An Epic Gallery wall with ‘The Frame’ + Get The Look!

I’ve hung 1,364 gallery walls in my career, but none like this. Not even close. Timothy Goodman, the artist/illustrator/designer and I teamed up to style out a barge as a gallery of his work, with the help of Samsung’s The Frame. As you saw last week (check out the first makeover/episode of a greenhouse here) The Frame looks like a piece of art when not in TV mode, and it comes with so many options pre-installed with the option of hundreds more (including anything you want to upload). We no longer have to choose function over form, folks – The Frame is both and has seamlessly merged art and technology. I hereby dedicate a new international holiday to this TV – because the whole world will benefit from this artistic and technological achievement. It’s Christmas meets 4th of July, and I for one am celebrating.

Here’s how this episode one went down (but please read the first post that launched the whole series).

For this makeover we had a day and a half to execute and no one from my team had even seen the barge yet – just these photos.

Remember how I said that designing a space without ever having been in it is extremely hard? Well, times that by 10. It was confirmed a week before we were meant to shoot, and we had about 36 hours on location to execute it. It would be like if you were a chef, trying to create a new soup recipe, with unknown available ingredients, from markets you’ve never been to, ingredients that you don’t get to choose yourself, nor do you get to taste, cut, or combine them, or actually even be in the kitchen until the second it comes out of the oven. Wait. You are also working 12 hours a day on three other soups/makeovers so even thinking about what that soup should taste like is almost impossible, let alone ensuring that it is THE BEST SOUP EVER. I basically said, ‘I’m flattered that you guys think that I’m good, but no one is this good’.

So instead of turning it into a living space like we did the other three (2 of which you haven’t seen yet), we decided to work with an artist to create an epic gallery space, with no real renovation and only minimal furniture sourcing. We would take two walls and do something insane on them, showcasing Timothy’s original art and The Frame‘s ability to look like art.

Timothy was the PERFECT person for this partnership because his work is graphic and playful, and my God he is prolific and fast. You have to watch the episode to see how he pulled this off, but trust me that I had anxiety for him.

There is such a happy energy about his work (and him). Working with another creative is always fun, even if we are in different mediums and Timothy had so many opinions in a good way. I definitely didn’t feel like I was the only one making all the decisions. In fact so much of the makeover was up to him. For the other three the bulk of the design work/prep was either more me/Brady or 50/50 with the other influencer, but this one was extremely dependent on Timothy executing his ‘gallery’. He created 53 original pieces of art in a few hours. What does that look like? Well, watch the video and see it in action:

One of the best things, if not THE best thing about The Frame is that it looks like a piece of art. It can live by itself or mixed in with others for a gallery wall (both of which you’ll see in the 3rd and 4th episode).

In an attempt to make each one totally different, and because Timothy doesn’t have an interior design background, we figured doing a twist on the gallery wall would be the way to go. We wouldn’t collect a ton of art of different mediums that all work together. No. We would place frames with white foam core from floor to ceiling and wall to wall in the barge and he would create the gallery.

We brought in two big walls (flats that were stretched with canvas then painted white).

If you are asking yourself ‘why are we on a floating barge off a pier in Brooklyn, if we are just putting up two blank white walls’ you aren’t alone in your thinking 🙂 The whole campaign was about ReFraming your space and there is no reason why a barge couldn’t be a super interesting and weird setting for a modern gallery. It’s floating and cool, and that’s enough for me.

We first placed the The Frame, staggering them (5 total!) knowing that we were going to be filling the rest of the space with picture frames.

We mixed in all the different bevel options (the actual frame of the frame). As you may remember from last week they come in standard black or you can purchase the additional options (beige wood, white and walnut). Then we raided the local Blick Art Store and grabbed just about every size and finish of their gallery frame (around 120) which we brought back to the barge to layout and install.

Next up was hanging all the empty frames. They had foam core cut and placed inside each frame and then we just kinda went for it. Timothy also wanted to add these color block book shelves which I LOVED. We executed them by just using basic L-brackets (upside down) and covering the bracket with the bottom book.

We threw all the picture frames up fast – like within an hour using the super scientific method of ‘just go for it’. He and I had each executed so many gallery walls that we know the basic rules.

1. Vary the sizes, orientations and finishes (within a color palette) of the frames.
2. Pepper them all around evenly (aka no two small black rectangles next to each other).
3. Keep the “rivers” relatively the same – no HUGE gaps, nor too close together – but doesn’t have to be exact.
4. Don’t forget to have some large pieces and some small. Throwing up a bunch of medium-sized frames doesn’t create the tension or variety that we would want here.

Once all the frames were up it was time for Timothy to draw 53 custom pieces… on the spot… with 60 people staring and cameras in his face.

This isn’t an ideal situation for any creative person – to be clear. No artist wants to hear “Create! Art! Now!” but Timothy has done a lot of custom murals so he’s used to the pressure of it all and he has a ton of confidence.

He was definitely stressed up until the point where they just let him draw. He was worried that the building of the set, hanging of the frames and the general production process were not going to allow him enough time. But at around 11am on day 2 it was his time to do his thing and they didn’t stop him. He started on the left and worked his way around the room and man, he was FAST. Check out this time-lapse of the process:

I was so impressed with not only his talent, but speed and his ability to produce so well under pressure. He finished in about 3 hours, meanwhile we brought in the furniture and started styling out the space.

We kept the furniture similar to his style – graphic, playful, modern with an 80’s bent and big shocks of color.

