To Hang or Not to Hang: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Photo Wall

We moved cross-country last September, and since we arrived at our new home, we've had a wall of mostly black, some silver, and many of them matted, photo frames. Something I've always wanted in one of my homes was an entire wall covered in different, but similar frames - chock full of poppy black & white photos of my family. Moving into a new house seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out this longed-for display. My husband and I took an afternoon and spent it laying out the frames (first on the floor) then hanging them one by one, carefully, onto the wall in our stairwell. It really needed something and this was perhaps the best leap of design-faith I've ever taken. My concern before had mostly been focused on "messing it up" and I was hesitant to start punching holes into a wall without a clear idea of the end result. I also had NO IDEA which photos I wanted to use. I mention in my bio that I adore photography. I truly do. It is instantaneous delight with the promise of more sheer enjoyment to follow in the editing process - watching a photo, a real life moment, captured and tweaked until you have frozen a memory on a print. [sigh...] Anyway (focus, Kate!), I knew a lot of planning would need to take place as well as great execution in order for it to look well done. After getting the frames on the wall (the largest houses a 20x30 inch print of our youngest daughter, the smallest a 4x5 print of all 3 girls) nothing happened. I didn't do a single thing with that wall for nearly 4 months. Finally, our tax return in hand, I made the decision that it was time to select which prints I wanted, and step by step, this is what we did:

1. I took a photo of the frame-only wall with my iPhone (I never used to be an Apple fan, because I LOVE Google products and it is also annoying to not be able to view flash websites on the phone, but honestly, this is the best phone I've owned, hands-down), then referenced it when making a very rough mock-up of print sizes and placement in PSE:

 

2. I surveyed how many prints I needed, what sizes I needed, and how many landscape/portrait prints I needed for each size.  Husband pointed out that I could have dragged & dropped my photo choices into the actual photograph of the frames-only wall, and yes, yes I could have. It didn't occur to me at the time, and I would still have needed to know sizes, so my mock-up worked for my needs. Take note of the two mirrors hanging on the wall as well, a nice touch, I thought. Blank spaces will be filled in with random personal objects of a yet undetermined nature. I like to spray paint things. Perhaps something spray-painted. Yes, that's it.

3. I edited all of my photos to be black & white (NOT flat grayscale - I will link a post here shortly discussing what I mean). I guess I should also say that my final decisions on which photos would go on the wall, were broken down as diplomatically as possible. We have 3 children. Each got 8 photos on the wall as individuals, at several different stages of their lives. The 5 remaining photos were dedicated to group shots or an odd favorite. There was a mix 'n match of posed photos and candid, everyday types. 

4. I ordered all of my photos (I use a multitude of professional photographic print companies) and then rather impatiently waited on them to arrive. It only took 3 days and when the UPS man brought them to the door, I was ready to go! One thing to note, is that when ordering, particularly if you have large or odd sizes, purchase a print that is a much larger size with multiple photos in it that you can cut out, therefore saving money. I had a 12x36 inch print, which I could only have printed on 24x36 inch paper. So I used the other 12x36 area for a 12x12, 9x12, and 3 or 4 smaller prints. It came rolled up in a shipping tube.

5. As I took frames down, following my guide I had made in PSE, I cleaned each with a glass cleaning wipe & let them dry thoroughly. Then I placed my photos and rehung the frames. I worked on 3 at a time until I was done with all I could do without a ladder (and husband!). 

This is a photo when I was just about done with everything I could do on my own - 

Finished product is more than we expected it to be! I love seeing these photos! 

Sidebar: I know I mixed my historical literature/pop-culture references in the title of this post. But I just like so many things, I mean, why not smoosh them together to make up a blog title for something completely unrelated?