Start of an "Instagram" Gallery Wall

I take so many photos at the moment. I've actually made a conscious effort to do so - because I think it's great to have a snapshot of that moment in time to jog your memory further down the line. I also noticed there were very few photos of me and my husband together, and I wanted to have more. I only use a point-and-shoot, or even just my phone, as I always have that with me and it's so easy to just take a snapshot of the moment, and then share to Facebook or Instagram if I want to use a fancy filter.

The trouble is, now I have so many photos, and they are just sitting on my computer or on my phone. I love real photographs, and after going to Athens and Paris, I made sure I got prints of my favourites to be able to easily show people. Trying to show people photos on your phone is a bit of a challenge sometimes! And being able to hold a photo is so much nicer.

I saw this Instagram Gallery Wall idea on Pinterest (where else?) and thought it'd be a great idea to do something similar in my house with the tons of photos I have that no one ever sees, both already as prints and on my phone/computer.

http://www.kevinhail.com/our-instagram-photo-wall/

The person in question, Kevin Hail, used cute little square frames, which on researching I discovered were cheap if you only wanted a couple, but to do a big project would be very expensive (they were about £2.50 each, the cheapest I could find, which seems cheap at first but if you want a 5x5 wall... it's a lot). So I opted for the cheapo option and got some mounts from ebay. I got mine from a lovely seller called Frame Smart which you can find here - Frame Smart ebay Shop


In total, I got 40, and it was only £15! Absolute bargain if you ask me, and they don't really look any different to the frames, just slightly thinner :) You can get photo mounts in black if you prefer, but I opted for white ones. They are only thin but for that price, you could stick 2 or 3 together and make a thicker version!! But anyway, I digress :)

Here's the start of my version which really brightened up a drab, plain corner of the living room. I have only blu-tacked them for now, hence they are a little wonky, but I am planning to add to it and I'm not 110% sure on the position of each photo yet. But you get the general idea!

I pretty much never pay for photo printing either, so this was a really cheap project. If you sign up to a new online photo printing company (VistaPrint, Truprint, Photobox) you almost always get some free prints included as a sign up bonus. Just upload your photos, and you're away. For example right now, if you sign up to Photobox you get 40 free prints. Sometimes there are restrictions on the size, you might only get a 6x4 size as a maximum, but if you are doing little squares like the above (mine are 4x4 apertures) it really doesn't matter. Of course, you can also print them yourself if you have a decent printer, and you can get 10 sheets of glossy photo paper from Poundland (guess what, it's a pound!)

I'm planning on adding to this wall after we're back from Edinburgh next weekend, so it may well have extended further up and maybe even over the top of the kitchen alcove :)