Photo Wall Tutorial & a Show & Tell

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Do you have a photo wall? Show us! I’d love to add it to the bottom of this post. Just submit your pictures to thediyshowoff@gmail.com. 🙂


Tricia from Boutelle Family Zoo has created a tutorial about how she put her beautiful photo wall together. Here is her post:

When planning out any big project, this is what I do.
I draw it out.
I include (rough) dimensions and sizes.
Notice the board and batten type material at the bottom.
That ended up becoming tongue and groove beaded board.
I never use these drawing TOO literally, as I have a bit of ADD and newer,
prettier, or easier ideas steal my attention.
Then I just move on.
It’s my curse.

The tools of the trade for this job.
1. helpful and very patient husband

2. air compressor (for beaded board portion)

3. level

4. wrapping paper (or any roll of paper you have)

5. contact paper cut into small thin strips

Laser level and world’s smallest hammer.
Disclaimer: Yes, this is my hammer. Jason’s is much larger and manly. 😉


My true “before” pics of this house have magically vanished into the abyss.
This is part way into the project, as proven by the beaded board that is already up.
{This is what my air compressor loving hubby did with afore mentioned tool.}
It was a life saver, btw. Very fast and efficient. If you don’t own one and plan to add tongue and groove beadboard, go out and rent yourself one. It will save hours of your life.

Here is the main part of all of the prep work.
No photos of this prep. Sorry.
It was like 1 a.m. I was a little out of it.
***
*I layed the frames out on top of pieces of wrapping paper.

*Then I traced and cut out exact size pieces, marking where the picture hangers were positioned.

*Then I taped the large pieces up with tabs made from contact paper.

*The contact paper strips worked well because they are not super tacky.

*They hold for the time being and remove without damaging walls.

*Once all of your paper pieces are attached where you’d like them to be.

*{BTW, this took me about 2+ hours, because I can be a bit anal retentive}

*I made sure they were equally spaced and level as per my tape measure and laser level (and the help of a very patient husband) 😉

*Then I used the worlds’ smallest hammer to tap the nails into place based on the markings on my paper.

*Once everything was level, spaced, and nailed I just RIPPED the paper and tape off the wall.

Voila!!!
Perfectly spaced and leveled nails to hang your art or photos from.

Please also note that the paper placement is not exactly the same as my drawing.
These things evolve over time, and I realized that these frames worked out better.
The drawing simply served as an aid to how I wanted to overall thing to look.
This was the first draft of the photo wall. Not bad, but it needed a little something.
See if you spot the changes in the next shot.

See what I changed?
Added “FAMILY” letters, painted empty frame and wall behind,
moved large frame,
moved “B”, and switched oval frame out for rectangular frame.


This is the view from the basement stairs looking up at the tree I painted on the wall.
You’ll notice that in the drawing this tree was on the top left of the drawing.
Like I said, things evolve as you go.
It felt too busy to have the tree there, so here it landed.

This is the view from the main hallway, which is 3 steps down from the family room.
Of course this is me, and that means that the photo wall will evolve.
It will change.
Things will be added.
Things will be removed.
Eventually this photo wall may stretch the full length of the hallway.
Who knows?!
What I do know is that I love the outcome.
We were in this house for a year before I put a single photo on the wall.
Now while that is a l-o-n-g time, and I would not suggest living for a year with no photos of your loved ones, I can say that it was worth the wait.
It is almost exactly what I imagined, and as my whims dictate, it will evolve right along with our changing family.

Thanks for sharing Tricia – your site is so full of inspiration and awesome DIY projects! I love your photo wall and all of it’s interest and art. Great job!

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The DIY Show off
reader
SHOW & TELL
Lyndsay – Life In Motion
Hey there! Here are a few images of photo walls….I have lots of them in my house 😉





Kris
This is our family tree.

Lyssa – Z Family

Amandelic

Sparkly*Bride

Sarah – Pewter + Sage

East Coast Suburbanite

Suzanne – SunshineandWine.blogspot.com
I love photo walls too. I think it’s nice to have a grouping of pictures, instead of random frames throughout the house. I’ve attached my budget photo wall, which I created with frames from Dollar General, Big Lots and Dollar Tree. The photo mats are from Dollar Tree too. I simply spray painted the frames to match my espresso furniture.

Roeshel – Evangeline’s Vine
My photo wall is in my office. After seeing some inspiration – mine feels a bit crooked and I think it’s ready for a “mini-makeover”.

DISPLAY YOURS HERE!
(submit photo to thediyshowoff@gmail.com)

Keep checking back – I’ll post more Show & Tell as they come in!
Thanks everyone!

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and taken from the D&R FAQ courtesy of beckysinluv:

Inspiration Pictures for Photo Galleries

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Young House Love also has a great video with tips.
Check it out.

Coming soon – in order to fix the feed, the DIY Show Off will soon have a new look. Unsuccessful attempts have pushed me to switch to my own domain. Thanks for your patience and sticking with it while I work out the bugs. 🙂
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