Some Large Photographs for the Dining Room

Recently, I found out that Staples not only does B/W engineering prints, but they also make engineering prints in color! I was pretty ecstatic to hear about this and had to give it a try!

One day last month, my family and I went to Colonial Williamsburg. The weather was a little bit overcast and windy, so we didn't stay too long. However, I was able to snap a few photos while we were there and decided to try a couple of them out in the colored engineering prints that Staples offers. 

I have to say that for the price, you can't beat this! The photos might not look 100% clear and may be slightly fuzzy, but you wouldn't really notice unless you look up-close. I don't think anyone will be looking that closely at these pictures in my house. And if someone notices, they can get a cookie. ;)

Also, I paid around $7.00 for BOTH of these prints which is pretty fantastic given the size ordered- 18"x30". That's a pretty good price for the size if you ask me!

To give these prints a little bit of that "canvas" look, my daughters and I shopped around the Dollar Tree, of all places, and found a large poster board that I cut in half. 

This is what the poster board looked like after it was cut in half. The size was what we needed for each print.

Regular ol' tape did the job of keeping the prints attached to the poster board.

I just used a few small nails to hang up these pictures and that was it! I haven't decided if I am going to make wooden frames for these like what we've got in the stairwell yet. I think they don't really need them, but it might make them "pop" a little bit more among all of the neutral colors.

Although, flowers do help add some color!
My husband bought me these beautiful red tulips and I love how much they add to the room! :)

If you decide to give these engineering prints a go, let me know what you think! Overall, I'd say it's worth a try if you are looking for large prints at an unbeatable price!!

Changing Up the Gallery Wall

There are so many ways that you can show case your family memories throughout your home. 
I've said it before and I will say it again- one of my favorite ways to do so is by creating at least one gallery wall in your home. And you can pretty much put one up anywhere. Our living room was one of the first places we put a gallery wall up and recently I decided to change it up a bit.

We started with a blank slate after we moved in: 

After going back and forth about what to put up on the upper part of that wall you see pictured, I decided the easiest thing to do was paint the walls a khaki/beige/green color I mixed together. Then I decided this would make a perfect spot for a gallery wall so I added a few photos we already had (I really didn't want to buy more frames either, so we worked with what we had).
But I always thought the pictures looked a little too small for the space because that wall is so long. So I had kept it in the back of my mind that it would probably be changing at some point so we could add more photos to the mix.

 

And then my parents visited a few weeks ago.
And guess what?!

They brought with them a large plastic tub filled with older photos that were placed in these nice wooden frames....and a light bulb went off!
I thought, "these will be perfect to use for our new gallery wall!"

So I laid out how I wanted the pictures to look by placing the frames on the floor. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I went ahead and nailed each frame up on the wall...and this time, I decided to go with the "Go big or go home" approach by adding a lot more photos. 
Boy am I happy I did!

I think it turned out much better than I imagined and we like it much more now that we can see more personal photos of our family. I also feel that by adding more pictures, the wall space was better utilized. Plus, this will allow me to switch out pictures easily as the kids get older and we have more photos to add.
I also wanted to note that I mixed the colors of my frames up a bit- going with brown, white, and black. It keeps things from looking too matchy-matchy (something I'm not always a fan of in decorating).

How do you hang pictures in your home? Are you a fan of the bigger gallery walls like I am?

Filling Your Home with Memories (starting with photos)

When I was much younger, I took tons of pictures. And when I say tons, I mean TONS ya''ll! 
For example, I remember a weekend trip I took with some of my girlfriends in college. On that trip, I took lots of pictures of what we did and I even took pictures of what we ate. Seriously. No. Joke.
Yeah, weird, I know! My friends laughed at it then and still do to this day...and I admit, it was kind of silly. But never-the-less, I loved documenting every little thing. I have the scrapbook of that trip and many others somewhere in this house. ;)

Fast forward about 10 years later- married with 3 kids- and here I am hardly taking any photos. I do document things my kids do and even have a baby album for each one of them with little quotes and milestones they have achieved, but that doesn't compare to what I use to be like when I documented everything going on in my life. This may have happened because things are just busier now and there is so much more I am interested in doing so it is hard to find the time to carry a camera around everywhere. Whatever the case, I have realized that I want to fill my home with good memories of my family and for me, that starts with photos.

In our last house, I had a gallery wall leading up the stairs. I covered both sides of the wall with photos. I do believe that was a bit much and did look a bit cluttered...so when we moved into this new home, I didn't want to overload the walls. I ended up redoing the gallery wall going up the stairs in our new home after we painted and added a few simple larger black and white pictures to it that I will share here. The house is scattered with photos now of our family and friends and kids art work and that feels like just the right amount of balance now. Not too much and not too little. Here are some pictures of what I mean.

                            FYI- I am seriously loving that view out our kitchen window!!


Wedding photos, trips we have taken, and family memories are what you will see in our home now when you walk around.

Living Room Progress

I also hope to grow this gallery wall in our living room someday. That will take time and I am okay with that. It doesn't all have to be filled up right now.