DIY Day: Family Wall Collage

I’m sharing yet another project from my best friend’s new home (you’ll be seeing more and more in the future)!  I have been living vicariously through her since she is getting to design and decorate her new home room by room!  We love to play around with her different accessories and framed photos. While accessorizing the master bedroom, we ended up with several items that just didn’t fit anywhere else in the house, but were still special enough to need to be displayed. 

I suggested she do a “family photo wall” in her upstairs hallway to feature all the special mementoes and photographs.  So a trip to Hobby Lobby was in order to get some new frames.  We also picked up some burlap to use as a mat in some of the frames.

 

Here’s how it turned out:

In the middle are two wooden carvings done by her husband’s grandfather.  That’s her two little girls there in the center both posing in their crib wearing daddy’s LSU cap!Hanging to the far left are their wedding invitation and the six pence she wore in her shoe on her wedding day.  The two shadow boxes on the right display some of her grandmother’s vintage pins (bottom) and a photo of her in-laws as high school sweethearts with their class rings mounted below (top).It’s hard to see, but in the photo below are her husband (as a baby on a horse) with his dad, and then their daughter (as a baby on a horse) with her husband (my friend’s husband, not the baby’s, that sounds weird).  It’s like the same photo recreated a generation and 30 years later!

I’ve done a similar wall in my own home, using all white frames.  One section for wedding photos:

And another section for photos of our extended family (it’s hard to get a good angle): I love the gallery feel this sort of arrangement gives.  When you have a large bit of wall space, perhaps in the more personal areas of your home, I think a photo collage is a great use of space.  Some people get all fancy and make paper templates of the frames to tape on the wall, but I usually just arrange mine on the floor and play around with it until I get an layout I like.  Keep in mind if you have a lot of frames of a similar type but all different colors or finishes, you can always spray paint them the same color to give a more unified look.  There’s really no wrong way to do this sort of thing, just whatever suits your own design aesthetic.

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Have you entered my giveaway?? You’re missing out on a tasty treat if you haven’t!

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Don’t forget about my upcoming Linky Party next week! Get those photos ready for our Throwback Thursday: Decorating Mistakes Party!  I’ll try to have McLinky up by 9:00pm CST on Wednesday night. Grab a button and plan to join the fun!