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: