Frame Project

One of my friends and a fellow blogger does a "Make It Monday" post every week on her blog, The Pollock Potluck, to make herself follow through with all the great ideas she pins on pinterest.  I decided to join her and post my own "Make It Monday"  about the frame project we did over the summer.  I say over the summer because we started my first week out of school and finished it up at the end of July.  In our defense we were making steady progress until the Great Power Outage of 2012 came and changed all our summer plans (or at least it felt that way!).

Here is what I pinned on my dining room board back in the early spring.  I liked using the frames together as a piece of art and originally thought it might work on a wall on our dining room. 

 

http://livingwithlindsay.com/2012/01/how-to-layered-frame-gallery-wall.html

We had been going back and forth about what to do with all this empty space on the wall above the sofa, because I wanted something there and my husband liked it blank.   

I had thought about doing a photo gallery wall, but my husband wasn't too pleased with that idea and after showing him pins and pins of ideas that he rejected, we decided the frame idea was one we both liked.  So I spent the first week of summer break dragging my kids from thrift store to thrift store purchasing random sized frames.  Most of the frames were between 25 cents and a dollar so I was very happy with my purchases.  I also searched the basement to find frames we already had that we were no longer using and would fit for this project.

Once all the frames were selected we took one naptime to lay them out and arrange them. 

Then we took all the spray paint cans we had picked up at Lowes (various shades of yellow, blues, and gray) and labeled each frame the color we wanted to paint it.  

Thankfully the kids took an extra long nap because we even had time to pick out what pictures we wanted to put in each frame.  

 Then Jay spray painted all the frames out in the driveway during another naptime, which also happens to coincide with the hottest time of the day.  You have to look really close in the first picture to see all the newspapers and frames laid on the driveway. 

At the end of the week, we went over to Roanoke and got copies of the pictures we wanted to use in the correct size. 

Except for our wedding photo because for a week our wedding photo cd was missing in action.  Then came The Great Power Outage and the frame project was moved to the corner of the basement and put on hold for a couple of weeks. 

One glorious day we found the wedding photo cd after looking in every box in the basement and every drawer/cabinet/bag in our house.  First Jay made a couple of copies of the cd to insure this misplacement never happens again. Then he cropped the picture and we drove over to town to print out a blown up size of the photo. 

Finally the day arrived to put the project together.  We wore the kids out really good all morning and put them down to nap at 12.   We had 2-3 hours to complete the project so we headed down to the basement and set out all the frames. Yes, we are using Trey's flattened cardboard playhouse from this post to cushion the frames from the concrete floor.

Jay used a nail gun to nail the frames together.  We want to be able to change out the pictures, so we nailed wood pieces onto the backs of the frames that were going to hold pictures and then connect the wood pieces to the other frames.  That way we can take off the frames by undoing the prongs on the back and change out the photos.  The frameback is what is attached to all the other frames.  I am not sure if that makes sense, but essentially we can change out the photos because my husband is a genius. 

The backside where the frames are connected through the wood pieces and framebacks to the pictures so they can be changed out.  

The front side. 

We carried the completed project upstairs in two pieces and then attached it to the wall.  I can't remember how it attached to the wall, only that there was a lot of measuring, drilling and kids wanting to be brought downstairs from their nap during this time. 

All up on the wall! The wedding picture is really big because at first we thought that frame wouldn't be able to come off to change the picture, so we wanted a picture that would fit our family for many years to come.  We also don't have a large wedding photo anywhere in the house and we like the symbolism how our family has grown from our marriage. 

A closer view.  Sorry about the crookedness and glare, I really don't know how to work my camera. 

We had a lot of fun working on the project and I really like the way it came together and brought some color to the wall.  Now onto our next house project....