DIY - Picture Wall

We live in an old house where there aren't many any long spacious walls, most of them are broken up by arches, doors, windows, or wall bump outs.  Ever since moving into this house, 4 1/2 yrs ago, I wanted big picture wall.  I'd tossed around the possibilities of having it go up the main stairwell but I just wasn't in love.  We have this middle room area before you get to the actual living room, and ever since the oldest's arrival this has been her domain for toys.  But the toys stay at one end of the room and the other end has just not been getting used for anything.  Then it hit me, I could make a big picture wall area when you walk into that room and  re-furb a chair I already have and make it a nice little corner for me.  

We had groupings of pictures and mirrors literally on every wall between the two rooms.  So first off I went around and took them all down and went down to my basement and brought up any picture frames I had down there, as I've been collecting them from family members who no longer wanted them, waiting for the time when I would do this picture wall. 

Here they all are grouped together. 

Next I wanted them all to look the same color wise as I had a mixture of woods and blacks and some gold/brass ones that were passed down.  I opted for a black with silver dust in it.  We just did a light coating of that over the actual black frames, and bought regular black spray paint to spray the wood frames and then a light coating of the black with silver dust. 

Picture of the done pile. 

Next up, I grabbed a roll of wrapping paper and we traced out the frames.  

Then we cut them all out, here's the pile of them. Notice the pack n play - we barricaded the girls off to the front living room area so they wouldn't get in the way. 

Next up, we grabbed some tape and went about hanging all of our mock frames.  Then we'd step back and adjust some.  Also, after we were set on the layout we wanted, we had to tweak it some more as I had forgotten about some canvases and our wedding plate that I knew I wanted on the wall.  So, make sure you have everything you want up on the wall around when you are doing the templates.  

I painted all, but 3 photo mats the same color as our bathroom, because it was paint I had on hand and it's a nice neutral green/gray/blue.  

And actually, the walls ended up having to be re-painted (this will be coming up later this week) and I need to order some new prints as most of mine were just of the oldest and I need to meld both girls' plus extended family photos.  It's all a work in progress.

One thing I do know, is that I couldn't be more pleased with how this turned out.  Total cost: less than $20.  I'll have a better after picture, still no updated photo's in the picture frames yet, later this week.