School Picture Gallery Wall

The hair!  The outfits!  The backgrounds!

School pictures are a rite of passage that capture the awkwardness of growing up, one year at a time.  Every year, we get beautiful professional family pictures done.  These are the nicest pictures we have, and I love all of them.  But, there is nothing like a good, old-fashioned school picture!

A great way to display your child’s school photos is to create a gallery wall, or wall of pictures.

Create a School Picture Gallery Wall

1. Find a spot in your home where you have a good amount of wall space.  You can dress up an otherwise blank or unusable area of your house.

2. Decide how prominent you want the wall to be.  If you want to embarrass your kids in the future, choose a wall that is front and center.  Our wall of pictures is in an upstairs hallway that was the perfect size to fit all 13 frames.  I chose it more for practicality because it would fit all of my frames.  It definitely lacks future embarrassment possibilities.

3. Pick out frames for your photos.  I like to use the same kind of frame, and have the framing all look the same for my organized, orderly ways.  This makes the photos into more of a picture wall, and less of a true gallery wall.  I also chose not to do any matting, so that I could fit all 13 of my frames in my space.

Tip:  If you have the space, mat your photos to achieve a more elegant “gallery” feel.

4. Organize your photos on the wall.  Determine how you want to lay your photos out.  I opted for straight lines, but you could hang your frames in a more random layout for that gallery feeling.  Make sure you allow enough space for all of your future frames.  In order for me to fit all 13 of my frames on the wall in the future, I had to hang my frames in a straight line.  I do not have the space for a more random pattern.

Tip:  If you want your frames to match like I do, buy your frames all at once and keep them stored away.  That is the only way you can ensure that all of the frames will match.  I found a 4-pack of frames at Michael’s, which also brought the cost down when buying a pack versus buying separately. (afflink)  Here is a 6-pack with matte also available on amazon.com

That’s it!  You can easily have a nice, gallery style wall of school pictures.

Happy decorating!

How do you like to display your child’s school photos?

–Mellie