A Blank Slate

We moved into our house a year and a half ago. Since then, I've been staring at this blank wall pondering what to do with it.

I knew I wanted to fill it with photos.....photos of my family, photos of my everyday, photos of my experiences. But the exact "how" was where I was struggling. I thought about filling the wall with nothing but square instagram photos. I thought about making a collage of frames of all different colors and sizes. I thought about creating 2 or 3 row of exactly the same size and color frames but varying the photos inside. I thought about creating a wall of canvases. But with all the photos I have from 2012 alone, I needed something more.

So after months of thinking and pondering and a little more thinking, I finally decided to take the plunge and go in a different direction.

I built three large black frames, backed them with burlap and will be filling them with all the photos I love. The project took me several days to finish, but mainly because I had lots of other things to accomplish in the same time frame. But if I had the uninterrupted time, I probably could have completed it in a day or two. And here's how I got from start to finish:

I decided to make the frames 72 inches by 40 inches. I purchased 6 - 10 foot, 1"x4" MDF pre-primed boards. I was able to get one 6 foot piece and another 40 inch piece out of one 10 foot board, so I used 2 boards for each frame. 

1. I made 45 degree cuts in all the boards. Although my husband owns a skill saw, he does not have the set up to make 45 degree cuts, so I had to purchase a miter box and my husband graciously agreed to cut all the boards by hand for me! 
2. Once all the pieces were cut, I painted them. I used rustoleum oil rubbed bronze spray paint. I find that spray paint gives a much more even and smooth coverage than a paint brush or roller.  I went through about 3 cans of paint to sufficiently cover the tops and sides of the boards. 
3. After the paint had dried (and do make sure that you are painting in temperatures that are >50 degrees F, otherwise the paint does not dry), I went about assembling the frames. First I glued the boards together at their 45 degree angles. Do this with the painted sides lying face down. Once the glue was completely dry, I attached L brackets to each of the corners. If I had a nail gun, I would have also nailed the pieces together from the tops and the sides to give the frame more stability. 
4. Next I laid out the burlap over the frame and cut it to size. At this point, it's fine to do a rough measurement and allow a bit more than necessary as you can trim it later. 
5. Once the burlap had been cut, I then hot glued it in place. I ran a strip of hot glue about an inch from the inside edge of the frame. The first two sides I glued, I just glued them as is, but on the second two sides, I made sure to pull the burlap tightly before gluing it in place. I then trimmed any of the excess burlap.
6. After the glue dried, I flipped the frame over and began placing my photos. Although the photos were randomly placed, I did want them to be neat, orderly and evenly spaced. I used small foam mounting squares to attach the photos to the burlap (the kind you can find in scrapbooking stores). 
7. I then attached the hanging hardware to the back of the frame. 
8. The final step was to hang the frames on the wall, which my husband graciously agreed to helped me with again! 

The final product! I think they turned out great and can't wait to fill in the other two frames.

I hope this little DIY project inspired you to try to something new and then share some photos in our flickr gallery!