A Great Source For Gallery Wall Frames (And A Review Of Framed Artwork For The Home Gym)

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I’m a huge fan of gallery walls. And in general, because I’m a perfectionist, I like symmetry, and I like things to look neat and tailored, I prefer the kind of gallery wall where everything is the same size , framed in the same frame, and hung in a grid.

I give you Exhibit A, our way…

And Exhibit B, the water closet area in our bathroom…

I never considered the artwork I added to the entry wall of the home gym to be a “gallery wall”, but I think it is. It will be six framed pictures hung in a grid, like the bird pictures in the entryway.

So after printing the pictures in 11″ x 14″ size at CVS (an hour of photos for almost instant gratification!), I went to Michael’s to find frames. I know IKEA has really good prices on frames, but we don’t have an IKEA in Waco. The closest one to me is just outside of Austin, so it’s about an hour and a half away. I’ve only been there once. 🙂

So I go to Michael. They almost always have frames for sale. I need six 16″ x 20″ frames with mats for 11″ x 14″ pictures. That’s a tall order. They hardly have that much of a stock frame. After searching for a while, I finally found the perfect frames…

These are those Home by Studio Decor Natural Walnut Stain 11″ x 14″ Frame with Mat, and in the store, they buy one, get one 50% off. But as I expected, they were lacking. The store only had two, so I pulled out my phone, found the frame on Michael’s website, and bought four more.

I bought two they had in store, took them home, and stained the frames. I really like the natural color of the frames, and they look great in another room. But for our home gym, I wanted dark walnut to match my Walnut WaterRower. So using Behr oil-based stain in Dark Walnut, I gave each frame a quick coat of stain.

The frames took the stain beautifully. I thought they would because the wood in the frame didn’t feel like it had any kind of protective coating on it. I didn’t need to sand before staining. I just removed the protection, removed the glass and mat, and started staining.

And here’s how the first two went.

I love these prints (you can find them here), and I think they tie in nicely with the rest of the black and walnut throughout the room.

But here is what I want to share with you. Later that night, after I had stained the two frames I had purchased, I pulled up my Michael’s order on my laptop to make sure I had ordered correctly. And that’s when I noticed it at the bottom of the screen…

That is same frame that I bought, except I bought mine. And I even bought them on sale! But look at the price!!

I bought mine sold for $33.74 each. That’s $202.44 for six frames. And again, that’s the selling price. But the same exact frame comes in a “pro pack” of six frames for $121.44. And that’s it not a selling price. That’s a regular price of $20.24 per frame when purchased in a pro pack.

I don’t know why I forgot that Michael has these pro pack offers on their website! I found and bought a pro pack frame for the water closet wall in our bathroom. And indeed, I completely forgot about them this time. And because of that, even buying these frames “on sale” (ha!), I ended up paying $80 more than I would have gotten with their pro pack.

If I hadn’t stained the frames, I would have taken them back, canceled my online order, and bought a pro pack. But it was too late.

So I just wanted to pass that info on to everyone. Michael’s does not sell pro packs on all of their frames. But this is the second time I’ve been in the store, found a frame that I really like, and found out that it comes in pro packs, sold only on their website, at prices that are much lower rather than their retail prices on individual frames.

If you’re looking for frames for a gallery wall, I suggest looking there first.