.png)
Picture Perfect: 5 Simple Steps
Thanks to Pinterest, everyone has these HGTV-worthy ideas about having picture walls and pictures collages all over their homes. However, it's not as easy as nailing some frames on the wall.
With picture walls, there are a bagillion ways to make it your own, besides your own photos, duh. More than just photos, this wall can include some plaques, paintings, hand lettering art, or even your kid's framed artwork! Display your personality, display your family, pets, and loved ones in style!
1. Include a Variety of Sizes
By mixing up the sizes of your photos, you are automatically adding character to your photo wall. It's not uniform, it's not in a single row, and the photos don't all match. Have some 8x10 photos as wall highlights, and add smaller sizes like 5x7 and 4x6 photos to balance out a large central photo.
Printing digital photos has become mega easy, thanks to apps like Shutterstock, or save photos on a USB drive and print them from Walgreens to save on shipping costs. This way, you get to choose which photos are large, small, and you can even make your photos black and white, add frames, and create filters for your photos. It's easy, simple, and convenient.
2. Play Around with Frames
This is not the time to play it safe with boring frames. Yes, use what you may have around the house (if you're like me, you always have extra picture frames!), but repurpose old frames by painting them or antiquing them to add texture to your wall.
Texture isn't just the way things feel, but texture to your photo wall will create depth and personality. Use some simple frames, but use bold frames too! In my photo wall, I stuck with a color palatte so the wall matched my decor, but I used a variety of frames in different materials and patterns.
HomeGoods, Marshalls, and Kohls all have great frames on sale ALL the time. If you're running low on extra frames or want to add some more color to your wall, check out the home decor departments for clearance and sale-priced frames! Which brings me to my next point...
3. More Than Just Pictures
Think outside the box. Yes, a picture wall is traditionally just that: a wall of pictures. But by adding some plaques, wooden decor, or other crafty odds and ends, your photo wall can transform into something more. It speaks volumes about your family dynamic and personality to have cute wooden box plaques or handlettering artwork that means something to you.
My fiancee and I have always said, "Love You to the Moon and Back." So when we found a wooden plaque that said that at Marshalls, we had to have it! It was $5, but means a lot to the both of us, and means a lot to have it displayed on the wall of our home.
Before we lived together, I had a photo wall that included pictures of friends mixed with painted canvases. It was a fun way to hang up artwork and every one close to my heart.
Kohls and Marshalls have great selections of rustic, chic wooden wall decor, or even shiny metallic wall art, depending on the style you want!
4. Lay It All Out
Before you start drilling holes in the wall, lay our your frames on a flat surface, the same size as your wall space. This way, you can play around with different layout ideas before it's too late.
If you have one or two large frames, center the others around it. Like the trickle-down effect, have your larger frames toward the center and use the smaller frames on the outskirts of your layout. Not only will that draw focus to your largest photo, but it will hang nicely on your walls.
I didn't have a huge space to work with, since our hallway overlooks the foyer. So for me, laying the frames out on our dining room table was plenty of space to play around with my frames.
5. Give Yourself Some Space
Going along with having a good layout, make sure you have enough space between frames so your wall doesn't look cluttered. Avoid having any frames touching and try to have a few inches between each frame. It will still look like a great collage of frames and photos, but each picture and piece of art will be able to stand alone as well.
The spacing around each picture doesn't have to be uniform, some can be closer together and some can be further apart, you just want to avoid having that "crazy-cat-lady-cluttered-house" type of look on your wall.
That being said, this is your wall at your house. By all means, play around with your design, frames, and spacing. Maybe you are Type-A and the frames have to be the same. That's great! Maybe you don't want any pictures, and want to use all artwork and plaques. That's good, too! However you want to design your wall is up to you - it's all about your personality and decor stylings.
Happy decorating!
xoxo - k
Comments