Family Wall Gallery

Adding things that are special and hold memories is what I love in a home. 

I've never been a fan of decorating with photographs/portraits pictures of family even

though I love every one dearly.  I just personally don't like lots of framed photographed portraits on the walls.

But I did want to put up all my dear loved ones and had a BIG space to fill upstairs.  My daughter-in-law shared with me an ingenious inexpensive idea that someone shared with her. 

The IDEA:
Take photos and have them enlarged to any size you like at a copy / print shop and mount them on styrofoam shapes.

So this is how I did this and more about the middle photo grid in at the end

I scanned my favorite snaps or portraits of the family and had them printed at Office Depot

on heavy paper in black white/grey.  Then I used a utility knife and my Carpenter helped

me cut one sheet of RMAX (the styrofoam board they use to insulate homes) it is about

1/2" thick and available at any home improvement store- into the sizes I wanted.  I used

mostly 12" x 12" squares but also did some other shapes like 7x9 and such.  Then I painted

the edges black (note note! you cannot use spray paint as it MELTS the styrofoam!) so

I used water based black craft paint.  It is not necessary to paint anything but the 4 edges (not the surface).

Then I used spray adhesive and mounted each picture to the foam board.  I used a stick-on

picture hanger and put a small tack in the wall and hung them up after CharityAnn helped

me decide on a grouping and how we wanted them to look after they were hung up.

Then I had small little gaping areas and CharityAnn had the brilliant idea for me to cut small pieces

of foam and follow the same procedure! YAY! I love WALL WORDS anyway...so I printed out on cardstock my words and mounted them on the foam board after cutting and painting the edges!  I am so happy with the way it turned out and it was so inexpensive. 

The foam board cost around $13 and I still have plenty left over. I already had the spray adhesive and black craft paint.  The pictures were around 10 cents each!! to print out at Office Depot and they are all large!

I had priced frames and couldn't find any classy black wooden ones for under $15 each!

Now the center grid was just another salvaged (from scratch) thing that just made me do the happy dance!
My big boys are working out of town remodeling grocery stores and one of them brought home this big styrofoam grid from an old display they were putting into the dumpster...I mean big!! This is only about 1/3 of it! 

They cut me off a piece and each grid is 6" x 6". I had room for 35 pictures! I have a BIG family and had room for

everybody!

I painted the whole thing black and printed  my favorite family pics and mounted them all on the back with tape and hung it up for my center gallery.  So it was pretty much free! (except for my paper and ink).

I am so happy with the look and love looking at all my dear family on the wall upstairs! LOVE them ALL so MUCH!