A couple of weeks ago, I started turning a stash of family photos, mat board and old frames into something I could actually hang on a wall.
The wall in the stairwell, to be exact.
And, last week, my mom came over and we “put the puzzle together.”
We were dealing with a really odd space and a lot of mismatched frames, so we didn’t try to approach it with a goal of perfection and symmetry. Â We wanted to create something that was pleasing to the eye, but looked collected over time. Â We didn’t check the spacing with a ruler, but just put things where they looked good.
We started with the long, narrow frames, then added in the larger ones, then filled the arrangement in with the smaller frames.
And I love how it turned out. Â I smile every time I walk up and down the steps. Â I’ve even made a few extra trips just to take it in. Â I have more pictures to frame, so I’ll tweak it as I add in new pictures.
We also carried the gallery up the steps and into the upstairs hallway, which creates a nice flow.
This snapshot of my Opa in the South Pacific during WWII is one of my favorites.  He’s holding up two native kids on his shoulders.  Whenever he talked to me about hardships in life and his memories of the war, he always went back to those kids on the beach in the Philippines.  This picture completely captures that.
Here are some closeups of the other pieces framed…
…a letter written in 1896 that talks about spending time together in pre-Civil War Petersburg, VA…
…another letter written in the 1800’s from my great-aunt Marian to her grandmother…
…my great-grandmother, Epes…
…my great-aunt Marian…
…my mother-in-law…
…my Oma, Marian. Â She loved Shirley Temple and looks so much like her in this picture.
Since I do have a few more things to frame, I’ll make a tutorial on cutting mats and framing old pictures.
We’re still waiting to get to work on the upstairs bathroom. Â The snow, ice and cold just won’t stop, which is starting to get irritating, because there is a toilet sitting in my living room until the tile goes down.
The bright side is that the toilet is the perfect place to dry snow pants. Â Sometimes you have to work with what you’ve got.
That wall is so perfectly put together – I love it.
I truly can’t believe you framed these all yourself! They are GORGEOUS! Gosh, I don’t even want to think how much I spent on my wall twenty-five years ago . . . Worth every penny! Beautifully done Marian and Mom! 🙂
I am starting to get sick of gallery walls, but not ones like this. This gallery wall is perfect. I love the way you are preserving all of these old photos. They don’t belong in an album; they belong on family members’ walls for generations to come. I love the arrangement, it looks totally perfect and collected over time. I wish I had a bunch of old family photos like this. However, my house burned down when I was 9 and we lost everything.
On an entirely different note, can you tell me what type of toilet you ordered from Amazon? I plan to replace two in my house and would love a recommendation or some thoughts about why you chose the one you did.
We are busy making our gallery wall, and I appreciate seeing yours. Such treasures should be appreciated and shared! It’s really wonderful.
I will be very interested in how you mat and frame since I usually spend too much money having someone else do that.
And oddly enough, I would like to hear about the toilet also ! We had one start leaking this weekend and need a new one!. ;0)
Your gallery turned out so nicely! All of your photos and framed letters have such charming character to them–no wonder that you smile when you go up and down your stairs!
I love old family photos and the stories they tell. Those letters area also a treasure. My grandmother kept hand written letters down through the ages. She has now passed but my cousin has all of the letters and there were some from myself to my grandmother through my grammar school years, I wish I had the ones she wrote to me. You and your mother have an impeccable ‘eye’, it is hard to mix and match frames like that without it looking cluttered, yours looks wonderful.
I love your gallery wall Marian, the vintage frames are perfect. so very you.
Fiona x
Wow. I know you weren’t looking for perfection, but you certainly achieved it. Truly marvelous choices of images and layout. And, thanks for letting us see the chaos in your house, too…especially the toilet. When we were building our house, it took us a while to finish the bathroom, so our bedroom had a huge bathtub in it. It was a pain to maneuver around, but it made a great place to hang clothes to dry. Thanks again for the inspiration.
I really like the idea of using the stairwell as a gallery. I’d love to hear back in a few weeks on how it’s holding up though. I have a three boys and am constantly washing fingerprints from the stairwell walls. If I did this in my house, I predict a picture-a-day-falling-off-the-wall disaster. Did you just use one nail per photograph?
Looks great!
I love how you don’t have to have things perfect to make them perfect.
🙂
Love how you incorporated the letters along with the photos. Beautiful work!
Hang in there. Spring will come at some point!
The gallery wall looks great! Such fantastic old pictures 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Lauren | LB Designs
xx
Oh my gosh, how beautiful your gallery wall turned out. You have really given me inspiration for doing something similar with our old black and white family photos. I also love all the contrasting frames and sizes you used in creating your gallery wall.
When my husbands late grandmother had to go into a care home, his sister did a beautiful scrape book for her using all the family photos over the years. This is also a great way to use photos when space is limited.
Beautiful–the frames, the pictures, the gallery wall, everything. And so meaningful.
Love the gallery of pictures. I need to do that for sure. They are all under my bed in a box. Some I really don’t know who they are but they are relatives. Thanks for getting us motivated to do the same things with our old pictures.
Loved what you did Marian. Think I have to revisit my wall.lol What I would like to frame is
a WWII letter from my father in law to his wife about what they wanted to do after the war.
He drew a picture of a house and two stick figures of a boy and girl. Their dreams came
true.
Wouldn’t it be a dream come true if you could find those little Asian children now adults?
Your wall of framed photos made me smile, too. Your great grandma was a beauty!
Love the family wall of photo’s! What a wonderful story it tells about family. I also appreciate your photo of less than perfect living room….. I just cleaned my dining room and was so happy with it being pretty again instead of a workspace. And then I unloaded my car with boxes from the church winter to Spring decor change out. Here we go again….
I’m such a picture person and used to have tons of them hanging everywhere in my previous home. Awesome was the 12 foot living room wall that was covered floor to ceiling. Sadly my current home doesn’t have massive wall space. The best trick I learned for hanging pix (or any decor) is to cut out the picture size on newspaper and then arrange the paper pictures on the wall with tiny bits of tape to get a sense of balance and overall look. Makes hanging the real ones so much easier and faster, and you always get the nails in the correct place. Then just pull off the newspaper.
I love your gallery Marian! May I suggest that you need a large “P” to hang among them painted/antiqued in your fav color. Yup, I like large initials, too!
Love how the gallery wall turned out!
…Especially how all those wooden and gilded frames play with the wooden rail and stairs/floors.
Its turning out great! I love all the beautiful photos. It’s so sweet. The rain and snow and ice hasn’t stopped here either. I’m hoping it turns into sunshine soon for both of us!
xo Ashley
pennypickedrevival.com
Marian – your wall is truly a wonder wall!! I’ve done something similar in my stairwell and I add to it every now and then. Old pcs and new pics. The letters you have are an added bonus. You are so lucky to have them. My only suggestion would have been to have all your name-sakes together so you could see the family resemblance. You definitely look alike! Love it!
Everything you put together is beautiful. Your great grandmother was very beautiful and your Oma, Marian is adorable. Her smile is very much like yours. Did you scan all your documents and make a cd while you were working on this project? My family has been going through all the pictures my 95 year old Mother left behind when she passed away last year. So many family members wanted copies, so we are working on scanning and making cd’s for everyone. When we finish we are dividing the originals. Sad and happy work filled with lots of laughter and many, many tears.
Wow! The gallery wall looks amazing. I love old family pictures like these. I can see resemblance of you in the picture of your Aunt. What a fun project for you and your mom to do together! Thanks so much for sharing.
P.S. I bought some MMS Milk Paint from The Ironstone Nest, and just received it, and am so excited to use it!! I have adored all the milk paint projects from afar, but now can’t wait to get my paint on 🙂
I love it! What a wonderful wY to honor your families heritage! You’ve inspired me to do something similar with my basement stairs (our basement is finished and the only staircase in our house) Yes, please create a tutorial on how do do the matting.
Wonderful transformation!
The framing and gallery wall are inspiring and I am looking forward to the tutorial. But my favorite part is the toilet in the box with the snow pants…just keepin’ it real…very real!
The gallery wall is very nice and its lovely that you have all those old photos…. but lets face it really I am writing to say I feel your pain absolutely relating to snow pants drying on the toilet/box of tile/ saw horse in the least desirable location
Can we get a spring day here people and put the snow pants a way already, can we
?! Sheesh