Even though our living room has such little wall space I wanted to be sure to still hang some photos of family and friends. However, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pull off a large photo wall like I did in our last two apartments. So, instead I created two photo collages. I picked up two 11×14 frames at the thrift store.
I think I paid $2.99 each, or somewhere around there. We spray painted them black, which we already had on hand. I gathered together all the photos that I wanted to include in the frames, but I ended up having too many so I had to pick and choose.
Using my cutting mat, rotary cutter and yard stick I started trimming and sizing each photo. I decided to do this first instead of figuring out a layout first. Many of the photos had plenty of space to be chopped off, which made it was easier for me to trim them to size and then arrange.
I used a light colored linen fabric to cover the photo mats that came with the frame. I simply wrapped the mat like it was a present and taped the back side of it. Once the mats were covered and the photos were all cut I arranged and re-arranged one hundred times until I found the perfect setup where they all fit.
I went ahead and washed the glass on both sides and reassembled the entire collages.
Don’t mind the crazy flower petals and leaves overlapping the collages. I’ll share the whole wall when it’s complete! I’m entirely satisfied with how they turned out though. I love the smooth lines and the mix of color and black and white’s. It’s hard to capture the color and texture of the linen background here, but it’s such a lovely backdrop to the photos.
I’d love to know how you all hang/share photos? Picture frames? Collages? Does anyone have one of those digital frames? I love the idea of the digital frames but I’ve heard they use a lot of energy. Thoughts?!
We have trouble with all of our pictures because we have too much wall space believe it or not. So all of our pictures end up looking dwarfed on the big walls in our living room. Even our bigger frames look too small, so I think we have to figure out a way to collage without it looking cluttered in one space. I’ve been having trouble with the space since we bought the house!
Em – I hear ya. I totally stress out at TOO much wall space. Our last place had massive walls and high ceilings and we were able to get away with a collage there. (For some reason I can’t find a photo of it for the life of me.)
I tried to focus the frame collage on a wall that some sort of furniture was against. Our collage was hung above our couch, that way it didn’t look lost and floating. Though, you might have windows or other items in the way. Just a thought though, hope it helps!