My wife's and my shared list of things to accomplish before baby arrives in November is...a little intimidating! Impending birth is a good motivator though :) This past weekend, while she painted the kitchen (which is being renovated by our landlord), I took down the mismatched framed pictures in our upstairs hallway, and replaced them with a much more uniform – and affordable – solution.
I like to think of this as the acrylic trend on a laminated budget.
I knew I wanted them all to look the same, but purchasing 13 matching frames in different sizes would have been too expensive. Occasionally the fog of pregnancy brain parts and I'm left with a good idea...
I started by selecting our images (no small feat – we decided to keep the gallery wall just to family pictures, since adding our friends would have easily doubled the number of photos). Then I edited them in Photoshop with the same action ("Hank" from the ABM Basics collection, which I'm not seeing here anymore, but there may be something similar). I thought this would help them all look related.
Then I had them printed – I wish I'd had the prints on hand already as it would've saved about $20! – and took them to Staples to have them laminated (about $13). Two things: the Staples associate I worked with pointed out that sometimes glossy prints can cause bubbling when they're laminated, which did occur but on a small enough scale I didn't mind. You can see the tiny bubbles in a few of these shots. If you want to avoid them, try printing the photos on matte paper first. Also, it would have cost $3 per cut for the Staples associate to cut out the photos from big laminated pieces! So, although I'm not known for my ability to cut in a straight line, I opted to do that myself at home.
(I love this picture of Kristie and her dad. We miss him.)
All that was left to do was buy gold binder clips. I used these, clipped them to the laminated photos, and hung them on tiny nails.
I'm pleased with how the project turned out – the photos are sturdy and well protected, and it will be easy to switch them out for new photos or rearrange when the occasion calls for it!
*This post contains affiliate links. Our wedding photos were taken by Love & Perry Photography & Films; see more of them here.
