Pinspiration: A Picture Wall

Do you pin things on Pinterest and think "I'm going to do that in my home one day"??  I know I do.  And I often just move on, forget about it, and rarely do I go back to try to recreate anything I've seen. (recipes are a different story)  Until now. 

I saw this picture wall back in June and I knew I had to have it, or something similar.  I loved the frames, I loved the entire concept!  So, I did some major investigating, stalked Tatertots & Jello's website, found where she got her "LIVE LOVE LAUGH and be HAPPY" sign, loved her "H" and the frames.  Turns out???  All too expensive for my budget.  DARN.

Source: tatertotsandjello.com via Emily on Pinterest

I didn't give up though.  I decided to take a trip.  A trip to IKEA as a matter of fact.  My BFF Erica, Cooper and I journeyed to the Cincinnati area one Sunday afternoon in June after church to see what they had in their picture frames department.  I purchased several picture frames from the RIBBA collection.

June 19: Once I had the frames purchased, I decided to send an email off to Chelsea to see if she had time to make me a "live love laugh and be happy sign".  This was an awesome move on my part ladies, Chelsea makes nice signs for a great price! 

It would be a couple of months before she could fit me into her schedule, but that worked out okay - because we didn't have family pictures scheduled at this time, so I was in no hurry. 

I measured the wall, to help me know how I could arrange the frames.  I kept this picture on my phone so that I could keep in mind how the arrangement could be at all times. 

I kept laying out the frames though, trying to decide on the best layout.  I did this oh, several hundred times probably...  on the floor, on the couch, in my head, and in excel.  (I'm a nerd I tell you....)  These are just a few of my ideas before I came up with the final layout.

Fast foward to July 27th.  My mom came up for the night and she helped me figure out what would be the final layout and final arrangement of the frames.  I decided where the sign would go, where the canvas with the "J" would go, but there were still a couple of questionable areas where I would put some other miscellaenous art work.  That wasn't determined until last week, September 19th actually.

So, I was just waiting patiently at this point, It was still late July/August.  I finally got the family pictures scheduled, September 16th.  We had a layout for the frames. 

Sometime in August I thought it would be a good idea to take some paper and trace the frames and put the papers up on the wall to see how I liked the arrangement.  (I got this idea from Tatertots & Jello)  You'll see a bit later that I did change things up just a bit in the final arrangement.

Chelsea was making the sign and I picked it up on September 9th. 

I found a place that would print the weird sizes of the pictures that I needed to fit in these crazy IKEA picture frames.  (if you aren't aware, IKEA measures things in the metric system, so standard sized prints don't often fit in their frames)  Things were finally coming together after months of thought!

Early last week, I asked hubby to help me start hanging the picture frames on the wall.  We got some of them hung, but we were still in limbo about the final arrangement, and like I said above, I did change a couple things at the last minute.  Sorry about the mess, we were also in the middle of painting our kitchen so the kitchen table lived in our living room.  (I often have several projects going on at the same time...)

September 16: We had our photo session with the entire family, I got the CD of pictures back on the 20th and sent them into the printer picked them up on the 21st and started arranging the wall.

The big white plain thing at the top is a canvas, that will eventually have our "J" on it, but late on Friday night, this is what I accomplished.  I broke the glass from the big picture frame too, so I was pretty upset with myself.  Especially since it was one of the weird IKEA metric measurements.  I was sure I wasn't going to be able to find glass to fit, and it would be way too expensive.... Alas, my BFF (Erica) came through for me and purchased a really cheap 16x20 frame at Old Time Pottery and guess what?  The glass fit!  Amazing!

I started working on the canvas on Saturday.  The fabric to cover it was purchased, the J was purchased and still needed paint.  So, three coats of paint later, a staple gun and fabric later, I hung the monogrammed canvas.

The wall would sit this way until Sunday evening, when Tim helped me hang the final picture frames on the wall.  That still wouldn't be the end, but we were getting super close!

Then.... yesterday in the mail I received the final piece, to go in that blank spot at the bottom between Steph's family and Cooper.  I hadn't expected it to arrive so soon, as I didn't order it until late Thursday night, but woo hoo, I love Etsy!  It arrived!  I added the final touch last night.

So there you have it.  Our new picture wall, inspired by a Pinterest find!  Thanks to my awesome husband who had to deal with me and my craziness when it came to designing this wall, to my mom for helping me figure out the "almost" final arrangement, to Tatertots & Jello for the inspriation, to Kerri Sparks Photography for putting up with my crazy family during the photo session, and to Chelsea for making this excellent sign!

I am in love with my new photo wall, now if I can only keep the pictures level during all of the craziness that happens at my house, you can see that they already look a bit disshelved.  OH WELL!  :)

Happy Tuesday!