An Open Window: Family Photo Hallway.

Ugh. Today is my last day of Easter vacation. Don't get me wrong; I love my job, but I'm not ready to give up my vacation. I thought I'd end the break by sharing a bit of what I accomplished over my week off.

Our house is a ranch house. If we had shopped for our house like normal people instead of buying it from family, I probably never would have picked a ranch house. Our living room is big and open, as is our dining room, but all of the bedrooms and bathroom are off of this long dark hallway.

We decided to use this hallway for some purpose other than getting to those rooms, so we started collecting pictures of our grandparents and great grandparents with the plan to line our hallway with pictures of the people who have helped shape us and who we are. I don't have all the pictures I want yet (I have no pictures of Steve's mom's parents/step-parents) which is why there are bare spots, but thanks primarily to my cousin Jessica and Steve's cousin Abbey and a few other family members, we were able to collect a bunch of photos.

I was originally inspired by this photo I found on Pinterest...

Source

...and went for a similar look. Rather than spend a BAJILLION dollars on frames we made multiple trips to Dollar Tree to pick up inexpensive frames. I sent out some photos to be printed and printed some at home (which was its own kind of expensive). And I bought Command strips to mount them to avoid the pain of measuring and lining things up just right. Overall, I guess it wasn't really a cheap project, but it cost far less than it could have.

Once I had all the photos framed, I planned out my arrangements by measuring each stretch of wall space, then using the tape measure to get an idea as to how many photos could fit in each area.

It took a couple different attempts before I got everything just right.

I then took some painting tape and marked lines on the walls. I'd like to say I was very precise about this, but I pretty much just eyeballed it. A door separates each stretch of wall, so I'm pretty sure any discrepancies aren't noticeable.

Then I pretty much just started sticking the photos up. There was not science to the spacing, again, just eyeballing it, but the tape worked as a great guide to create a uniform space between the top row and the bottom row.

I have more work to do, but overall, I'm REALLY pleased with the look.