We move a lot. So much, that I have become a bit of an expert on quickly making your house feel like a home. One of the easiest and most effective ways, is to add lots and lots of pictures to your space. Instantly, it makes white walls feel warm and cozy. This photo wall is quick and easy, but also cheap. I would love to invest in large canvases all the time, but since we move so often, it is hard to know what kind of wall space to expect in my next space (not to mention, I get bored easily). I have a few gorgeous (and rather large) canvases and prints without homes on my walls, I do not have the vast amounts of wall space that I did before. This project is a fix for this problem. I have done this one a few times, it is perfect for someone as non-committal as I am. You can make this project as large or as small as you would like. No matter what size, it is the thing in my home that everyone comments on. People will stand there looking at the random hodgepodge of images for quite some time. In some ways, it is the story of our lives. There are old and new pictures mixed together. Friends, family, and places that we have been.
I also made a little game out of it as well. All of the images are in color, except for one, so it is fun to hunt and find it. Sort of like Where’s Waldo.
Here is what you need:
pictures – I buy a lot of Compact Flash cards at Costco, inside the package they include 100 free 4×6 coupons. I save them for this project. You use whatever size you would like, squares would look great, but I wanted this project to be on the cheap side. Also, you can use as many or as little pictures as you would like. For this particular wall, it is 15 – 4×6′s wide and 10 – 4×6′s tall.
Fotoclips – I buy these from Photojojo. They are $27 for 3 packages. There are 110 clips in a package. I prefer to have more than not enough.
Thumbtacks – You can use cute ones, or clear ones, again, completely up to you.
Decide on the size of your wall. I knew that I wanted mine to be very large, but that I needed to construct it in smaller pieces. I laid groups of images together and played around with the grouping until I liked what I saw. Rach kept me company while I put this together.
Start to clip the pictures together. I did groups of 5. I clipped them together vertically to start.
When I had them clipped vertically, I would stack them together like this until I had them all finished. It saved some room at my workspace.
Then, I clipped sections together horizontally, all the images should be attached together by a clip. Only the insides will be attached. You will attach the rest together when you are putting it up on the wall. I made sections like these until I used all of the pictures. It is easier to get the pictures on the wall this way. Don’t ask me how I know that. Let’s just say, I learned it the hard way.
Grab a buddy to help you, it is easier for one person to hold and one to tack. Center on the wall as well as you can. There are little holes in the center of the clips. Attach the thumbtack through the hole and press into the wall. When you have one section up and secure, add clips to the edges and attach the next section. Repeat until the whole thing is on the wall.
There will be bumps, and it will not align perfectly. If you are one of those people that has to have perfectly straight and perfect, this might not be the project for you. But if you can handle some unevenness and bumps, then you will love having this on your wall. I do.
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