completed photo gallery

Drew often mentions that he loves the photos I take, but hates that they are trapped on the blog.  I agree!  When he was in London for work a few weeks ago I decided to create a photo gallery in our stairwell as a surprise for when he got home.  Choosing which photos to use was the hardest part!

I started by buying frames.  I wasn't sure how many or which sizes I would end up needing so I just got a bunch and planned to return the unneeded ones.  Although I saw a lot of beautiful eclectic frame galleries on Pinterest that isn't really my style so I stuck to all black frames.  Once I had the frames I made paper templates of their outlines and started sticking them up with scotch tape on the wall.  This was great because it gave me an accurate visual of how the final gallery would look!

Even though I wanted a consistent color palette I was hoping to find different shaped frames to make it visually interesting.  This was easier said than done.  I did manage to find this cute wooden plaque at Michaels (actually it's a base for a make-your-clock project!), painted it black, then modge podged the photo on top.  The picture is secure, but will peel off if I want to change it someday.

Photos are fun but I also wanted some text printables to break it up.  I found this one and this one on Etsy that I love!  The best part was that they were quick downloads so I didn't have to wait for the seller to print and ship them.  I was trying to get this all done in the week Drew was gone.  :-)

Although I love all the options on Etsy I was also trying to keep the total cost of this project low, so when I saw this idea I thought maybe I could do something similar myself - and I did!  All I did was create the text in Photoshop, print it out, scribble pencil on the back, trace the text onto canvas paper and then copy over it in a fine tip Sharpie.  Certainly not perfect, but great for this spot.

I also knew that I wanted to incorporate the kids' silhouettes somehow.  I love, love silhouettes and had been waiting for a reason to do some!  I'll do a separate post soon on how these were done (it was simple).

So, finally after a few days of planning and a lot of hammering - it's finished!  And I love it!

Heading up to the 1st landing...

Hadley and Asher's silhouettes...

At the 2nd landing...

heading up to the top of the stairs...

This is one of those projects that really makes our house feel like a home.  I love having these sweet kiddos to look at every time I climb the stairs (which, because of the sweet kiddos is, like, 183x a day - ha!).

Happy weekend, friends!