The MELLO sectional from Article was the perfect ‘mod but masculine’ piece that felt early 80’s and the cognac leather helped warm up the space. The red chair was a rental and we loved how bold it was in a playful shape. If we had had enough time/resources we wanted to make this a ‘Big‘ inspired art studio. Yes, as in the movie with Tom Hanks. It was Timothy’s idea and one that I was super, super excited by. We did bring in some of those elements, but focused more on the gallery wall.

The coffee table is a solid (crazy heavy, in a good way) modern piece from DWR and one I would own in a second. The rug/yellow lamp and bench were from Ikea (how good is that bench?)

It may be easier to tell in the photos, but trust me when I say this gallery had so much energy and was really high impact. Yet if you didn’t know there were TVs in the mix, you absolutely wouldn’t have known. Timothy and I kept saying, OMG, this wall is selling these TVs.

Finally, there is a bridge between form and function in the TV realm with The Frame. The two can co-exist and tech doesn’t have to detract from a creative person’s home. It’s always been a fight, with one of the elements coming out as the main loser. So to see a piece of technology so seamlessly integrated into an artist’s gallery was strangely powerful.

While many of you might not have dozens of your own images to choose from like Timothy did, it’s true that you can upload ANY image onto The Frame. This could be your own art/photography, a friend’s art, your kid’s art, family photos… any image you want.

For this ‘art meets technology’ story we wanted to make sure to showcase not only all of Timothy’s pieces but some of the pieces from The Art Store.

So here’s the situation – The Frame comes with 100 pieces of art that you can already choose from that are free and ready to go. But if you want hundreds of more options you can subscribe monthly to The Art Store or buy them piece by piece which has curated works from artists around the world like Wolf Ademeit, Nacho Alegre, and David Wilson, just to name a few.

Here are a selection of our favorites that are on the more modern side.

Even better, these galleries will continue to add images so that in a year when you are done looking at one image or you want to shift your mood, you’ll have a whole new selection to choose from.

The reason this is so great is because:

A. Commitment-phobes can let go of the pressure finding the perfect piece of art, so go ahead and check that huge, mental stress box off. You can change your mind every day. Heck, every 10 seconds. This means you can switch out art to shift the vibe of a party, or maybe it’s seasonal. It could add energy to a room, or make it more quiet. You have so many options, at your fingertips.

B. You don’t have to be super in-the-know art wise to find great pieces – you can trust these galleries who are professional art curators to serve up some amazing options. You can search through using the remote, but it’s all in one place and you can test it even before you subscribe to the service.

Enough about the art – what about this TV?  Timothy is a big basketball fan and I know that many of you might be interested in the idea that you can have a dope game-day party in your living room, without compromising your style/design.

I think that gif just saved some marriages. Having tech-y gadgets has almost always created a design challenge. Not only does The Frame not detract from the room by displaying art instead of a black box, but the Art Store inventory actually enhances your room by giving more style choices. It would be like having a rug that you could switch out the pattern/color by pushing one button.

The Art Store inventory also means that you don’t have to feel limited by this years trends or styles of art, knowing that more will be released and that there are literally hundreds of options. I know this TV is pricey, ranging from $1,999 to $2,799 based on the market (although that price is competitive with other high end TV’s) but you are also getting a 55″ or 65″ piece of art, that you can watch the game on. If you are in the market for a new TV don’t miss this opportunity, it’s more of an investment but if it makes you as happy as it does me, then perhaps it might be something to consider.

A huge thanks to Timothy Goodman for being my partner on this episode. His work really made this makeover what it is and that pop up gallery was a huge success because of his work.

Stay tuned for the final two episodes – a boat house (turned family lake cabin) and a barn (turned Soho House/Lounge and Lobby).

I hope you guys are enjoying this series as much as I did creating it.

If you are into this look, here you go:

1. Yellow Table Lamp | 2. White Cube Side Table (similar) | 3. Leather Sofa | 4. Black Pillow | 5. Color Block | 6. Round Black Coffee Table | 7. Round Tan Rug | 8. ‘Emoji’ Print | 9. Paint Dipped Planter (similar) | 10. The Frame | 11. Surfboard | 12. White Frame | 13. Black Frame | 14. Natural Frame | 15. ‘Coffee’ Print | 16. Red Chair | 17. Red Pendant | 18. Bench | 19. Light Book | 20. Air Hockey Table | 21. ‘Make Your Mark’ Book | 22. ‘Logo Modernism’ Book | 23. ‘Sharpie Art Pack’ Book | 24. ’40 Days of Dating’ Book | 25. ‘She’s Really Special’ Print

*This post was in partnership with Samsung, and all my thoughts/designs and words are my own. Thanks for supporting the amazing brands that keep us creating daily original content. 

**Photos by Genevieve Garruppo – a very special thanks to her as she had only about 1/2 hour to shoot the whole space and us, with pretty challenging light 🙂 

***Video by Alchemy X, directed by EJ McLeavy-Fisher.

****The ‘ReFrame Your Space’ campaign is the genius of Barbarian. Thanks Peet, Lee, Joe and Jennifer for letting us do whatever we want. 

*****And thank you to the always wonderful Agata Helena for the beautiful hair and makeup. 

******A big thanks to Article and DWR for loaning us their amazing pieces for this shoot. Shopping blind from upstate NY with Brady was a challenge, so knowing that I could borrow from vendors that we know and love made it so much easier.