I've always wanted a photo wall like this

I have always wanted to have a wall in the hallway of my home to display family photos in a "collage" sort of way. At our first house I tried to just start hanging frames in a random order all over the wall, using only one nail in the center of each frame, and it always looked messy. At our second house, I resorted to a picture rail in the hall, but it collected too much dust.

At our new home, I wanted to do it the right way! So what did I do? I sat on Pinterest all night, ha ha! I was actually more than one night, and over the course of a couple of days, I planned out what I would do. We decided to get all of the frames from Ikea so they would all match, & it would be easier to hang them since the frames were all the same thickness.

I copied a couple of tutorials I saw where they used butcher paper to lay out off of the frames, trace them, and mark where the nails holes should go.



Then, we hung the butcher paper level on the wall with masking tape (a two-person job), and started pounding the nails in. I decided that I did not want these frames tilting all over the place like at our first home, so I put two nails at the top of each frame to keep the level. Also, be sure your nails are angled into the wall, so the frames do not slide off if a door is slammed a bit too hard (I'm speaking from experience). Once the nails are all in, you can carefully remove the butcher paper & start hanging your frames.



After I chose my photos for the frames, I felt like it was missing something. I have a Silhouette digital cutting machine, and I have seen a lot of cool inspirational wall art sayings cut out of adhesive-backed vinyl. I could not find one in particular that I liked, so I purchased the scroll design for $0.99 from the Silhouette online store, made it larger to fit the wall, and added the words.



I got a really good deal on my Silhouette from craigslist, and I am really glad that I got that particular digital cutter. It hooks to your computer when it cuts, and the designs are cheap. There ae no cartridges to buy, and you can just buy what you want when you want it from home. It also came with a $25 download card for designs. I have had the machine for over a year, and I still have not used up the $25. It also come with it's own software that is easy to use. If you want to create your own more intricate designs or company logos, there is a plug-in to cut straight from Adobe Illustrator, which I have used a lot! I have the old 8" wide machine, but their new "cameo" cuts up to 12" for scrapbooking.