The picture wall

Back in February, if you might remember, I had proclaimed to the world (or just the blogging world) that my new project would be the house.  One sub-project was a completely bare white wall that welcomed our guests right as they walked in to our house.  Don't believe me?  Click here.  Quite lonely, no?  My idea was to create a montage of picture frames so that we could feel that our friends and family were always with us.

After getting the house painted green (ps - i'm still loving the color), I began to slowly collect picture frames that I found on sale/clearance or via Kohls coupon.  I scored big last weekend due to the Memorial Day weekend and so I knew it was time to get the project going. 

Probably the hardest part was picking pictures.  We have so many family and friends that it was so hard just to pick a certain number!  Rich helped picked out pictures.  We had to try our hardest to make sure that not only did we look decent in the picture, but that our friends did as well, otherwise we wouldn't hear the end of it when they come over tomorrow night.  It was fun yet exhausting to go through years of pictures but thankfully I had the good sense a couple years ago to create an organization system (by date) of all my digital pictures on my external hard drive.  That made this process of picking pictures a little less painful but really in the end, it just took forever.  And of course my sweet, sweet husband wanted to pick a million pictures.  Sigh.  Men!  :)

So here are some before/afters.  Don't forget to look at this picture from February's blog post so you can really compare.

Before - hallway, looking towards the front door

After - hallway, looking towards the front door

Now listen, I realize that it's not that many pictures but if anybody has done one of these of walls before you know how much time just this much takes.  Picking the pictures, matching them to the right spot in the frame, trimming it to make sure it fits, making sure it doesn't slide down, then aligning on the wall, putting in the nails and making sure it's straight (or near straight!).  Phew, I get tired just thinking about the process!

ps - I love that console table.  We used target gift cards from wedding gifts to get it.  I think it looks really high end.  It has three drawers with rustic detailing.  Love it!

Before - looking in towards the house from the front door entrance

After - looking in to the house from the front door

And this is what the wall looks like if you're looking straight at it...

We are going to create a couple more spots in the house for photograph frames as well but at least this is a start!  I'm really proud of myself for getting this project finally done and done!  And I love that we got all of our friends included.  :)

Ps - this is your friendly T-1 day reminder that Next Food Network Star is premiering tomorrow night!  9pm on regular tv and 6pm on HD.  We have 23 people coming over for the viewing/birthday party.  This will for sure be the biggest crowd we have cooked for.  Thank goodness for the crock pot!!

Happy Saturday bloggies,
~k