bezel that snaps onto the frame easily so you can change the standard black bezel to a wood, white or metal frame, plus lots of mat colors and styles to play with in the settings. Of course I have to get the gorgeous white bezel!
I like mostly clean and no-mat picture frames for our TV wall, but if you love the matted look, check out the same photo you saw earlier, now with mat below!
One important tip on uploading your own photo to the Samsung Frame TV: the jpeg image dimension should be 3840 x 2160. The rest is super easy!
Step 5: Let the fun begin
Yay we are done! … Or are we?
One of my new realizations of 2017 as a home and garden designer is this: when a space is “done” it really is not an ending but a beginning. It’s the beginning of celebrating life and having creative fun in that space!
Let’s create a winter wonderland to celebrate the holidays and the New Year! The Frame TV makes it so easy to upload my favorite photos of Snowbell flowers and snow covered branches, which reminds me of those white Christmas we don’t get in Southern California!
“Silver-white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things!”
See how easy it is to change the look of this gallery wall space by just changing a few pictures and rearranging a few things? I am already excited about what to do on this picture wall next year: celebrate life and inspire new adventures!
Thank you so much Samsung for sponsoring our TV picture wall makeover! You can learn more about the Frame TV here, which will be $200 off the 55” and 65” sizes, in-store and online from now through 12/30. We truly love this TV: it has really great image and sound qualities, and the Art Mode function when the TV is off is just amazing.
Hope you enjoyed our TV wall before and after! We are so looking forward to sharing our new living room TV gallery wall with our guests this holiday and beyond!
Here’s a little gift of winter decor for you: giant 3D snowflakes tutorial and free templates!
Wish you all a beautiful holiday season so merry and bright!
Hi sorry if you mentioned it but can you tell me the size of your tv. Thanks
hi! it’s 55″
What a wonderful creative idea for your TV Room, etc.
This is sooooo gorgeous! I have been wanting a Frame for over a year now and this just completely confirmed why! I love how you switch it up with the seasons too! Pinning!!!
oh thank you kim! i could just imagine all the beautiful things you would do with it! 🙂
interesting ideas. I do have to say, as a person who screens tv repairs. These are absolutely fantastic televisions. Samsung televisions in general are pretty nice. I know I would purchase a Samsung before most other brands. So kudos on the brand and design choices. Very inspiring.
Love all the ideas. I been up cyclin cardboard and boxes for some time mine is usually with photo paper love this idea too.
You did an amazing job!! Wow! Can’t believe that I have never heard about this Frame TV, looks so great!! The transformation is so stunning!! This TV wall may make me want to sit in front of TV hours. Thank you for sharing! I love it!
Brilliant and beautiful!
This is glamorous with a personal touch, I love it. Thanks for sharing and I can assure you i took note.
Oh wow this looks amazing! What a creative way to liven up a room! I definitely want this in my own house someday.
That is such a great and elegant television. I love Samsung product, especially phone and TV. And I love the smart decoration too. Thanks for your sharing.
This looks absolutely gorgeous, and so adaptable. You really are incredibly clever to think of doing things like this.
May I ask how you managed to hide the hanging wire from the tv? You can’t have relocated the socket under the tv (I think), and it can’t be sunk into the wall and plastered over, can it?
hi lesley, yes there was a smaal hole in the drywall behind the screen already, which we were able to get the power cord through and out at the bottom. the rest are hidden behind the bench and plants. 🙂
You shouldn’t hide the power chord or Samsung one connect in a finished wall. Neither of the chords are in wall fire rated. You can have an electrician move an outlet for power but will need a fire shielded conduit installed by an electrician to hide the one connect cable. If you look at any of the Samsung tv install instructions, the manufacturer clearly states the cable cannot go behind a finished wall
Wow, this decor looks so beautiful . I’m so impressed with your talent.
OMG. This is so freaking awesome. I need to decorate the wall in my room and this is so inspirational.
love the look of the wall! I think you inspired me to change pictures up and use more of a botanical look to get me through the cold winter months! thanks!
Ummm… This is unbelievably gorgeous! I can’t get over the before and after. You did such a great job.
I love the flower gallery wall! Its so bright and vibrant!! The winter wall is stunning too!!
That is awesome. I want the entire wall designed as is in my house. Awesome transformation.
Holy transformation!! This is incredible! You guys did an awesome job. I don’t know why I’ve never thought of doing this with my tv space. I would have to have a friend help me instead of my boyfriend though! He’s so type A, it would drive me crazy lol!
This is too cool! TVs are usually such an eyesore when they’re not being used but you’ve totally transformed yours into its very own art piece! Your set-up is absolutely gorgeous and now, your TV actually adds to the beauty. Love it!
I’ve never heard of these TVs, and I LOVE this! Having the ability to showcase photos while the TV mode is off is amazing. Your gallery wall turned out beautiful!
Love these idea. These tv wall gives so many opportunities to decorate everything you want!
Oh my gosh, what a transformation! You would never believe that’s the same wall. I love how easy it is to change out the decor for the different seasons as well. And I never thought about hanging a frame packaging to check the sizing and location, great idea!
I LOVE THIS TELEVISION!!!!!!!! What an amazing idea! I need one of these in my own home!!!!!!!!!!
You are so brilliant! Thanks for sharing friend!
karianne