My Biggest Design Challenge...A Teenager's Gallery Wall

About 2 weeks ago, I started planning a "gallery wall" for my teenage son's r/c flying awards...mostly plaques and a set of unusual cane knives.  You can read that post here.

For the past few years, he has flown his planes in aerobatic flying competitions around the country and has accumulated a collection of awards and trophies.

Recently, while he was away at a flying camp/competition, I decided to create a "gallery wall" of some of his award plaques for him.  That's where I was two weeks ago.  I asked for your help in deciding how to display the two unusual awards (cane knives) among all of the plaques.

You responded with some really great ideas on how to hang them horizontally, either attached to a wooden board/canvas or in a shadow box.  With my design plan in hand, I cut out templates for the awards from some brown packing paper and stuck them on the wall with painter's tape to make sure that they would be level and centered before creating a bunch of nail holes in the wall.

I ultimately decided to hang the cane knives vertically (husband advice) with the plaques surrounding them.  This is what it looked like when I was finished.

I added a little vintage flair in there with an old Ford hubcap.  I thought it needed a little of "Mom's touch" to make it interesting, ha!

I had plans for this wall a few months ago.  I wanted to hang some of my vintage wall decor with a set of distressed shutters.  I had already started to plan my "vintage" area.  I centered it around a cottage style white cabinet that holds our family's medical supplies.  I bought a vintage "eye chart calender" from decor steals (WUSLU) to hang on the side of the cabinet and placed my small glass conservatory on top of the cabinet.

But, as usual, mom's plans were changed by her children.  My "vintage" wall turned into the teenager's award wall.

My son is now home from his summer camp/competition.  What did he think of his new award "gallery wall"?  He loved it...except for two things:
  1. he was appalled that I arranged the plaques by size instead of by competition date.  Yes, he wanted the small "NATS" plaque beside the large "NATS" plaque.    He could not believe that I arranged them by size.  "Who would do something like that", he said.
  2.  I could no longer use the words "gallery wall" to describe his awards wall.  Otherwise, I would get "the look".  You know what I'm talking about.  The look our husbands (or any other male family member) get when we have to go back to the store for more paint because what we bought is not the right shade of green.  Yeah, that look.

So, after my teenager decides to rearrange his plaques by competition instead of size, I will end up with a completely whacked out gallery wall.  But....I will have a happy son with an award wall that he is proud of.  That's what really matters, right?