Collage Collection

I’m on a mission around this joint to do as many low-cost/no-cost projects that I can bust out, to avoid the need to take out my wallet, and in the spirit of just getting in donnne (already). We have had tons of picture frames laying around in the basement since we moved in (4-months ago), so it was high time we rearranged those babies from a box, onto a wall. The hallway into the bedroom area downstairs, was in dire need of some attention. It had two screws just randomly jutting out of it, left over from the last owner, and the whole wall just looked gangling and sad.

So, one night after dinner I marched down the basement steps and came back up with my loot of picture frames. Jay looked concerned. He quickly evaded me and disappeared away into the garage. It was like 10 degrees out, so I think he was pretty motivated to dodge this one. The orange tabby stuck around to assist, par for the course. So after scratching my head on it, and messing around with the picture frames for a solid hour, I settled on this arrangement. I could tell Malcolm concurred.

Picture Frames Collage

These are the tools of the trade. Pretty basic stuff, other than the level, I guess. I’ve seen a lot of tutorials online where people put everything onto a big sheet of paper and trace the design they want, before pegging these up on the wall. I imagine that has some advantages, but in complete honesty, I am incredibly inpatient, and I just really wanted to get these things up. Overall, the measure twice (cut/nail/what ever else) once policy generally rings true here.

Tools to Install Collage

This was our highly technical approach to putting these up on the wall. The hand measuring system, old school here. This process may or may not have led to like 4 pictures getting nailed to the completely wrong location. At least all the supplemental holes are now buried under a picture frame, can’t win em all! Overall, the things that we should/coulda/woulda done better the second time around would be accounting for the width of the collage a bit better, since this added some variation to how the pictures were put up. For instance, that first picture that Jay put up had to get moved an inch or two to the right, since the frames on either side of it were not the same size. As Jay kept on telling me though – it’s not a big deal, cause I can just make another hole! We followed that principle a few times

Jay Putting Pictures Up

And when it’s all said and done, I think the collage is a beut! I love it so, so much better than the bare wall we were sporting before! Took us about an hour to arrange the pictures to my liking, and about an hour to pop them up on the wall. As I said to Jay when we were done – look how much we can get done when we don’t watch TV! Here are some of the after shots for you.

Hallway Art Collage

Yeah, the bottom right one still needs art At least the frame is up! Here are some closeups of the art, as well. I love that this collage has a variety of textures and colors in it. In the last house, we had a collage that was all white frames, and I just think this one has a bit more personality.

Hallway Art Collage

If of interest, all of the prints in the picture above are from etsy and can be found here: The top advertisement print ($9), the Moon print, Wagon Wheel ($5), and the Butterflies.

Hallway Art Collage

The nautical ship is etsy ($6) the shoes are a wedding photo, and the Gandhi print was gifted.

Tags: Etsy Prints, IKEA Ribba Frame, Photo Collage, Wall Art Collage