D.I.Y. Friday - Family Photo Wall

There is a huge trend right now for great looking photo walls. Whether it be a look down memory lane or recent pictures, everyone wants a put together look. Something like you'd find at Pottery Barn, and I was no different. As a somewhat, History major, history buff, family stories finder, legacy looker, geneology fan I knew I had to create a photo wall with my husband and I's family history. It really started when we were planning our wedding and I decided it'd be a great idea to have pictures of our parents' and grandparents' wedding pictures on a table at our wedding. Something about showing the long line of love that we came from, yeah yeah sappy I know. So thats when I started collecting the photographs and since then I've found a few more. Since the majority of old photographs are in black and white I went with that style and recreated b&w's for those photos that were in color. I grabbed some great black frames and various white matts at good old Wal-Mart and we were on our way. I found the perfect quote in vinyl lettering on ebay from awristacrafts and had our last name's initial cut from Woodland Manufacturing. This way I was able to select the exact size, color and font for the letter!

Now that I had all of the photos, frames, my letter and quote it was time to layout my wall. First I laid everything out on the floor so that I could figure out exactly how I wanted the items to look. Then I cut magazine pages to match the sizes of my items. The magazines would represent my frames and I would be able to tape them on the wall without the fear of messing up my wall if I needed to make adjustments.

Once the magazine pages were up and I was set on my design I began replacing the pages with the actual frames and items. Instead of using nails that would ruin my walls, I use foam adhesive mounting squares. This made the task even easier since I could just line my picture up and press. Super simple and easy.


Pottery Barn has great tips and tools for creating your own memory wall. For design ideas check out their "Creating a memory wall style guide".