I love adding artwork around my house, especially gallery walls. I’ve been wanting to add a small gallery wall in my dining room and mix things up. I’ve been dreading actually hanging the artwork. I’ve always struggled with hanging artwork, there’s too much measuring involved, every frame has a different hanging system. Plus, I hate when you finally get the artwork on the wall only to discover its all crooked. I partnered with PLOTT to give my dining room a new look by adding a gallery wall using a Cubit.

A cubit is a device that measures both vertically and horizontally linking the measurements directly to the PLOTT app on your smartphone via blue tooth. Once your measurements are in the App, you use AR technology to create your design and layout.

HOW TO USE A CUBIT

Measure Your Wall // When measuring my wall, I placed the cubit on the floor and pressed the buttons. The Cubit has dual lasers that measure both vertically and horizontally at the same time, giving you confidence that your measurements are accurate.

Below is how my dining room looked prior to me adding a gallery wall to my space.

Plott Your Design with the App // Once your measurements are uploaded to the app, you create a project folder to store your design and create a project name. Using the app you take a picture of your wall so you can begin your design and also snap a picture of the back of your frame. I found this video from PLOTT very helpful to learn how to navigate the app. There’s a bit of a learning curve involved in using the app, but once you get the hang of it it will change the way you hang frames to wall cabinets forever!

Time to Hang // After your design is completed in the app, you use the Cubit to mark the spot to hang your artwork

I love how my gallery wall turned out! It looks so pretty in my dining room! I’m so happy I used the Cubit to design my gallery wall. The process was so much smoother and accurate!

I love that the Cubit allowed me to create a beautiful gallery wall without all the stress of measuring and taking out all the guesswork. Visit Lets Plott to learn more about the Cubit and order one for your next design project.

Back in November I officially completed my bedroom for the One Room Challenge and I love everything! I’m so happy with how the bedroom now flows and feels. One of my projects for the ORC was finally hemming my Ikea curtains, in the process, I also took off the curtains & rod in front of my french doors. The whole area looks so much more open and hello more light!

I’ve had the IKEA AINA curtains 50x96 for over a year and for over a year I’ve planned to hem them! IKEA has several affordable options in various lengths and materials. My favorite curtains from IKEA are the AINA curtains, I love they are affordable, only $ 60 bucks for two panels and 100% linen which gives an added softness to windows. I also like the velvet SANELA curtains, great price point!

They looked at hot-mess and were far too long for my 8 feet ceilings. With a few simple tricks you can easily elevate the look fo Ikea drapes. Really you can elevate the of any off-the-shelf curtains with a few simple tweaks!

HOW TO ELEVATE THE LOOK OF IKEA CURTAINS

I hung my curtain rods high and wide to help give the illusion of taller ceilings in my bedroom, about 6 six inches from the ceiling to be exact. And six inches wider than my window, I like my curtain to stack nicely when open. One thing I’ve learned over the years making sure my drapery hardware is good quality, cheap ones can easily bend and often have exposed screws.

I love my Oversized Gunmetal Grey Hardware got from West Elm a few years ago. The drapery rod looks and feels substantial. I added rings to my drapery rod which helps give drapes a pretty look hanging from the rod + makes then easier to open and close. Adding drapery rings to your curtains gives your drapes a custom look making them look elevated.

USE DRAPERY RINGS // When using drapery rings, add drapery pins to the back of your curtains. Most IKEA curtains have a ‘heading tape’ where you can add drapery pins. Adding drapery pins creates a relaxed pleat look, without the fussiness of pleated drapes. If your drapery ring comes with clips, remove the clip so only the ‘ring hoop’ is showing, slide the pin into the drapery hook. I placed my drapery pins about five inches apart allowing for a nice fold.

HOW MANY RINGS TO USE // Don’t skimp on rings! You want your drapes to have folds, using too few rings cheapens the look of the drapes. I used 10 rings on each drapery panel, placing each drapery pin about five inches apart.

DRAPERY FULLNESS // The general rule of thumb for drapery fullness of 1.5 X the width of the window. For example, my window is five feet wide, so each panel needs to be at least 45 inches wide. Each panel on the AINA curtains is 54 inches wide, giving my windows are nice full look. When your window is extra wide add more panels so your drapes stack nicely when open. A pet peeve of mine is teeny-tiny panels on a large window, it looks cray!

“Adding drapery rings to your curtains gives your drapes a custom look making them look elevated”

HOW TO HEM DRAPES // Now that your drapery rings have been added to your drapes, hang them on your rod and fold to the desired length. Since my curtains are so long, I did two double folds and have my drapes slightly skim the floor. To get a nice straight hem, I iron each fold and sewed the hem. You can also use iron-on hem tape. Deep folded hems look more custom than tiny folded hems.

STEAM YOUR DRAPES // This is huge! Steam those wrinkles out of your drapes once hung! I use this Oh Joy! steamer to stream my drapes and it works great on clothing.