Stairway Stories

For the past three years we have lived here, our stairway has looked like this.  I painted it "vanilla milkshake" last year but let it sit idle while we tackled other projects around the house.

 I really love the character of our stairway.  The light was left from the previous owner(s) and is what I believe to be the original fixture of the house.  I love the light.  I also love the ledge that is there. It is great for setting up my Christmas village, setting up seasonal decor and adds a little voom to the space.

That was the life of our stair way pre-carpet install.  Once the carpet was in I thought about how I wanted to decorate this area.  I knew I wanted something different but something that I really loved since I would be walking this way numerous times in a day. 

The idea that made most sense to me was another photo wall! I had a collection of black frames that I wanted to use.  I knew the black would be an awesome contrast to the "vanilla milkshake" walls so I decided to give new life to the existing fixture and spray it black as well as the stair rails.

A lot of people have asked me how I go about hanging a photo wall.  There are a few steps involved in my method and I think it's a pretty low stress way to get a bunch of frames onto the walls.

Step 1:  I take two measuring tapes one to measure the height and one to measure the width of the space you are using.  Lock the measuring tapes to those dimensions and place on a surface such as the floor to decide your layout.

Step 2:  Lay the frames out into whatever pattern is desired.  Space them out to fill the area and be sure to mix bigger frames with smaller ones.  Another thing I do is to leave the pattern random.  I don't like the stress of having to use a level and making sure two frames are exactly symmetrical.  I just go for the scattered look. My main rule is to start with the biggest sized frame in the center and work around it, that way your wall is always centered and allows you to create a "full" look without having too big of spaces between the frames.

Step 3: Grab a friend or in my case, husband, to help you transfer your frames from the floor to the wall.   In this instance, we took a board from our scaffolding set and set one edge on the photo wall ledge while the other rested at the top of the stairs.  This made it so much easier to hang the higher frames.  After he was on the ledge and ready, I would hand him a frame and tell him where to hang it.  As we added more frames, I just eyeballed the spacing.  Eyeballing works for some, doesn't work for others but it's the method I find easiest for me and so far has worked for the frame we've hung.

Here is what our photo wall ended as.  There is still space around the tops and sides to throw in some more frames.  This is where my "start with the center" rule worked perfect because the frames are all centered in this space but I have the ability to add more and still have it look balanced.

Most recently, I found a few more frames and added to the bottom. (see right photo).  Still looks balanced.  I could get away with adding more frames to either the top or bottom but if I wanted to add more to the sides, I would need to add to both to keep the balance,

I also threw in my vintage camera collection and printed a quote I found online.

When deciding on what photos to hang here, I knew I wanted something that made me happy and that is my family, but I wanted to jazz it up a bit, make it a little more interesting then your basic yearly family photos.  So I decided to go vintage and do all old photos from the 50's, 60's and 70's.  I wanted pictures of my parent's youth and grandparents honey moon phase.  The past year I was assigned with the task of digitizing my maternal and paternal grandparents' photo slides so I had access to some great photos.

Here is one of my maternal grandmother, uncles and my mom in the stroller at Disneyland in the late 60's...

This one is of my paternal grandfather (at the podium) with Senator Kennedy and Jackie...

and here are my dad and uncle scoutin it up.

I still have quite a few empty frames but am waiting on some photos to come in from Justin's side and I have a few more I need to print off. 

I adore this wall with my whole heart.  It tells a little bit of my story, where I came from and the story of those who have raised me and shaped me into the person I am. Every time I walk up the stairs I smile.  

What makes you smile?