A few weeks back, I posted about my desire to create a photo wall in our home. I’m not even sure where this will end up hanging, and perhaps nothing will get hung until after we find a house and move in, but nonetheless, I wanted to get a jump on it!
I originally thought I wanted to collect a hodgepodge of frames, but then that became more effort than I was interested in and really, can you beat the prices at Ikea? So I decided on the Ribba line of frames. We’ll be hitting up “mecca” itself in a couple of weeks, and these frames are priority one on my shopping list. So check! One step down.
Next, being the design geek that I am, I opened up Illustrator and drew a bunch of frames to scale according to the dimensions on the website. I added and deleted and arranged until I got something I was totally thrilled with…and here it is, my final arrangement – and shopping list! (Click image to view larger and see measurements).
The best part is that I’ll come in (although just barely) under 100 bucks for the whole thing! The only step left will be to narrow down the final photos and have prints made. I’ve decided to use black and white photos only for a more cohesive look…plus even the most amateur of photographs somehow look artsier and cooler when desaturated.
My initial instinct is to try and get everyone represented – every friend, every family member, but the truth is that it gets quite hard to find photos of everyone and there are only so many slots and orientations. I mentioned this to Page who had excellent advice – to just do this for us, not to please everyone. I am trying to remember that sentiment and also that just because every favorite doesn’t make it into this arrangement, that’s not to say it can’t go elsewhere in our house. And who are we kidding, it’s very likely I might continue to add on to this arrangement in the future. I’m not obsessing that they have to be current photos – some of my favorites are from a few years back. I figure anything from the past five years (our engagement, forward) is fair game. I’d love to do another arrangement with baby pictures and heritage photos from generations past…but that’s a whole other post and project.
I do know that not all of the pictures for this arrangement yet exist. My talented friend, Megan, of Megan Clausen Photography, will be taking some photographs for us later this summer, in exchange for some logo work I’ve helped her with. Megan is such an amazing talent, and there’s something to be said about portraits taken by someone who knows you. She is able to capture so much, so well, and I am planning that at least one or two of her latest works will be in this wall! In the meantime, I’ll keep sorting through and filing away pictures…
Those Ribba frames are great and reasonably priced. I have some of those in our apartment too. Much cheaper than the pottery barn frames that look basically the same as the Ikea frames. Maybe I’ll get to see this photo wall when I’m home in June/July!??
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