I was so excited to get family pictures done at the end of last year. We were long overdue for them and I found an amazing photographer to take them. We decided to have the photos done at the Dry Lake Bed in Las Vegas, and I’m so glad we chose that spot, because who knew we’d already be relocated across the country again?! Crazy.
You can read all about our photo shoot and see more photos from it here. Anyway, they turned out beautiful, despite the kids not being very into it. As soon as we got the prints back from our photographer, I knew I wanted to create a gallery wall with them. I never got around to it in Las Vegas, and soon after the new year we found out there was a chance we would be moving, so I held off on the gallery wall.
Well, now we’ve moved to South Carolina into a beautiful brand new house with lots of bare walls, so I made sure to get our family photos up fast before my husband hangs a deer or antelope head on all the empty walls. But seriously, ugh.
Where To Start
I decided, based on the size of the wall I wanted to put the prints on, that I would need nine prints and nine frames to fill the space nicely. I wanted some space in between the frames, but not a ton. I wanted it to all look like it went together and I also liked the idea of having them all lined up the same distance from each other.
Where I Got The Prints
I had read that Costco is a great place to print out photos, especially larger sizes. I decided I wanted 16×20 size prints, so I tried Costco, but we aren’t members so I wasn’t able to use their services. I also tried Shutterfly, Mpix and a few others, but they all warned me at checkout that the photos were going to be blurry. I highly doubt they would have been, but I didn’t want to risk it. Eventually, I decided to try Walmart’s online photo ordering. The size that I got (16×20) is considered a poster size, and they were about $12 each. I ordered them in matte finish with “no frame” and during checkout, there were no warnings about blurriness, etc. They arrived in about three days and actually turned out really good! I’m really happy with my experience, especially considering I was ordering and paying for them without seeing how they would turn out first. If you have high quality professional photos, I think they should turn out fine!
Where I got the Frames
I decided to get the 16×20 LOMVIKEN Frames from Ikea. I got nine of them and they arrived within five days of ordering. They were packaged very carefully and also had a lot of sticky protective coverings on both sides of the frames plastic to keep them from getting scratched. These frames also have a paper frame inside, which I decided to use because I think photos look really nice with them. Since my prints were the size of the entire frame, I was able to position them where I wanted them inside of the paper frame. I cut the excess of the prints off and carefully taped them to the back of the paper frame to hold them in place. I guess you don’t have to do this part, but I think it was definitely worth the extra time it took.
Wall Placement
We didn’t do any crazy math for this part. My husband asked me how far apart I wanted them and he marked a piece of cardboard with that distance and cut it. We then used the stock papers that were inside the frames and hung those up with painters tape, just to get a better visual. I’m glad we did before we started nailing because I ended up wanting the frames a little further apart than I originally thought. Once we found the distance we liked, we hung the frames one by one. Before we were even done hanging them, I was in love with it! I think it turned out great!
What do you think?! I love it and I’m so happy I finally got it done. I kind of feel like I’ve got my ish together like a real adult, though I definitely don’t!
