Two years ago I began clipping pages to use on a magazine picture wall inspired by botanical prints.
Shortly after we moved into our house, we sold most of the contemporary art I’d owned for years. My walls were happily bare. My aim was to find low-cost replacement art for a magazine picture wall using the high-quality English magazines I favor — they print frame-worthy full-page photos on fine paper. I posted a few of the initial Magazine Pages for a Picture Wall and I continued collecting them. In truth, I’d prefer to have a suite of fine botanical similar to those in the original inspiration photo for my dining room [top]. But that’s impossible without an investment, plus I already have a set of antique fruit prints nearby in the kitchen.
The target location for this venture is 8-foot-wide by 5-foot-wide space on the wood-paneled wall in our sunroom/dining room, between two sets of French doors. My antique cherry dry sink (currently serving as a bar) works well there and I was for images to hang above it. By my initial calculation, that space would support a row of five across and two down – ten total.
I cut out 10 paper templates and put them up according to mathematical calculations, lining the top row up with the top of the doors. But, because the wall has vertical lines from the paneling, the spacing had to be adjusted by sight.
At Michael’s, I hit a BOGO frame sale and came home with ten 11-x-14 country style frames and compatible mats for less than $200.
Then I went to work figuring out which images to frame and how to combine them by laying them out on the table. I kept some and discarded others until an “outdoor” theme emerged. It’s not botanical prints but the theme seems appropriate to the room.
As I transferred the pages to the frames, the look of the wall began to take shape. Even though these aren’t high quality frames I believe the wall will look good when they go up. But I had to return one when a hanging loop pulled out of the cardboard. And another one has broken as well — which is why I only have nine images ready to go. I worry that the weight of the frame might cause the anchors to pull out of the cardboard over time, but I’ll give some fiber-reinforced tape a try. Sometimes a bargain doesn’t make for an easy project.
Meanwhile, here are some of the images I’ve chosen. I hope to have it finished so I can update next week!
[portfolio_slideshow id=25744]
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Love this. A tip I used while living in Germany and had to be careful when hanging pictures on concrete walls…..use the Dritz disappearing marker to position hangers. It stays visible for an hour or so before disappearing. Actually would draw level lines to follow….disappearing marker worked great. The water-soluble one is great. Disappears with a little spritz of water.
oh, I just love this and you did a great job with the hanging!
Be a sweetie,
Shelia 😉
Thanks for sharing such a good tip. I learned one on pinterest the other day that had me scratching my head wondering why didn’t I think of that. It was using wax paper and you marked where the picture hangers were and then you put it up on the wall and nailed in the nails and pulled it down and placed your picture. Brillian huh?
Enjoy your art work!
I like your idea and your economical approach! From what I can see it looks like you have some great pictures that you saved up! I’m sure your going to love it when it’s all done!