Displaying Memories

This week, we found ourselves getting back to some normalcy with the kiddos back at school for the first time since March! It feels so good to finally be here and I just hope we can maintain it while keeping everyone healthy. 

As I’ve had an opportunity to reflect on the past several months, I found myself getting a little irritated. 

I had all these grand plans for our quarantine and my work from home time, all of which almost none came to fruition. I should have known…

I mean what all could I have really accomplished with a baby and a four-year-old home, all day, every day! Joke was on me. 

Now, I’m left with multiple half attempted projects laying around my house that I need to find time to do. 

Another thing I have finally had to opportunity to reflect on are the intentions I had set for myself at the beginning of the year. I wound up finding this really interesting and may do a post on these intentions at another time, but for now, I can say that it’s funny how things work out sometimes. 

Today, I thought I’d start with one of the projects I dreamed up for the house that I am now being able to find an opportunity to accomplish between calls, emails and whatever five minutes I can find here or there!

 When we moved into our house a year ago, it was really important to me to ensure that family photos were displayed throughout the house. Since the space was obviously different from our old house, I found I actually lost a lot of wall space and display space in general. It was a little strange at first seeing as it’s a bigger house than our previous home, but the house is set up so differently than before. 

We have this sweet little alcove in our entry where our stairs wrap and I could not bring myself to doing the standard round table with seasonal things on it, nor could I find anything of inspiration via Pinterest and every other platform I use to find inspiration for space like that without what seems turning it into a seating area (that no one will ever sit in, mind you) or the round table. None the less, a friend that helped me decorate since I was 8 months pregnant at the time went along with a idea I had sprouted in my mind and we ended up with this space below. 

Using mostly frames from IKEA and some from Pottery Barn (see links for frames below), the space turned out great!

As much as I like this space, it still isn’t enough for me. I love walking by our family photos and reliving those moments for a second and also seeing our growth as a family. This is really the one area besides a few very small spots in the house where we have family pictures displayed. Also, let’s be honest, who actually goes back to change out photo in frames regularly?! 

I mean, if I’m going to spend money to have family photos taken, I am going to display them all the time! 

Here’s my solution, I extended up! 

The idea is tying the downstairs in with the upstairs and knowing that I have space to expand throughout the years. I think it’s also a really awesome thing for my boys to be able to walk by every day. I know they won’t really appreciate it while they are young, but I remember my mom has a similar thing that I would walk by everyday going to my room and I remember just stopping and looking at them occasionally.  

As the years go on, I will extend the gallery to these locations too so we can keep the memories out to enjoy! 

Create your gallery walls on the cheap(ish) by tying in expensive frames with inexpensive frames. All but 2 frames here are from Ikea and Pottery Barn. See products I purchased below:

Share pictures below of how you display your family photos around your house!