DIY

I read quite a few DIY blogs and am always amazed by people's thrift, ability, vision, and follow-through...qualities I wish I possessed. During the day after Thanksgiving sale last year I bought a frame pack for $3 with the hope of doing a picture wall. Oliver always kind of scoffed at my idea and so it hasn't really happened - until now.

Oliver decided he was on board with my idea and we went to work Sunday night doing our own DIY project.

First we collected the frames from all over the house and we were considering using and then we talked about which pictures we wanted to display (because it matters if you're going for vertical or horizontal images). Then Oliver went to work laying out the arrangement while I traced every frame onto construction paper. I numbered every frame and every corresponding paper frame so we would know what went where.

I not only created every frame out of construction paper, but I also marked where the nail holes are by poking a hole through the construction paper. We have had several experiences where the nails are level on the wall but the actual nail holes in the frame aren't level (it might have led to an argument or two). After getting the concept put together on the floor - we measured and taped up the mock frames on the wall. I then nailed the holes right into the construction paper that would hang the frames.

The last part was the easiest - just change out the paper for the numbered frame.

Once we had all the frames up we still hadn't decided exactly what we wanted to hang. I spent the afternoon going through our external hard drive and picking pictures to display. After a quick upload to Costco, an hour wait, and $4.99 to print our DIY project is complete!

I still need to put sticky tack behind the corner or every frame after I level it so they don't move when I dust them and we aren't loving the hole at the top so we might move 2 5x7s up and have 4 4x6s at the bottom. But it looks great and was a cheap upgrade since we had everything on hand except for $5 to print a few pictures.