| Our master bedroom needed a huge makeover. The | | | | Fix the photos. After selecting the four photos, some |
| paint was old, the curtains were dusty and the | | | | had to be scanned into my computer while the more |
| artwork was outdated. I didn't want to spend a | | | | recent ones were taken with my digital camera and |
| fortune re-doing everything so I looked for | | | | were already in my computer. Adobe Photoshop |
| inexpensive solutions to give the room a whole new | | | | makes it easy to fix photos. They were all different |
| look without breaking the bank. | | | | sizes and colors so the first thing I had to do was |
| Paint was a must. In some of our other rooms, we | | | | make them all uniform. |
| used a paint color made by Pittsburgh Paint called | | | | Using the "Image-Size" function in Photoshop, I made |
| "Happy Trails, which is a really rich tan color. | | | | them all 5 x 7's and using the |
| Next, I knew those old curtains had to be changed | | | | "Image-Mode-Grayscale" function, I turned them into |
| out, so I found an inexpensive curtain rod and bought | | | | black and whites. I ended up with four, 5 x 7, black |
| two different scarves and draped those over the | | | | and white photos. This is an important step, in my |
| rod. Done. I needed to bring in some color, so I made | | | | opinion, because you want them all to match. |
| a couple of arrangements out of silk and dried | | | | Buy the frames. In order to accomplish the uniform |
| flowers. A nice pop against the warm tan of the | | | | look, I also selected four identical frames. |
| walls. | | | | Hang them. Once the four black and white photos |
| Now, what to do about the wall art? Most people | | | | were in the frames, I had to decide how I wanted |
| want to display family photos as I do but I didn't | | | | to hang them. The orientation of the photos (portrait |
| want a bunch of mismatched frames sitting around. I | | | | or landscape) will help you decide the configuration |
| was going for a cleaner look. | | | | (across in a straight line, down in a straight line, in a |
| Our last child just left for college so I wanted to | | | | perfect square...). |
| showcase the transition my family has undergone | | | | Two of my photos were landscape and 2 were |
| over the past 22 years. It came to me to make wall | | | | portrait so I decided to put them in a square with an |
| art out of black and white photos and matching | | | | irregular edge to create visual interest. We hung up |
| frames. | | | | the photo collage yesterday and my husband helped |
| How I made it | | | | to ensure that the frames were all perfectly spaced. |
| Pick the photos. I chose one of my family when the | | | | The wall art that we created turned out just as I |
| two kids were very young and one of my family | | | | pictured it. Not only do we have inexpensive wall art, |
| now. Then I found my favorite picture of just the | | | | but we have something to look at that is so very |
| kids when they were little and another one of them | | | | meaningful and will be cherished for years to come. |
| now. | | | | |