The Picture Wall: In Progress

Remember my big empty wall and my grand plans for it? Well, I've been collecting things for several months and I figured it was probably time to lay them on the floor and see how they're starting to shape up, as a group. (Also, Holly finished her picture wall and now I am feeling very, very behind.)

So! HUGE CAVEAT on this floor arrangement: I am going to swap mat colors (all white), the shadow boxes just have things kind of tossed in there and not arranged and the photos are placeholder as well. I also have five more of the skinny frames in various sizes on backorder plus I have about six of the fat frames already (also various sizes) so I have lots of stuff to play around with in terms of how it all fits and which photos go where. Mostly, I was trying to get a feel for how my items and frames looked together.

Even after looking at (and admiring!) tons of other walls with this kind of picture thing going on, I have to admit that for weeks now I've been really scared that this is going to end up looking jumbly and cluttery. In fact, for a while I had scrapped the whole idea in favor of a grid of nine 14"x14" gallery wraps of the girls' baby photos. I think I will still do that (maybe in our bedroom) but for now I am back on board with the collage look.

I tried some casual snapshots in some of these and they just didn't look right. The photos in here are all professional shots and while they're not from the same shoot they definitely have similar palettes, which I like to think contributes to a non-junky feel. 

The shadowboxes will contain Claire's Sophie the Giraffe with a photo of her as a baby with Sophie. As much as I like the idea of saving Sophie (she was a big part of our lives at one point) I am not sure that Sophie belongs in my living room. I might move Sophie to Claire's room or the hallway between her room and Charlotte's, but for now Sophie is fine until I find something else.

The other one has my great-grandfather's flight logs, which run all the way back to 1941 and include several trips into post World War II Paris with blood plasma for injured soldiers. They're such a treasure.

I also have a wedding invitation up there, unframed at the moment, that I'd like to include.

I purchased these prints, but I'm not sure if they'll go on this wall or some other wall. )Don't want to get too Texas-y all in one place.) (Even though I do have a HUGE thing for Texas-y prints from Etsy.)

Howdy Print

Source: etsy.com via A'Dell on Pinterest

 

And that's about it. A lot of thinking going on. At some point I'm just going to have to tell Chris to hang it all up and if we need to move things or I decide I hate it then we'll deal. (If that happens  I will also die inside because holy crap that is a ton of holes in the wall. THE HOLES!)

Comments

[Raven]

I used command strips for a lot of mine, not so many holes!

[Jessica]

I LOVE the wedding picture in the upper left.

[Elizabeth]

I love that you're experimenting--that will make whatever you do come up with so perfectly yours.

[San Diego Mobile Notary]

I love that you're experimenting! I LOVE the wedding picture in the upper left.

[Becky]

The Howdy print is really cute. And, I agree with the others. The upper left wedding pic is GORGEOUS. :)

[Lauren]

Chiming on the wedding picture, of course. Love it!

I wish we had a space for a gallery wall in our house. There really is shockingly little wall space in here, because every wall is covered with doors, shelves, and windows. Which is AWESOME in general, but not for big displays. We have this huge oil painting, and before we made an offer on the house we had to measure to make sure it would fit somewhere. There is literally ONE wall in the entire house that would accommodate it.

As for hanging, have you thought about using the 3M Command hook picture hanging strips? I am currently kind of annoyed at the hooks because two of them have fallen off of my walls in the last 24 hours (I was using them to do a baby clothes "clothesline" display for my SIL's baby shower tomorrow), but we used the picture strips for a series of wood block prints in our bedroom. The blocks were a huge hassle to hang with nails because there are five of them and they need to be precisely straight, so we tried the strips. Easy-peasy, and a year-plus later they're just fine.

[Sara @ Belle Plaine]

If it's an interior wall, then try the 3M command strips (as recommended above). No holes and easy to remove (I promise they will NOT take off paint unlike the hooks).

I love photo walls!!!

[mel]

Love the wedding photo, as does everyone else I see. My wedding photos STINK to high heaven. So jealous.

This is so pretty! I love the idea of mixing other "stuff" in, instead of just photos. I wanted to try something like that but the complicated angles of our stairwell gave me tired head and I just gave up and bought all the same frames and played it SAFE SAFE SAFE. Yours will look awesome.

LOVE the Texas prints.

[Belly Girl]

Oh, that's a genius idea about the command strips! I'm working on my own wall at the moment and hadn't considered that. Also, check out this awesome idea I found on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/172579385/

I don't know about how you view Pinterest, but it makes me feel VERY crafty when I'm not doing anything except looking at pictures of other people's stuff.

[Tara]

My sister helped me decorate my nursery (well, Eriana's nursery) and brought along some butcher paper. We laid everything out on the paper and arranged it how we wanted it on the wall, drew around all of the frames in pencil, marked the nail holes for each, then hung the paper on the wall with tape and nailed through. I think we hung about 15 things across 4 walls and had one wrong nail hole where there was a spot on the paper. :)

[Erin G]

I love how it's coming together. I like these picture walls, but I don't think I would have the patience or know-how to do it well and do it right like you are. In fact I might be coveting your determination and patience more than the wall itself.