Empty Wall Space- Weekend Project

What do you normally do with an empty wall space in your home? Some things that come to mind are filling those empty spaces with picture frames, art, a mirror or two, or anything else that is personal to you and your family!

Well, this one particular empty wall space we had in our family room needed to be filled with something that was important to my family and I and that is why we decided to put up pictures of our family.

To be honest, we have hung 6 picture frames up on this wall and only two of them are of family. Oops! Hehe...that is okay because the other 4 have left-over fabric in them now and that will change as we take more pictures of the family and they get printed. But having some of the picture frames displaying fabric is a pretty neat idea (that I didn't originally come up with on my own) and it ties the family room in with the dining room (because the dining room has some of the fabric that I framed).

First, after purchasing 6 oak wooden picture frames from Wal-Mart for $3.00 a piece, I painted them with Sherwin Williams Extra White paint that I had on hand for other projects.

What I also loved about these frames was not only the price, but the fact that they had room for a 5X7 picture or an 8X10 picture. I chose to leave the mat in the frame because most of the pictures I print are 4X6 and not 8X10.

Now I know I just said that the frames hold a 5X7 picture and I print 4X6 pictures, so what I had to do was just tape the pictures to the paper that came with the frame which left a little bit of a white border around the 4X6 picture. Not a big deal, but in the future I will probably just print out 5X7 pictures so there is no taping involved.  :)

Here are some pictures of the whole process on what we decided to do with the blank wall and how we made it more personal! And I say "we" now because I had my hubby help me with the hanging process. He is much better at taking measurements than I am so I recruited him for the job!

Oak frames with mat around the edge.

Using a magazine as a paint catcher.

Setting everything up!

The painting begins...

Three frames are painted and now on to the rest.

First coat of Extra White paint

After I painted the first coat of white paint onto the frames, I needed to do a second for a more even look.

Second coat of paint

After taking a second coat of paint to the oak frames, I laid out the pictures and the fabric to see exactly how they would be hung. 

Getting the mats and pictures ready to be framed while the frames were drying.

Here is a before shot of the empty wall we have in our family room. The dark leather couch was bought used almost 3 years ago (I can't believe we have had it for 3 years already!) and I can't wait until we save up some money to buy a lighter, cleaner couch.  :) 

Blank wall in need of something!

First picture going up on the wall

Before I forget, the backs of these frames had their very own ledge (for lack of a better word) that needed to be removed. Instead of just ripping each ledge off, I took an Exacto knife to the edge of the metal backings and then was able to take them off easily. In doing this, the frames lied flat on the walls. 

Removing the ledges.

Four frames hung and now only 2 more to go!

Asking hubby to help with the rest!  :)

All done!


I have thought about adding two more frames to each side of the gallery wall for a total of 10 picture frames, but after seeing these 6 frames up on the wall, I think they came out great so I will hold off on buying more.


Thanks for stopping by!