I love a good simple DIY decorating idea on a budget. When I saw the frame photo gallery on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to incorporate one in our home.
Long story short, Hubby and I moved to the D.C. area in 2014. We owned our home in Alabama before moving to D.C. and decorating has always been my thing. But, since we do not own our home here in D.C., we are somewhat limited on what we can do in terms of decorating. So I’m always on Pinterest looking for ways to decorate but with such limited time these days, I’m always looking for simple DIY projects that only requires a couple hours of my time. Although this doesn’t include shopping time, sometimes it works out to be 2-3 hours with shopping time #winning!
Considering we do a lot of traveling, I thought it would be great to display a few of our photos taken while on vacation. I was pleasantly surprised to find many DIY galley family photo galleries on Pinterest. Either way, I knew I didn’t want to spend much money on this project so I already had a budget in mind ($200).
Design Inspiration
There were not many bloggers who shared how they created their DIY photo wall gallery but it was still pretty easy to get inspired and get my list together of what I needed to create my own.
One inspo photo wall gallery came from Mama blogger Candice at This Mama Loves Life. Although I love her color scheme, it is a bit different from what I was going for. But, I love that she used Costco for her photos and Ikea for her frames. Both are very easy on the pockets.
Fashion, travel and lifestyle blogger Jennifer at Haute Off the Rack used Framebridge for her wall gallery, which I plan to use in the future. Framebridge can be a bit expensive so if you are on a budget, this might not work for you. Jennifer’s color scheme was different from what I was going for as well, but still great inspo for what I wanted to do.
I love both of their photo wall galleries!!
My DIY Photo Wall
Creating our family photo wall was pretty easy. We used frames from Ikea and used Shutterfly to get our photos printed and mailed to us.
- 8- 12×12 Photos from Shutterfly cost about $5.99 each totaling $47
- 8 RIBBA frames cost $14.99 each from IKEA totaling $120
This project was under $200 and it definitely looks like we spent more. Shutterfly is pretty easy to use. You just download your photos to their website; they also have an app which I think is pretty easy to use as well. I usually have my photos already filtered but they also have filter options. IKEA is my go to for a lot of items, but I was so happy that our local IKEA had the frames I needed for $14.99. I purchased 8 of them.
QUICK TIP: IKEA’s RIBBA framing is not made of glass, so please ensure the plastic is not cracked when you purchase. The wood framing is sturdy though. If you want to replace the plastic for glass, you can google any online store that sales glass replacement. This online store has every size you need.
QUICK TIP: If you don’t have someone helping you, this job could take a little longer than 2 hours. Measure the length and width of the wall and start from the middle and work your way out. We left about 10 inches between each photo due to our wall being pretty large. Had we kept them closer, we could have easily added about 4-6 more frames.
QUICK TIP: If you are going to use IKEA Ribba frames, you will only need one type of nail. You can get a pack at Amazon.
QUICK TIP: Use your favorite photos to display. We don’t have children so we decided to display our travels. Have fun with your photos. We added a couple of photos with Hubby and I, but most of our photos are of our favorite landmarks during our travels. We find that our photos are definite conversation starters when we have guests over.
Couch (LoveSac); Pillows, old (Ikea and West Elm); Ottoman, old (Target); Vase (IKEA); Clear tray and Faux Budding Branches (WorldMarket); Books (Amazon and Ebay); Rug (IKEA); Curtains, old (WestElm)
