Around The Room | Living With Your Photos + Color Inc Giveaway
I'm a huge fan of living with your photos. Out of albums, off your computer and onto your walls.
Over the years I've amassed quite a collection of family images - many of the recent ones being mounted rather than framed as you'll see below (and above). When I first starting hanging up photos I wanted them to be all black frames with white mats. Now I'm really enjoying the variety of both the framed and simply mounted images.
Around our house I've got quite a few gatherings happening on the walls. Some are consistent collections (meaning all mounted or all framed) and others are a mixture of the two.
The first ones I want to talk about line the hall from our entry into the kitchen.
The images are 12x12 photos are "standout mounted" from Color Inc. (Color Inc is a sponsor of my blog and has been generous with samples for me in the past and as you'll see below. This set I purchased on my own. They are excellent quality and have wonderful customer service.) When we moved into this house I ordered eight or nine of these with the intent that they would be grouped together and I love them.
They are mounted onto the wall using Miller Studio Magic Mounts removable mounting tabs. I tried a couple of other brands and these have worked the best.
You might have seen this image a couple weeks ago. This is in our dining area, between the kitchen and living room. This wall has a combination of framed and mounted images. The one of Simon and Anna in the blue shirts is from Persnickety Prints.
Upstairs I've got a few other collections starting. In the room you enter before coming into my office I've got a large standout mount from Color Inc (photo taken by Tracey Clark). That one is 3o inches x 20 inches.
In my office I've included two Ikea frames with 12x12 photos of me and Chris as kids. I enlarged these 1970's photos on my scanner and they were printed at Scrapbookpictures.com. These hung in Anna's room in our last house.
A little collage in Simon's room that includes photos, Star Wars stamps, and a signed photo of Yoda from Frank Oz.
And this one was in Anna's room in our last house. I didn't recreate it here yet, but it was a favorite in the old place.
In our bedroom I'm just beginning to build a photo wall.
The newest addition is a Framed Gallery Wrap Canvas from ColorInc. As one of my sponsors they kindly sent me this new product to review and want me to give one away as well (with your own photo of course).
Here's what they have to say about this new product:
Love the sleek modern style of a Gallery Wrapped Canvas? Now you can add a frame! Our Gallery Wrapped Canvas Frames will give you that same modern and edgy look you've wanted but with a touch of traditional style to give you a unique shadow box feel to add to any home, work, or studio wall space!
These ready to hang Gallery Wrapped Canvases come with a 2 1/8'' deep smooth black laminate frame. With a 1/2'' floating space between your canvas and frame, each of our hand wrapped canvas prints will be permanently attached with the finest attention to detail. Each piece will arrive properly finished with a wire hanger, bumpers and Tyvek® backing. A true first class upgrade to your studio or home!
These Framed Gallery Wrapped Canvases are really, really nice. I didn't realize when I was ordering it that there's a space between the frame and the wrapped canvas but when I opened the package here at home I was really pleasantly surprised. I'd definitely consider ordering another one.
GIVEAWAY | One Framed Gallery Wrapped Canvas (20 x 14 or smaller) from ColorInc.
TO BE ENTERED into this giveaway please leave a comment below sharing how you live with your photos (if you are reading this post on Facebook please come to my blog to leave a comment). Comments will be closed at noon Pacific on Friday and the winners posted shortly after. Please be sure to check back or subscribe (click here to get posts delivered to your email box) to see if you are receiving one of the items this week.
Wow! We only have a few faves actually on our walls, and you've inspired me to do something about that, thank you :)
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I LOVE photo gallery walls in homes. We recently moved back into our home and I am redecorating and slowly putting together a canvas gallery collection of our family's favorite photos. This would be so awesome to win, I'd love to try out Color Inc!
Thank you!
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Your photo collections are great, Ali. I really need to start doing something with my walls... I've got plenty of photos to work with! (But don't we all?) Have a wonderful day and thanks for the chance.
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The primary way I "live" with my pictures is by doing a collage print every year. You can see this year's here: http://justmejaymie.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-tradition.html. I am inspired, though, by your walls to do something more. I love the idea of enjoying pictures all the time. People are always stopping to look through our collage picture - I think the "real" pictures would attract the same attention.
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we painted our living room last summer & i've been looking at ways to decorate with my photos--you gave me a couple of ideas. i also have pics on the wall in my dining room and on the piano. unfortunately i dont have a lot of wall space, but i'm collecting ideas. thanks for the chance @ this giveaway.
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I have a photo wall in my entry hallway, and photos in the living room, but I need to spread these all over the house. This inspires me to place a photo wall in my 18 year old daughters room of all of her photos. She is quite the photographer. Thanks for a chance to win!
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So far I've framed them and hung them the walls. I also have various photo albums and mini albums out for visitors' perusal.
