Wall Space

I've been slowly decorating my house over the past two years.

But I still had a big blank wall going down the stairs

that I wanted to fill up with a fun arrangement.

 

So I bought a bunch of different sized frames from IKEA

and put my sister to work

unwrapping them and putting them together.

 

Then I practiced laying them out on the floor a few times

until I had an idea of where I was going.

 By the time I got the first one hung, it was dark outside.
So forgive the bad pictures.

When the 3 largest frames were in place -

I busted out these frame risers I bought from the Pottery Barn.

I'd seen them in the catalog and loved how you could

use them to layer frames on a wall.

 It took a lot of hands and space analyzing,

 but we finally got all of the frames hung.
(Thanks Adam, Mom, Brooke & Cindy!)


I tucked this little porcelain cross
into one of the spaces between the frames
because I knew I wanted more than just frames on the wall.
 This just happened to be the only thing
I had around at the moment -

So this was the state of things after the first day.

It was coming along.

I wanted to hang up a few other things to add interest.
 When I saw these adorable little plaques that say
"Blessed" and "Believe" on sale
at Hobby Lobby for $2.50 each,
I knew they'd be perfect!

And the final piece I added
was this pretty candle sconce my mom gave me.

All that was left to do was fill the frames.
I'm not going to lie -
it took me forever to do it.
In fact, the middle frame sat empty for months.
Months!
Ridiculous, I know.
I finally took it down the other day to fill with whatever I could find
because I just wanted this project finished!

I always had great intentions of ordering a large photo for it,
but couldn't decide on which picture to use,
so I never ordered one and the frame kept sitting empty.

But I got fed up with looking at this every day -

So I got creative with stuff I had around the house.

 I grabbed 2 pieces of scrapbook paper,

 and made a pretty back drop
for an old 8 x 10 photo I found of Adam and I.

 It was the biggest photo I could find,
but it looked too small in the space.

So I grabbed two 4 x 7's of the kids from Christmas -

and added them in to make a little collage.

This was the final product.

 I threw it up on the wall

and finally had a complete grouping!

It made me so happy.

I will probably order bigger photos at some point,

but this will do for now. 

Here's a view of how the frame risers

pop two of the frames forward.

Cool, huh?

This was my plain, boring wall BEFORE:

And here it is AFTER:

Again, BEFORE:

And AFTER:

For all you people out there
who are scared to hang things on the wall -
Go ahead.
Make some holes.
Don't let not having the perfect plan or
all of the right pieces hold you back.
It may take a little time to get it right,
but making unique arrangements with your
own family photos helps make your house feel like a home.

For a look back at other projects you can see from these photos,

check out the key rack here and the big letter G here.