Gallery Photo Wall

We used to have a photo wall in our old house on the East Coast. The frames were quite large and they all matched. I appreciate a more "collected" feel instead of everything being cookie cutter. I like to find beauty in things others pass over. This photo wall definitely has been collected. I decided that I wasn't going to go out and buy anything from a retail store. Ok, I broke the rule on two of the frames, but it has been so long ago that I have no idea when they were purchased. Only one piece was purchased looking like it now does. All the rest have been painted and altered. It makes the look unique. It makes it ours. Someone could certainly mimic this, but no one could achieve the exact same look. You could come close, but you couldn't run to the store and put the same thing up in your house tonight.

My goal was to find inexpensive frames that had an interesting shape. I didn't care what color they were or what they were made of. As long as the shape spoke to me, I would fix the rest. Here are some of my starting pieces:


This photo makes them look a lot better than they actually were. The small, gold, oval frame is made of plastic. Plastic. Gross! A few of the frames on the wall now are plastic, but you wouldn't know from looking at them.


These two desperately needed to be gutted. The wedding photo is on regular paper from a printer...not a nice way to commemorate a wedding. And the paper cut out...well...I remember my Mom having something like that in our house in the early 80's. It was time to let it go...let go of the art...not the frame.


These three I found last week at a yard sale for $1 each. I really liked the shape of them, but I was also equally intrigued by the vintage postcards framed inside. They are really cool. I have a thing for vintage artwork postcards. Can you have a crush on vintage postcards?


This frame turned out to be one of my favorites. I replaced the backing with a piece of tin sheeting. I then used a magnetic bullnose clip inside the frame. It is the perfect place to clip little love notes. It gives them visual significance. It makes the note seem important, which you know they are. Somehow it has more meaning when it is on the gallery wall. I guess it makes sense. What seems more important...a gallery or the fridge where the grocery list is?


Of course, I needed to be fair and share the letter writing skills of my Kindergartner! This is the first note he has ever written to me all on his own. Precious.

So finally...drum roll please. Here is our completed Photo Wall...in Halloween style.


So what do you think?


Can you tell which is the frame that has not been changed?


There are definitely pieces that I want to tweak and move around a bit. I am not completely in love with it the way it is. I am however going to let it be until I change out the Halloween parts...then I'll give it another look.