Family Tree Gallery. Minus the Tree.

Disclaimer: We are all over the place right now tending to unfinished business in a few rooms before our party next week. So, you might see us jumping from the laundry room to the family room to the living room over the next few days.  Should be fun!  Today, all eyes are in the family room, which we're this close to finishing but we have a few bare walls to address. Namely the one above the couch. You may remember, we originally we had a map hanging there: 

After we decided the map was too small for that wall, we took it down and the wall was bare for a few weeks while we collected photos of our family members to create a family tree gallery wall.  The nineteen frames hold pictures of me and my 4 sisters (and their spouses/kids) and my parents and Chris and his 6 brothers and one sister (and their spouses/kids) and his parents. We also have photos of all four grandparents at the highest points in the gallery.  

Chris, Greta and I are actually on the wall twice.  We are on the left side mingled with the Marcums and on the right side with the Bradleys.  At first, it made perfect sense--but I'm already rethinking that decision. Ha!  Maybe just one of us somewhere around the middle would cover the representation of both sides. 

As I was gathering the photos online, they were of all different ages.  The ones of our grandparents are 40+ years old, while some of our siblings were snapped just a couple weeks ago.  To unify everything, I applied Pioneer Woman's "Seventies" Photoshop action to all the pictures before getting them printed to a 5x7 to fit the Ikea Ribba frames. When it came to arranging the photos, I wanted it to feel really organic. Lined up frames were not necessary.  So, I kind of just played with the arrangement on our dining room table trying to keep a family tree hierarchy somewhat in play, until all the frames fit together.  

I laid thin newsprint over the spread and quickly traced out my frames and hung the template over the couch.

I wasn't very scientific about hammering nails in either.  Keeping in line with my already organic layout, I basically eyeballed it and hung the frames as I went to make sure things were still fitting together okay.

I think the result is pretty charming and just what our home was missing--family photos of the people we love the most.  As I mentioned before, some frames might get tweaked a little bit and bumped around, but overall the casual feeling of the wall fits in with the casual and comfortable feeling that we want to emulate in our family room.  It's where we gather and watch television and just chill.  And now--the entire clan is here to enjoy it with us.

Is your whole family represented somewhere in your house?  How many frames would it take for your family tree?  Can anyone beat our nineteen?  If so, I feel for your bank account.  Buying nineteen frames didn't exactly make this our cheapest project to date.

Update:  Last night we took out the second picture of us and bumped a few things around for more breathing room. So now, it's looking like this: