Monday, February 6, 2012

Stairway Photo Collage

This weekend I finally finished the photo collage I've been working on for months. It's been a long, drawn-out project. I'd heard photo collages were hard but it still ended up being harder than I thought and taking me longer than I anticipated.

This was the process I went through...
Finding photo CDs long lost in our move
Weeks of sifting through a bajillion photos trying to decide on which photos to enlarge
Three different 'enlargement runs'
Deciding which pictures of the enlargements looked good together
Five different trips to buy/exchange frames
Cutting out pieces of paper the size of the frames and arranging them on the wall
Three weeks of making changes/hanging the frames

View from the top of stairs
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This is the view looking up from the entry way of our home. I really like how you can get a sneak peak from downstairs.
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Some things I learned along the way were (mostly preferential things)...

I didn't like black/white or sepia photos mixed in with the collage
I liked photos with lots of color
Closeups looked best
I didn't end up using any of the frames with matts
Lots of the 5x7's I enlarged didn't make it into the photo collage
Since I was working with a huge wall space, the bigger pictures tended to look better
The photos I enlarged at a professional enlargement company look 10 times better than the ones I had enlarged at Costco. No joke.

Hopefully my next wall collage will be easier. I like it a lot but don't love it. I would do some things differently if I did it over. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my first wall collage. I will continue to add and switch out some photos in the future but for now I'm so relieved it's done! What do you think?

7 comments:

Missy said...

Oooo! I like it! I've been working on one too and it's also almost done. I will have to post it. And yes! Professional printing services are so much better! I tell people that all the time!

heidi678 said...

Looks great! Love it! I will be sending you my wall measurements and all my photo cds...LOL. I want one in my house!

Elder Lynn Child said...

Good job, Darci!

Tiffany said...

Looks amazing! I've found it hard to incorporate 5x7's into wall collages, but you did a fantastic job!

Julie said...

Man, this looks so great Darci. Hats off to you! I had found a wall collage photo on pinterest that I loved and decided to make it a pre-baby project... needless to say I decided to put it off when I realized how much work and $$ it would be. Hopefully sometime this year. Yours is inspiritng. =)

P.S. Is Kenzie (I sure hope I spelled that right) old enough to be into the park yet? We go out to Town Square every few weeks because Rushton loves the park there and riding the train. We'll probably go next week if you want to join. I know it's so far away though, so we'd love to do something closer too.

Leanne said...

Thanks so much for your sweet comment! So glad the info was helpful. Seriously, why don't people tell you that you will be wearing a giant diaper after giving birth?!

Anonymous said...

Darci! It looks great! I love it!! I know how it goes though, with decorating/house projects. . .errr! I painted half of my living room and decided that I hated it, so I repainted it. No fun! But YES, your collage looks awesome!!!