From Photocrafting to Displaying

We all love our photos so sometimes our photocrafting project is simply the challenge of displaying our photos. We can make calendars and books but what about taking advantage of the walls in our homes? Maybe you’ve framed your favorites or maybe you’ve turned the photos into canvases or even palettes. Shel loves photos that she wants to see regularly but she has limited table space and not a lot of wall space. (She’s also determined not to have things look cluttered). Shel started with two sets of photos she wanted to put on her wall. One set was the photos of her family she loves and the other was some photos from a trip to Kauai.. How does she do it?

A straight-forward grid layout or gallery look is a familiar approach and Target even has a kit with frames and mats for 12 photos. That’s fine but Shel’s pictures are of different sizes and not enough wall space for a large layout. She knew she couldn’t go with something (a)symmetrical or very spread out like these good examples from Ideal Home.

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For the family photos, Shel decided to do a layered look. She put up shelves and hung the big frames (six of them) above the shelves, not unlike a grid. Then she set the smaller frames on the two shelves below. She was able to display 16 pictures in a fairly small space. Note she can change the pictures on the shelves relatively easily.

She also had three photos from a trip to Kauai and these were also different sizes. She only has three and the rule is usually to group items (including hanging pictures) in odd numbers. It’s the most appealing to the eye. The exception to this rule is when you have an even number of photos that are the same size and can be hung symmetrically. Despite the rules, she liked the sign so added it. It doesn’t follow the odd number rule but it works for her.  That’s a good lesson — ultimately there is no absolute right or wrong, you want the look that works for you!

I received a really special piece of artwork for my birthday and I want to put family pictures on the wall around it. There would be at least 3 pictures (though that would make a total of 4 which Shel would say isn’t good.) So how do I arrange them? Also there’s more space on one side of the chest below the pictures than on the other. I did one layout but Shel suggested several others.

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I suspect none of the above are the final answer. I will have digital photos so I can make them any sizes. If I aim for the same size prints, some of the people might appear bigger in one photo than in another. It’s a good chance that I’ll not have a nice neat grid. Ultimately I think I also want to rotate current photos in and out so I will use the layered look with some sitting on the top of the chest.

We won’t pretend to be interior designers but there are lots of good ideas available online. Pinterest is a great source for getting suggestions, e.g. from Clickin Moms. There are a huge number of images to browse. Several have layouts to follow such as this example from lushhome.com. Some designers post tips and tricks. In fact, Shutterfly (one of our favorite photocrafting sites) offers designs and tips in several categories: Big, Small, Photos, Art, Photos & Art, Framed, and Mixed. Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and JOANN can be some of the best places to find frames. All offer discounts at various times and all of those do custom framing. Similarly they offer the hardware to hang the pictures.

We hope you’ll give us some ideas that you have — and maybe some hints for what I could do with my space!

* P.S. When images include family and friends, I like to protect their privacy as much as possible. Many thanks to Unsplash and photographer Carly Rae Hobbins for providing the large photo of the couple in Shel’s wall of photos.