Sharing all the tips & tricks for to make a DIY photo wall… AKA the easiest gallery wall collage ever from Ikea in less than an hour with pictures!
Table of Contents
DIY New Photo Wall/ Gallery Wall
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Well it’s only been a week since we added our new church pew to the living room and I already made a change, ha!
I wanted to add something special above our newest farmhouse pew so I added a family photo wall.
Hanging family photos is one of the best ways to make a house start feeling a lot more like a home.
Gallery walls might seem intimating, expensive and just plain overwhelming to start but I put this family photo wall together by myself in less than an hour for around $65 including the photos!!!
Supplies & Tools Needed to Make this DIY Photo Wall
- Poster Frame Kit with Template from Ikea (Knoppaeng)
- 3 (8 X10) Black & White Photos
- 1 (5X7) Black & White Photo
- 2 (4X6) Black & White Photos
- 2 (3X5) Black & White Photos
- Tape that Can Easily be peeled off the Wall
- Level
- Hammer & Nails
I found this gallery wall kit at Ikea for $50. (this post is not sponsored in any way from Ikea, I just really like their stuff ,ha!
Knoppaeng Frame with Posters
The original set of 8 pictures I bought is no longer available but this set is almost identical to the one I bought, Knoppang Frame Set of 8
It also comes with 8 matted frames and different templates to hang on the wall.
Step by Step Instructions for How to Make a DIY Photo Wall
Step ONE – Choose Your Template for Your DIY Photo Wall & Tape It in Place
First, you have to decide which template you want… this took us a little while, ha!
Step TWO – Hammer the Nails for your Picture Frames to the Wall
After taping the template to the wall I made sure that the paper was level and then hammered in each nail through the x on the paper.
Easy peasy!
Step THREE – Remove the Template Paper of your Photo Wall
After pulling back the paper very carefully (I am totally saving this template for another picture wall in the future!), I hung the frames.
After first hanging almost all the frames vertically we realized most of the pictures we chose were horizontal.
Whoops!
So I took all the photo frames and nails down, chose another template that had all horizontal frames and started over again.
Now, I have a few extra holes to patch but it was totally worth it rather than having to choose and agree on different pictures!
Step FOUR – Choose Your Black & White or Color Photos, Print them Out & Place them in Your Picture Frames
The reason we chose to hang the template first before deciding on the photos was that we wanted to get the symmetry right over the church pew first.
Then we knew exactly whether or not to print our Vertical or horizontal photos.
We chose the pictures from our photo wall from our favorite pictures that we had both posted on Instagram the last couple years.
Isn’t it great that most smart phones take great pics now?!!!
Most of the pictures we hung were taken with our iphones, not my fancy DSLR.
I had the pictures printed out in the different sizes at our local CVS for less than $15.
There are (3) 8 by 10, (1) 5 by 7, (2) 4 by 6, and (2) 3 by 5 pictures in total.
I decided to have the pictures printed out in Black & white to make our photo wall a little more formal.
I love the contrast of the black and white pictures with the white frames and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
I want to change out the gallery wall in our family room now…. but Jason keeps telling me how he likes color photos better than black and white (and apparently our youngest does too… insert eye roll here, ha!
Sometimes I can’t win with these people!!!
What do you think of our newest photo wall?
I hope this answers all your questions & shows you just how easy it is to create your own personal DIY photo wall!
by Tara Lehman
Don’t forget to pin our Family Photo Wall & Save it to your Favorite DIY Projects Pinterest Board!
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Love it! That’s a great price too! Your room looks perfect now!
Thank you so much Carolann! we are really happy with how our family photo wall turned out :).
Isn’t taping up paper first the easiest way to organize gallery walls? I did that method for ours too and it worked perfectly. I really like the white frame with the black and white photos – looks fantastic!
Best,
Kelly
I had never used a template before to hang pictures and it is a game changer Kelly! Thanks so much for stopping by and for your sweet comments about our new photo wall :).
You have made this so easy!! Great tips thank you for sharing!!
Thank you Sam!