Thrift Find: My Marvelous, Magnificent, Majestic Letter M Wall

When you have a last name like Mickalonis, a few things start to happen.

For starters, people always ask if you are Greek.

(I’m not. The origin of my name is Lithuanian.)

After a while, you stop noticing when people mispronounce your name.

Because that happens so often.

And you start seeing decorative letter M’s pop up when you are shopping at Goodwill.

I already had a giant metal M that was the focal point of my office. And a medium-sized metal M hanging in my bedroom. After about the second or third time seeing different letter M’s at Goodwill, I got a brilliant idea to put my M’s together and start collecting a few more for a gallery wall.

Then, I found the perfect spot on the little wall between my kitchen and family room.

After that, it was just a matter of time and a little bit of patience to collect enough M’s to fill my wall. It took a few months to find them all, but every time I spied a Letter M on the shelf at Goodwill, I knew I was one letter closer to my goal.

When I had collected enough M’s, I laid them all out on a table to see how they would look together on the wall. I played around with the design a little bit until I liked it. You really can’t get this part wrong. It’s your awesome gallery wall. When it looks good to you, it’s good to go!

Next, I painted the M’s that didn’t match my decor. The wonderful thing about a project like this is it doesn’t matter what material your letters are made from. Wood, metal, ceramic, even plastic letters can all be painted to match your home.

I liked the industrial look of the silver M’ so I left them as is. But I painted the other ones in different shades of blue to match my kitchen decor.

For the final M, I used a paper towel to dab on all of the leftover paint instead of painting it one color with a brush. The blues blended together to create new shades and the paper towel created an interesting textured look. You can also try a similar paint dabbing technique with a sponge or a wad of plastic wrap.

Finally, it was time to hang all of the M’s on the wall. I love how it turned out!

If you would like to make a gallery wall featuring your initials, go for it! It might take some time to find enough letters, but that’s a great reason to keep going back to Goodwill!