Before and After: A Genius Holiday-Ready Gallery Wall Redo for Just $40

There are lots of ways to make charming decor for the holidays. You can go glam and give your home department-store-style, or you can go natural and decorate with greenery. Or you can do something totally whimsical and fun that incorporates your current decor, like Rachel Mae Smith did in her home.

Rachel’s gallery wall had been a project earlier in the year that she’d taken on to help her TV blend into the wall in her living room. (She created that by arranging and re-arranging art on the floor until she liked the look of it based on size and color, then painstakingly taping out the dimensions of her art before hanging all the frames around her TV.) But the stylish look has a couple setbacks during the holiday season, Rachel says. “It makes it a bit tricky to decorate for the holidays since there isn’t much space,” says Rachel. Instead of skipping decor entirely, she created a genius solution.

Rather than hanging additional decor, or removing her gorgeous gallery wall, Rachel decided to wrap each of the frames to look like gifts. She used plain wrapping paper in various colors she scored on Amazon, plus washi tape and ribbon.

After removing the frames from the wall, she wrapped each one in paper, secured it with washi tape—ideal since it wouldn’t damage the frames on removal—then tied each with colorful ribbon. The project cost just $40 in total and brought tons of holiday-ready fun. “I love how instantly this transforms the space!” Rachel says. “It instantly reads rainbow Christmas fun and is the perfect backdrop to have when watching holiday movies.”

Inspired? Submit your own project here.