DIY Photo Display

I wanted to create a way to display pictures from our wedding and honeymoon without having a million picture frames scattering the house. Thus, this photo display was born.

In it's former life it was a sad, sad mirror circa 1983 sitting alone at the Durham Rescue Mission store.

Please note the questionable brown substance dripping all over the mirror. Gross.

It was only $5.99 so I grabbed it, figuring it was worth the price solely for the sizable frame. I put on my hazmat suit, cleaned the mirror, and removed it from the frame. Then I painted the frame a charcoal color, giving it two coats just to be safe.

Next I very carefully measured the inside of the frame (mine was 32 inches in height) in order to space out the twin evenly. I then tied little knots in the twine around a small nail. All of this was very precise and took a long time.

Then when I actually tried to implement nailing the tiny nail into the wood and keeping the twine tight, it was a FAIL. So I just grabbed Miles' desk stapler and went to town. At first the staples were rough (see picture #2), but eventually I got pretty good at it! How's that for super systematic, precise DIY? Moral of the story: do whatever works. 



I hung the frame before pinning the pictures up. Hanging tip I learned from my mama: the middle of a piece of artwork should be about 60 inches from the floor. I guestimated what that was since I was hanging the frame by myself and was strugglin'. 

Next, I arranged the pictures and clipped them on using the cute little clothespins. Something about shrinking the size of things just makes them cuter.

Here's the final product:

I made sure the color of the pictures was balanced overall (I didn't hang all the dark or blue pictures together) and tried to disperse the few vertical shots I hung.

And here it is in our living room!

I really like the versatility of it because I can switch out the pictures whenever my heart desires. You could also put little sayings or pieces of artwork or even magazine articles up there. It could essentially function as an old school, paper Pinterest.

Overall this project only cost me about $11 and a couple hours!