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We have just moved house and have a family/memories room where I plan to hang as many family photos as I can. Other than that, they are in photo albums or scrapbooks.
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Love your photo walls - I don't have nearly enough photos up - more cross stitch embroideries than anything else - must get some frames!
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I love photos! We have one photo wall but I would love to add another one in our house. I feel like photos make a home happier! Thanks for the great giveaway!
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I have a bunch of frames on our mantle and sets of frames in each of the halls. Sadly, I don't update them as much as I should, but I love having them around.
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I don't have a lot of photos around the house. The only place I've managed to create a "photo wall" that I don't find cluttered is above our bed. It is six 5x7 photos with white mattes in black 8x10 frames. They are from a trip to South Africa my husband and I took while we were on leave from a deployment to Iraq (yes, we were both deployed).
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Oh, I love all your groupings. I'd love to do more with my photos. Currently I have a 'sea' of framed portrait type pics across the top of my piano and a few framed pics here and there from vacations. Of course the fall back of hanging favorite shots on the fridge. I do an 8x8 'Photos I Love' album and I do hang those layouts until I do the next one near my front door. That's about as good as it gets. I'd love to do more with photos in my home so this prize would be perfect!
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Truth be told - we don't really live with the photos unfortunately but we do have some photos framed in our dining room - this just makes me wonder a little more....I'd love to have more displayed.
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I'm not so good at living with my photos. I have lots of ideas, but need to really commit to doing that. With tomorrow being world-backup day, perhaps I can select a few to print while I'm backing up my memories. Thanks for the chance to win such a great prize!
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I want to display more photos - have the hallways and kitchen well covered; need to work on the bedrooms. Your displays are very motivational!
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My hubby is the greatest! He built us a computer for our TV using Microsoft's Media Center, and one of the features is a photo screen saver. I can't even tell you how many mornings my three year old has woken up early, clicked the TV on, and just sat and watched the pictures go by. "Dat's ME!" "Mama, you were dressed like a princess!" (wedding photos, so cute!), etc. It's fun to have him see those we love on a daily basis, especially when the majority of my family live in Idaho and Montana, and we are here in the Seattle area.
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Hi Ali. How inspirational. We have a few ways we get to see our photos reguarly. All our photos are downloaded to the computer in the family room - the main hub of the house. Once the screen saver comes on, the computer randomly scrolls through our pictures and displays them. Another way is on our Apple TV - also hooked up to our computer. This pretty much does the same thing the computer does, randomly going through the photos and showing them on our large TV in the living room. We have had many hours of laughs and memories with family and friends, watching these pictures pop up I also have one large photo grouping in my home going upstairs to the bedrooms but, no wrapped canvasses are included there. Would love to win one to add to my wall. Thanks for the opportunity.
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Ali - Love the collections! I have a wall full of framed pictures around a sentiment, "Family, a journey to forever..." I absolutey love using the vinyl lettering to tell the story of the wall. I have so many photos that I'm sure when it is time to sell the house, the real estate agent will tell us to take them down and it will look like we don't live here anymore! BUT, I would still love to win the opportunity for more! I love the look of the framed art canvas. Brilliant!
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Glad to hear good feedback about Color Inc.; I was browsing canvas-printers online the other day, and another company that's highlighted on a lot of blogs (read: gives freebies to a lot of bloggers) got some worrisome feedback from actual customers.
We have loads of wall hangings, but very little of it is photos--something I'd like to remedy (which is why I was looking for printers!). One project I have started is an "I thank God when I remember you" wall, with some painted canvases I've made, and pictures of special friends/family. We're a military family and move frequently, and I want to be able to see our extended "village" every day! :)
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We have a collection of smaller framed photos on the mantle and bookshelves. We do a professional portrait session every other year, and the big framed pictures on the wall are from the most recent of those. I'd like to incorporate our daily candids more somehow, but as it stands now, there are years worth on the computer. Love what you do and how you do it, Ali. And adore that mounted frame!
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We have some monthly frames in our kitchen, but I'm not great at updating them according to my children. I really need to add more pictures to my walls. I think putting them in your child's room is a great idea!
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Love all your photos on the walls! We have a glass table in our foyer upstairs with photos from before kids & now with kids - different kinds of frames (mostly gifts). Then I have photos on the way up the stairway (large window). Instead of using it as a seated window, I put photos here. When we moved in my daughter was one and I didn't want her climbing the stairs, so we didn't use it to sit at. She's now 8 and she & her sister love to read, so I might put the pics on the wall so they can sit at the window to read.
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Love the chance to win! I live with our photos in an old school way-dated photo frames, and would lovooove to update them! Thanks for the chance to win :)
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I love how you combined the mounted photos with the framed photos. I'll have to try that :)
I have galleries in my front hall and living room. Working on building one in my family room right now!
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