My Fantasy Photo (and Mementos!) Wall

this post is seriously a year in the making (no – i’m not pregnant.  gosh.  for the record – i have no plans to get knocked up again before 2014.  and when we do decide it’s time, you’ll know because we will go to hawaii.  until then – quit thinking about it).  this post is about my other baby – my photo wall.

from the day we moved into our house, when every surface was covered in boxes and packing tape and my kiddo was happy to sit in her pack ‘n play and stare at the window, i knew i wanted a photo wall.  i quickly created a pinterest board and filled it with inspiration pictures:

 

but projects like this take time.  and i’m a woman who doesn’t have much of that lying around these days.  while planning EBN’s birthday extravaganza, hosting 26 for our passover seder, traveling between westport and LA and chicago, working, crocheting and blogging – my photo wall was never far from my mind.  i began picking and choosing the items i wanted to display – order a blown-up family photo here, a chanukah present for ABN there, mementos from our long distance relationship and coasters of israel’s past prime ministers – just to name a few.  i bought frames – and then i bought more frames.  and then the frames took over my craft room our basement.  finally, a few weeks ago ABN, took one ever-supporting look at me and said, “just finish it.”  and it was the kick in the ass that i needed to get the job done.

originally, i thought we would be done last weekend (ok, originally i thought it would have been done last september, in time for our anniversary…ha!), but after spending 5 hours on saturday marking and measuring and leveling and blue taping – we made the mistake of leaving the house for an hour or so, only to come home to find our perfectly realized master piece, in a pile of butcher-paper on the floor.  tear.

after taking a deep breath we decided the project would need to wait until this weekend and so when saturday morning rolled around we got right to work:

we started by finding a level horizontal and vertical.  i know it doesn’t look level from this photo – but it is.  i swear.  as my dad reads this he’s currently having a mini-heart attack that we put all these holes in the wall and he wasn’t here to supervise.  it’s a sorta rational fear considering, until this point, he had hung each and every photo/wall-hanging in our home, other than the mirror above the fire-place – which happens to be a tad off-center.  don’t worry dad – we did good.  also, ABN, once again, showed his genius-ness (word!) and insisted that the way to deal with the multi-sized frames, and my insistence that they be equal distance apart throughout the wall, was to start at the center and work out.

 

and so we did.  i would like it to be noted that thanks to pinterest (my one true love) i knew that it would work out well to have a horizontal line running through the wall – ABN brought vertical to the table.  and that is the secret to a perfect marriage – ABN and pinterest.  before attempting to hang the frames, i had traced each frame onto butcher paper and labeled the resulting stencil with the photo that would eventually hang in its place – and in the correct direction!

 

     

i feel that we should pause for just a moment to acknowledge the cuteness that is our little helper.  moving on…

 

my plan was working great until it came to the point where ABN started putting actual nails in the actual wall for actual frames.  turns out – “deer/family photo” is not universally interpreted as “the frame that currently holds a print of a deer but will one day hold a beautiful family portrait and doesn’t hold the family portrait now only because when the photo arrived in the mail, ABN’s head was cut-off – for no clear reason.”  also, butcher paper labeled “jews” doesn’t mean “shadow box full of coasters of past israeli prime ministers” to everyone.  weird.  thank goodness i was there to translate.

 

the end result is really way better than i could have ever imagined.  over time, we can switch out photos and mementos for other photos and mementos – you know, like in 2014, if we have another kid, that kid should probably get a place on the photo wall.  or something.  also, there is still a bit of room to grow – up and down and out so we can add to it as time goes on (quit rolling your eyes ABN, your work is never done!).

looking at these photos i’m thinking a more in-depth photo wall tour might be in order…over time i can introduce you to the photos and mementos that fill this space.

i would like to give a shout-out, freckles in the fog acknowledgement to ABN – he worked his tush off on this and without him, my fantasy photo wall would not be a reality – the least of which are the nails he put in the wall.  but also, i worked hard too.  since last july.  just saying.