OPAM: may ’08 (photo wall in living room) AFTER

Posted byTara 244 Comments on OPAM: may ’08 (photo wall in living room) AFTER

Update : 06.02.13

The last photo taken of our photo wall before a pipe burst in our kitchen and everything came down. When it gets hung up again, the photos will be different and it will be in another room entirely. Thanks for five years of internet love!

-Tara

 

This was such a good experience for me. because while i did put my project off to the last minute (figuring out what prints i wanted and ordering them last week) (and putting the prints in the frames this weekend),

AT LEAST I FINISHED SOMETHING I STARTED!

and that my friends, is KEY for me. i am the queen of good intentions. starting something in my house…and then getting sidetracked and starting something else in my house….until there are five or six unfinished projects going on, and im sitting around feeling overwhelmed and crappy.

but this OPAM thing is keeping me accountable. so thank you blogland!

for those of you following along, today is the day to post your after picture on your blog and link here in comments. i also think it would be cool for you to post your before picture along with your after picture, or at least link to the post with the before pictures, like i just did. its also the day to choose your june OPAM, and post the before pictures for that. i am going to do that in a separate post, so each month is easily found when searched for.

so-i hemmed and hawed over how to choose photos. initially i thought i wanted all black and white. until a friend begged me to mix in some tara color, and make it more eclectic, because really, isnt that what is more my style? and i totally agreed with her. also-i was having a really hard time finding photos i wanted to turn black and white to use for this. so i easily gave in and decided to mix it up.

i was also so so so so so in love with the TTV effect that jefra created for my photos, that i decided i wanted all of my frames to be filled with that effect. but i didnt have any photos actually taken in that way except for jefras. so i googled “ttv frame download” and found several sites that offered free downloads. i grabbed a couple that i thought would work. this is a great group on flickr too. also, here is a tutorial for doing it yourself. of course, adding the frame in PS is not as fun as doing it the real way, but i didnt have time on my side, so i cheated.

then came the undertaking of deciding what photos to choose! i knew what i wanted to “say” with this project. its the first thing people will see when they come into my house. so i wanted a BAM kind of statement and a happy portrayal of our life. and i knew i wanted one of each kid, one of jeff and i, and then some fun, funky shots to really make it interesting.

i created a folder on my desktop and copied any photo that i deemed a “maybe” into it. then in photoshop, i created a huge blank canvas, resized and cropped all of those “maybe” images and started dragging and moving them around until i found the perfect arrangement. i added the TTV borders to the nine shots i was using, fiddling with the effect and color until they were what i wanted…and ta da! my photo wall is complete, and completely AWESOME if i may say so myself.

opam0508v2.jpg

opam0508v1.jpg

now, even jeff is gung ho to complete our front room. we have been waiting to do it because we have had to focus our funds on other more important things. we have a list of big ticket “to buy” items and this room was just not at the top of the list. but now that this wall makes such a statement, its a shame to have the rest of the room flop.

see? productivity spreads like a weed!

**

Supplies and other info:

Frames: the frames used here were 20×20 glass clip frames, purchased from IKEA. However they are no longer available. IKEA does have other 20×20 frames.
An online source for glass clip frames is here.

TTV tutorial: This was an effect added digitally. Tutorial found here.

TTV border: I found mine here.

 

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244 Comments

  2. i’m a lurker but i had to post on this – your wall is gorgeous! amazing!!! i’m inspired…well – i always am when i look at your pictures but i LOVE THIS!!! thanks for sharing and i can’t wait to see what you come up with next month

  8. oh! this is so beautiful!!!! u inspire me tara! and i know this next line belongs to a response to a previous post, but hey, ur beautiful no matter what size u are! it’s what’s inside you that counts. and from your blog and works, i can tell that it’s a very beautiful inside. =)

  17. Hi Tara, this is just beautiful and so inspiring..love them.
    Tell me, could you possible put the link where you ended up getting this “ttv frame download”.
    I have googled but cannot locate.
    Cheers
    Jogirl xo

  18. Oh my gosh- this is the cutest thing! Those pictures work perfectly with that effect-
    such Tara style!!
    Great job! (And congrats on finishing a project- I can totally relate. Started cleaning out ds’s clothes, he hung on the shelves in the closet like a monkey and pulled them out of the wall. He has had a 4×5′ pile of clothes smack in the middle of his tiny bedroom for 3 weeeks because dh hasn’t had time to fix the shelves. Actually tackling that project today!)
    This wall grouping really inspires me to get creative. Thanks!
    Whitney

  21. Oh yes, please do tell how you framed them. I see the IKEA frames in the first part but these look like they are glass clipped to something. LOVE it. I am inspired to do some stuff to my house and am jumping on the bandwagon :)

  27. I did mine too. I cleaned the laundry at the end of last month but.. i also reeeeeeally pushed myself to take a photo of my son and I together.. it is HUGE for me. I had one photo taken with him in 2004.. and thats IT! I HATE photos of me.. I didn’t even want wedding photos. I agreed to the agony that was standing about for 20 mins..and we have one 6×4 on the wall of my husband with me blury in the background. I can barely stand to look at that. BUT i did it. I took photos of Lochie and I.. we are in costume..LOL but it is a start..and very much where he is at 4! http://paintedwithlight.typepad.com/lanne/2008/05/in-2004.html Looking for June’s project now.

  34. I love this wall!! I have been wanting to do something like this for the longest time, but dont have the right wall for it. Maybe I will do it in my kids room. You are inspiring me to get some parts of my house together, and

  35. Tara, that wall of pictures looks incredible. I love it so much. I’ve been wanting to get some (more) of our pictures up around the house too.

    Thanks for all the TTV info. I played with it all afternoon. Very very cool. As is your wall. Thanks for sharing.

  36. WOW!! that wall looks absolutely amazing. I have been waiting to see the photos and they are incredible. I found your blog a few years ago from 2peas and I love reading your day to day happenings. Your photography is stunning!

  39. Those pictures are great!! Our living room is in need of a little perking up and something like this could really work for us. Where did you get the frames? They look like a clip type but in a bigger size than I’ve sen in most stores. Please tell… Thanks a bunch!

  45. I have good intentions, too. And before I know it, I have several unfinished things going on in my house. Thank you so much for sharing this. And I LOVE that you mixed the color and black and white. Looks absolutely FABULOUS!

  49. TARA THIS IS BRILLIANT! You inspire me in so many ways… This wall captures your spirit and family perfectly! can’t wait for the next OPAM (and inspired now to create my own!)

  50. Tara, back again! Love, love this! What size are these? Did you just have prints made or were they mounted onto something to hang/display. I can’t tell! Oh no, wait, you used those clip frames. awesome. But where to find? The images look so LARGE! Need to know!! I’ll send chocolate! bawwhahah!

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