Photo Wall

[MarkBarbieri]

My current photo project is to build a banner of photos across the two main walls in our kids' computer room. The pictures will cover a 3' tall band and stretch almost 12 feet on one wall and 10 feet on an adjoining wall. The prints range in size from 8"x4" to 21"x14". All of the prints include a 1 inch white border acting as sort of a mat. We painted the walls a medium to light gray so that the pictures will stand out.

The pictures are arranged roughly chronologically. I used a pattern of different aspect ratios laid out on a 1"x1" grid. You can see the Photoshop version I created to work out the layout and help set up the pictures. The Photoshop files dimensions are life size, but only at 30 dpi, so that the file isn't too cumbersome to work with. The pattern repeats 5 times across the overall layout.

To hang the pictures, we're going to put use thumbtacks. We'll use metal thumbtacks in the walls behind the pictures. Then we'll use magnets on top of the pictures to hold them against the thumbtacks. It's a technique I've used many times before. It isn't an extremely secure way to attach the pictures, but it does allow for easy micro-adjustment of their placement, which will help us line things up. It also makes it easy to swap out pictures. It's not a great way to hang pictures that are really important. With no glass, they get more UV exposure than is good for them. I only use this on prints that I don't plan to keep more than 5-10 years. Because these are all our pictures, we can easily reprint them as needed.

I'm printing the first set of pictures now. My plan is to test those to see how well the concept works both physically and aesthetically. I'm a little concerned about the ceiling fan blowing them. If it survives the tests, we'll build it out over the course of the next week. I'll post a picture of the final results.

 

[klmall]

Looks like a great project; looking ward to hearing more about it and seeing how it progresses Mark!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

The first wall is finished. I'm going to start making prints for the second wall. I'm very happy with is so far.

 

[MarkLT1]

Looks great! We have a similar deal in our family room- prints of pictures and art pieces we've purchased on our travels over the years. We went a bit more an.. "eclectic" route, as we have some prints on canvas, some matted and framed, and some just framed, all of different sizes.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

We put up the second wall today.



Overall, it as a little more work than I had expected. Laying it out in Photoshop was invaluable. I made letter sized prints of half of each wall with measurements for where to put the thumbtacks. Then we used a level/ruler to pencil in the location of each thumbtack. Then put in the tacks and put up the pictures.

One important thing to note is that, to get the geometric pattern that we did, we couldn't use standard print sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc). I tried that, but they just didn't fit together the way that I wanted. I print everything on a 24" wide printer and cut the prints down to the sizes I wanted.

Also, I've used this technique of thumbtacks with magnets to hang pictures before. One thing that I learned is that it is better to use plastic papers (like glossy or luster) rather than matte finish papers. I love a good matte print, but they shift around in size as the humidity changes and it makes them less stable outside of a frame.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Looks great! We have a similar deal in our family room- prints of pictures and art pieces we've purchased on our travels over the years. We went a bit more an.. "eclectic" route, as we have some prints on canvas, some matted and framed, and some just framed, all of different sizes.

The rest of our house is more varied. We have a few wrapped canvas shots, lots of framed pictures, and lots of different layouts. Some are family pics and others are just scenic shots of places we've been. For this particular collection, we wanted it to be a collection of pictures of the family growing up and taking adventures together. This is the last year before we become empty nesters and it will feel weird to have that room empty. It was where the kids spent most of their free time.

One other thing we've done that I love is to put a 50" digital picture frame above our fireplace. OK, it's technically just a TV, but it is one that we don't use for watching TV. It just shows a slideshow of thousands of pictures all day. When I researched it, the LED TV only uses about 50 watts, so it isn't a huge energy drain. It is visible from the kitchen, breakfast room, and family room. I loved it so much, I did the same thing for my parents and they love theirs as well.