Hey there fellow TLP lovers, Polly Brandi here to share with you how I decorated my house with my Instagram photos. If you don’t use Instagram, you can still use this idea! :)
Here is what it will look like…
(excuse the stuff in the background)
As you can see it *looks* like I used 2 different colors but in all honesty, I didn’t. I bought the EXACT same spray paints with the same number and color code on them and when I started spraying the bigger frame, it came out a darker, more royal blue. I was shocked but was still happy so I just let it be. I knew that once I stained them they would both look great hanging together regardless if they weren’t the same color blues.
So, what you need to do is find yourself a frame, or two, or three… (I used a total of 5– these babies have been lying around in our garage for the past year and I’ve been wanting to use them so this was perfect) and clean it up so it’s ready for paint. Mine had a gold finish on them so I sanded them like crazy to help the spray paint stick better.
I did leave a lot of the gold on there because if it shows through it will look even prettier. :)
Then I took my husband’s air compressor and put a special tip on it so I could blow all of the debris off of them.
(Note: if you don’t have this handy dandy tool, no worries… just take a clean paint brush that’s dry and brush off all of the dust and maybe use a clean cloth, too!)
Print and cut out all of your Instagram (or square) photos.
I did 4×4’s and used Lightroom to line them up and print…
Choose your color.
Spray away! Make sure you do this in a WELL VENTILATED place (I used my garage). I also had a fan blowing to help the fumes go out the garage door.
**Oh, you might want to wear some rubber gloves to keep your hands clean**
Now for the waiting game. I let them all sit overnight with a fan on them just to make sure they were completely dry.
Once dry, take your sponge and stain…
and rub this stuff all over your frame so it looks a little like this…
Let dry for a split 5 seconds or so and then take a DRY & CLEAN cloth and wipe the finish OFF of the frame.
It will then look something like this…
Notice the gold popping through? I love it!
Then, let dry again (I would do over night just to make sure because it will be very tacky).
As they’re all drying, you can take your cute little clothespins (bought these at JoAnn’s for super cheap) and clip them onto a cardboard so you can paint these as well.
I used the same kind of spray paint just a dark blue and a satin finish rather than gloss.
Again… let dry. :) Flip over the cardboard and repeat the process again.
Now, once your frames are completely dry, turn it over and place all of your pictures where you would like them to hang.
Then you’re going to take either screws or little tack nails (which is what I had on hand) and hammer/screw them in to the sides of the back of the frames where your wire will hang.
I used galvanized wire so it would easily wrap around the tacks. You will need wire cutters to cut this and cut closely to the tack once it’s wrapped so there’s no sharp edge while hanging.
And hang your pictures!
VOILA!
You now have pretty wall art to display your Instagram (or square) photos.
You can even hang polaroids if you’d like!
Hope you enjoyed my tutorial and try this out for yourself. You won’t be disappointed, it’s super easy and fun!
Brandi
Christine N says
So cool, Brandi! Love the tutorial!
Michelle huegel says
Beautiful!!! Thanks for the great, clear step by step. I SO want to do this!
Trista says
Oh Brandi – so cute and very inspiring. Thanks for sharing this!
laura@printing-instagram says
Hey, My name is Laura and I blog about tips for displaying printed Instagram photos. I have been doing lots of looking around to find unique ideas and I just want to let you know I love this idea! I love seeing the crafty ideas that people create to display their Instagram photos! thank you for the inspiration and thank you for sharing. I really hope this idea inspires people to print their Instagram photos!