photo wall project

Our new home was built in the late 80’s, and for the most part you can’t tell. However, there are a few features that date the home. One being the open staircase, and the other this huge brick fireplace in the family room. I do love that the mantel stretches the width of the room, and I knew I wanted to do something neat with some photos there. I love some of the photo display walls I’ve seen around the web. Here are a few examples:

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The fire place is truly the focal point of the room and is very dominant, so I didn’t want the photo display to fight for attention, but I still wanted it to draw the eye.  It took me awhile to devise the plan in my head, but I finally did.  It’s finished now, and I love it!  Here’s what I did:

I had a ton of old frames (most have been in boxes for years) dating all the way back to our wedding 14 years ago.  I pulled out some frames of various styles and sizes and arranged them on the mantel until I was happy with how things flowed with my family word art.

Then I gathered our family portraits from over the years.  Many of them I have digital copies of, but some of the older ones I had to scan in.  I converted them all to black and white in photoshop, subtly added the year each photo was taken, and printed them–some at home, some at Walmart.com.  Then I grabbed some satin indoor/outdoor spray paint from Home Depot in my favorite colors and painted the frames.

After the frames dried, I cleaned the glass, matted the photos with matching white and black double mats I got at the craft store, and voila!  We love to look at how everyone in our family has changed over the years, and I love how it turned out!

And just FYI, you can find the vinyl wall art HERE.  Love these things–they’re so quick and easy to use, you can reposition them without damaging the wall and they don’t lose their stick. They’re also pretty inexpensive.  I also got some others.  Here’s another one: