Photo Wall… FINALLY.

Chris and I have always wanted a photo wall in our house. Lucky for us, we have several walls that would be perfect for lots of photos. We thought about in our bedroom, but then no one would see that but us. Then we thought about the hallway going down to the playroom (which is actually just a basement until we fix it up, but it sounds better calling it a playroom). But we hardly ever go down there, and we never have company down there, so again it would kind of be a waste.

We finally decided that we’d put it upstairs in our landing area that overlooks the living room. It’s prime real estate. But for the past year, we have had a beautiful family portrait taken by the lovely Jenn Hopkins and I’ve really grown to love the simplicity of the portrait in the big open hallway.

SO WHAT TO DO?!?!?

And then this weekend we were sitting around our living room and I realized how much I hated the wall over our love seat. I’ve always hated that wall. For one thing, it is enormous and the love seat is tiny. For another, when we hung the painting that hangs above it, we hung it too high. For over a year since we moved it, I have stared at that darn wall and thought, “That painting and couch are too small and that DAMN PAINTING IS HUNG TOO HIGH!”

Saturday, I was sitting around the kitchen, flipping though the ads for all the mega weekend Christmas sales and what should fall into my little lap than a Michael’s flier advertising 70% off frames! So right there on the spot at 8:00 that night, I ran up to Michaels and bought me some frames!

I came home and after we put the kids down, Chris and I laid out different arrangements for the photo wall on the floor in front of our love seat wall.

By the time we finished, it was 11:00 at night, but we decided to just keep going send hang all our frames right then. We hung them without pictures so that we could see the frames on the wall and get a better idea of if we’d like it. After a few seconds, we instantly knew we loved it.

The next morning I filled the frames with a montage of portraits from the great Jenn Hopkins Photography.

We have had these two huge portraits of the kids for six months. They were taken at their daycare by a family photographer who comes once a year to take candid shots of the kids (with our permission, of course). I love them because they are so natural and real, but we haven’t had frames for them so they have sat in a box on our desk this whole time. I’m so glad to get them up.

I can’t tell you what a difference it makes in our living room. The entire area just looks more homey and cozy.  The last thing I want to get for this wall are black wooden letters that say family to hang in the center over it all.  I think that would tie it all together.

Now all we need is the crown molding. And the built-in bookshelves. And the curtains. Ahhh… a homeowner’s work is never done.