After I gifted these heartfelt frames to Handy Hubby on Valentine’s Day, he immediately posed the obvious question, “Where are we gonna hang them?”

Good question, Handy Hubby.  We don’t exactly have a place that we show off our family snapshots except in photo albums.  Nothing right there out-in-the-open.  Possibly because we are both clutter freaks and the idea of propping up little frames on every horizontal surface makes us quiver.  However, I have been wanting to work on a family photo wall for a while…now I have an excuse to do so.  See how this works, ladies?!  Just get your man interested in a few momentos and then you have full reign of an entire wall!  No, really, that wasn’t my plan at all when I assembled and gifted those family heirlooms to Handy Hubby.  We had both been wanting to display family pictures but hadn’t talked about or acted on it yet.  The V-Day gift sparked a fire.  Since then we have designated this narrow, tall, obsolete wall as our future family wall.

This wall resides in our main open living area between the family room and dining area.  It’s only purpose (besides structural) is to house our thermostat, a switchplate and an outlet.  This wall is the perfect candidate for the family photo wall because 1) it’s not a focal point 2) the pictures may actually help disguise the electrical uglies 3) there’d be plenty of room to linger and take in all the pics 4) there’s not much else you could do with it.  The door to the right leads to the unfinished basement and opens up onto the narrow wallspace.  So, we couldn’t put anything on the floor…only on the wall.  A family picture wall is the perfect concept!

Here are some inspiration photo walls that have lured me in…

I love that the frame materials used in this one are different but they still ‘go’ together.

This entire room is outfitted in pictures but it still looks clean and notice the subtle pops of yellow and blue.

This landing could be an art gallery!  I like the way the arrangement follows the lines of the wall and stair railing.

All the different sized rectangular frames form one big rectangle on the wall.

In an otherwise empty space, these photos take center stage.

This Mom made art in a narrow stairwell!   Lovin’ the painted wall with words as a backdrop.

The black and white photos pop out from this pea green wall.

I like the idea of mixing kids’ artwork with photos for a playful arrangement.

I’m totally diggin’ the white frames against the gray wall.  (Not to mention the old floors. Sigh.)

There you have it.  My next, newest project in the works.  A family photo wall.  I’m pretty sure going through all of our old photos isn’t going to help the “having-a-third-kid-would-be-crazy” point that Handy Hubby and I try to remind ourselves of each day when we stumble upon the thought of having #3.  Maybe if I fill the wall full enough we won’t have room for more photos and that would be reason enough not to have a third, right?!