Rearrange Mom's Collage

Hanging things on your walls takes preparation. You have to take a step back and stare at a space. Do you want it to line up with something else? Center it? Off center it?

I’ve had my fair share of experience with collages. And what I know of my preferences, is I like the outside of the collage to line up. That could be done different ways. All four sides could line up or just the top and bottom could line up.

I have not made any collages in this house, because I grew out of love with them, but Mom has one above her bed as a way to disguise how short her headboard it. She is using my childhood furniture in her room. When we bought her a new mattress set, it raised the bed to where the headboard disappeared!

Mom used the frames she had to display pictures of the entire family. My boys have all loved to sit in her bed and look at the pictures. They point out who everyone is. But while she was away on a trip, I took the time to rearrange the collage. I lift it up, used a few new frames and defined its shape.

Most of her frames were black with a few stragglers. I found some black frames with gold accent to tie in some other frames. I then made the collage be a square shape. All four sides have the frames line up the outside shape.

Now it raises your eye up even higher, so you take note of the tall ceilings. Just a little tweak to change things.

And as we speak, we are actually redoing the collage again. The space currently looks like this ...

I'll be back with an update when we complete it.
 

Staircase to Family - Part 2

I loved my staircase collage when I first created it and was so proud of it. Would you believe I made it even better?

I bought five frames with the intention of adding them to the staircase. These five frames were going to house pictures of the new baby in our family. I couldn’t have pictures of Little JCrew on the staircase and not Baby B!

Original Layout - Little JCrew sneaking in to help rearrange

I didn’t think five frames would be enough, but it was a start. I actually only had to get one more frame. The original collage had two rows. I began adding a third row and rearranging the frames. The original collage had matching frames. The five new frames were all different and needed to be blended in.

Progress

I first took frames out and plugged the new ones in. I was never too happy with the top half of the staircase so I took those frames completely down.

Old Layout - showing top part

I made sure I kept with the “climb” of the staircase with my frames. I then had holes I needed to fill.

Can You See Painter's Tape Marking the Hole At the Top?

I marked the holes with painters tape and then searched around for something to fit. That’s when I found my sixth new frame that said “Family.” 

I then rearranged the top part of the staircase totally different.

I like it! I didn’t realize the difference it would make.

I am now more in love with my staircase. I can’t wait to fill the empty frames with pictures of Baby B!

Another Collage

I mentioned last week that I was picking up my maternity pictures. I found oversized white frames and a blank wall to fill.

I've seen the oversized white frames in Pottery Barn, but the price tag was a little steep. However, I liked the variety of sizes to choose from.

Pottery Barn Wood Gallery Oversized Mat Frames

The wall space available is 102 inches wide. I played with the layout of the frames I was trying to stay wthin 70 inches total for the collage. I must have come up with 30 diferent configurations, but none seemed to be the one.

Part of the problem was that all the prints I picked were in the landscape orientation. I honestly thought I picked out one portrait oriented print. So. I was having trouble making all the landscape frames work in a group.

So, we mixed in a couple non-frame pieces.

I then started hanging the pictures. I was talking to Mr. JCrew when I started and miscalculated the measurements and started hanging the pictures six inches too far to the right. I didn't realize this until I was hanging the last picture on the bottom row and saw the extra space I had to the left.

oops! too far to the right.

I took down all the frames and moved them over six inches. Luckily, it was for only four frames. Once the whole collage was up, there was only two holes that I have to touch up.

I really like the final result. Perfect placing too. You can see the whole collage through the doorway from the bathroom.

Staircase to the Family

The collage didn’t stop in the living room. I had a lot of family pictures I wanted to display and an empty staircase.

I bought a lot of frames in different sizes, but related, at Old Time Pottery.

I got the idea of course, from Pottery Barn.

With this collage planning, I laid out the frames on the floor in the yellow room.

I measured the rise of the steps on the staircase and the plan was to mimick the rise with the pictures.

I placed the frames in a pattern and it looked like it would work.

There were several switched until my eye thought it was appealing.

As for the height the frames would start at, I did not want the hand rail to disturb the view.

As I started to hang the frames, I realized some of the frames were wider than an actual step on the staircase. This would mean somewhere along my pattern, a rise would not correspond with the step.

So, there is one spot that has a frame rise higher than the pattern, but the normal eye doesn’t notice unless you stare.

Currently the frames are filled with pictures of my family and Mr. JCrew’s family through the years. Every year that I get an updated picture of my nieces, it goes in the frame of the previous years’.  When little JCrews start filling the house, the pictures that are of Mr. JCrew and I will be replaced. We don’t need to see our faces plastered on the wall. It’s a little narcissist, if you ask me. I can’t wait to use my camera to take Baby J’s pictures!!!

A paint job on the stairway is planned future project. When we changed the hallway color, I did not challenge myself to the stairway. It is a job that requires stilts and a professional. Right now, the color is not offensive.

Wall Collages

There’s a trend that’s been around for a while and won’t die. It’s called a collage. A collage can be of many things. Pottery Barn likes to collage picture frames. My mom had a collage of mirrors in our dining room growing up. I’ve seen a collage of clocks and a collage of sheet music.

When I moved in the house, I made a collage of family pictures on my mantle. I did it mainly to hide the plug that was on the wall.

The living room was arranged differently until we changed out the couch. The couch made us change the TV location, which made me lose my mantle collage.

Before the couch even came, I took measurements and decided to move my collage to the wall over the couch.  I preferred working with no furniture in the way.

I started with the biggest picture I had. I left it in its old location and was going to work around it.

I then used other pictures to make a rectangle out of them.

From there I built around them. I laid everything out on the floor because it was easy to move around.

To mix things up, I added two shelves. I had a clock I wanted to incorporate, but couldn’t hang. Plus I had smaller wallet-sized frames that I needed a shelf to put them on.

There was a small space I had open that would be hard to find a picture to fit. I then came up with the idea to write my new last name on a piece of wood in that size.

Once the design was complete, it was time to transfer to the wall. This was an easy one by one transfer.

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Once the couch came, the design was just the right height. It was a little longer than the couch length, but it worked. No one really notices that small detail.