Picture Perfect Pictures Every Time!

I have always loved the idea of over-crowded photo walls...black and white photo walls in particular.  Ian and I don't have a ton of wall space since our quaint place is loaded with windows.  To work with what we got, we decided to hang our fast-growing tile collection in the sunroom.  Here's a glimpse.  I think we have about 35 tiles so far, mostly from the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown, PA.  This isn't a great picture, but I'm learning.

In the living room, we have slightly larger walls where can hang things larger than tiles, but there is no wall that lend itself to a grand photo wall.  Then, when we finally re-did our guest room (future nursery) I found my wall!  I was truly inspired by this photo wall at one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love.  As I got started, my obsessiveness instantly kicked in and I panicked over the perfect arrangement.  And don't get me started on levels, spacing and nail-markings!  Young House Love came to my rescue again with this helpful tip.  Sherry not only offers some great photo wall designs, but also suggests using traced and cut-out patterns for your frames and a little painter's tape to plot out your perfect arrangement right on the wall before you get hanging. 

Using all of Sherry's tips and suggestions, this is what we ended up with.  It's not done yet, but what I love that we can add onto it!  I am pretty happy with it so far.  

Since I changed from DiCristina to Burley, I have gotten into B's.  I blew up an article from National Geographic to make the center picture...another Young House Love inspired project.  I like the way it came out, but I'm going to try again and find an even better snippit.  I included two pictures of Ian and I when we were young to personalize it a bit.  The picture of the tress is from one of our favorite hiking trips.  The rest are prints from Etsy.  We bought the hydrangea from winterberrycottage because it made us think of our gorgeous hydrangea bush.  We also loved that it was printed on an a page from an old dictionary.  The bird print came from mincingmockingbird.  We just loved the colors!  I think we picked up the others at Ikea.  As long as we're giving shout outs to some great Etsy shops, I should mention that the bird's nest intaglio print (the image is actually incised and recessed into the natural paper) is from MasGatos. 

Then, as I was reading up on some of my favorite blogs, I came across what is arguably one of the greatest inventions since _______________ (fill in your favorite quirky invention here, because this will replace it...seriously)!  On another one of my favorite blogs, A Soft Place to Land, Kimba has found the perfect tool for hanging pictures!  Check out this video on her beautiful blog.  It's the Hang and Level, a tool that allows you to visualize where you're placing your pictures and mark where the nail should go on the wall.  It even comes with a level for when you're done hanging.  A-maz-ing!  After I enjoy my day off for a little but longer, I think I am going to skip on down to Target and see if I can find one of my very own!