I love decorating our home … I feel like it's part of homemaking that would be easy to overlook, but one that makes a huge difference in the day to day feel of the house.

But I've been rather poor at actually printing and displaying photos. Oh, we have some pictures of our far away family members displayed, some from when we were dating, a wedding photo, and one from before we had kids. But few, if any, of the family we have made.

And that is a sad, sad thing.

I tried to rectify the situation before my husband came home from his second deployment. I wanted everything to be “finished” when he came home. That didn't happen. What did happen was that I hung blank canvases and empty picture frames on the walls, with the intention of filling them. But between taking care of the kids, all the OTHER house duties, and preparing for homecoming, it didn't happen.

Now that he has been home a while and I've had time to get caught up on the organizing tasks that had slipped away from me (I'm so thankful he helps out SO much around the house and with the kids to give me time to do the nitpicky things I want to do), I was finally able to do it.

Armed with a list of the canvas and frame sizes I had hung, whether they are horizontal or vertical, and what rooms they're in, I opened an upload window in adoramapix.com. And started dragging in photos to print.

I couldn't find all of the photos I had in mind (still recovering from switching computers in November I guess?) so my order wasn't “complete” and there would still be blank/empty canvases and frames. But do you know what I did? I ordered the ding dang photos.

Because perfect is the enemy of DONE. I can get the rest later. Adoramapix will still be there.

Even though I pinned tutorials for this before, I didn't reference them, because how hard could it be? That's why this isn't a tutorial. You don't need one.

Just paint the edges of the canvas, use a foam brush to put modpodge on the canvas, slap that photo on, and modpodge over it.

See? Why write a whole post with step by step photos, for THAT?

Actually I did a little bit of trimming with an x-acto knife because the photos are slightly larger than the canvases. (By like 1/16 inch)

And I didn't actually use modpodge. I used this because it is what I have. It was fine. But I said modpodge because that's what people call it. Like x-acto knife (mine wasn't actually x-acto brand). And Kleenex. And xerox.
So now I have some (large) FAMILY photos in the living room. Does that mean I can call it the family room now? (Oh and this is my sweet mother's helper, Haley, whom we will miss very much when she goes off to boot camp next month to become a Navy Rescue Swimmer.)
I'm going to order a large family photo print for the black frame too, to replace the anonymous birds and sunset. I have the photo and everything… Just need my credit card and computer out at the same time because the site I'm using (adoramapix doesn't print this big) doesn't accept Paypal.
Anneliese loves looking at “me! Riding my bike!” In the living room too. (See those empty embroidery hoops? They have projects in mind too.)
And one of my cosleeping/breastfeeding photos from a few months ago. Because really, these sweet moments are ones I cherish and celebrate. Why not put that on the wall?

And can you believe this “selfie” taken with my iPhone and edited in phototoaster (my absolute favorite mobile editing app) printed this large and looks that good? Technology is amazing. My first digital cameras didn't take photos this good, and now my PHONE does. #oldladyrant

And these empty frames have been in the kids' bathroom for AGES. I finally printed their bathtime/potty photos. Excise the towel situation. The “real” towels for this room are aqua but I guess life happened. (Sweet beautiful mis-matched life. )

And this is in the hallway right outside that bathroom, over a bench. I swear the frames are straight. The wider angle lens made them look warpy I think. A photo from the kids at their swimming lessons, replacing a family photo from when A was about 6 months…

And the pond one (my dad's and step-mom's front yard!) will probably also be replaced once I find a good one to print. It seems most of my favorites are landscape orientation, not portrait.

 

So there you have it. My latest decor DIY and homemaking project.

What have you done lately to make your house a home? What do you have planned?

 

 

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6 Comments

  2. I am also a huge fan of photos on the walls. It was one of the first things I did when we got our HHG. It made it feel so much more like home.

  3. Those pictures look great! I love how well our iphones work these days!

  4. Can I ask what sizes the ones in the livingroom are? They look like the perfect size!

  5. Glad I’m not the only one who’s bad at it. We have one photo from Sebastian’s 1st birthday in a frame, and a big canvas of him breastfeeding. And that’s it! We need to start printing and framing but it’s so overwhelming at this point!

    • Yes! You’re so not alone. But once I ordered the pics and got them up? I was in disbelief that I hadn’t done it sooner.

      You don’t have to pick THE BEST photos from the last x years. Just some you like, that you’ll enjoy when you see them on the walls.

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