Creative Photo Display Ideas (+ Photo Canvas Giveaway!)

Do you have a ton of family pictures on your phone or camera? Be inspired to get those family photos off your devices and try these creative photo display ideas!

Creative Photo Display Ideas

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Am I dating myself when I say one of my hobbies used to be scrapbooking? I loved taking photos, anticipating how the pictures would turn out on a camera roll and then arranging the photos in an album or scrapbook. My first two kids have a beautiful scrapbook of their first years. Then something happened between my second and third child! Taking pictures on the phone become very popular!

I have probably taken the most pictures of my third born however, he has the least amount of printed pictures of himself. Oops! It is so easy to take pictures now…and keep taking them, to get that perfect picture. But, I think so many of us are guilty nowadays of not actually doing anything WITH THE PICTURES! Last time I checked, I had over 20, 000 pictures on my phone…YIKES! Are you guilty of this too?

Today, I’ve got some ideas for you on how to display family photos! Hopefully, you will be inspired to get some of those photos off your phone or camera and get them out on display.

Yearly Photo Collage

One of our favorite ways to make use of all the pictures we take throughout the year is to make a yearly photo collage. It is a fun way to use a TON of photos. Depending on the size of the poster you create, you can include up to 500 photos! My favorite place to make these posters is at Collage.

A yearly photo collage is a great way to highlight some of your family’s favorite moments of each year. These posters can be personalized and we choose to add the date at the bottom of each poster.

There are a bunch of different poster style options and sizes, so you can really create a poster that fits your needs.

We get the 16 X 20 size poster and I poster frames from Ikea. The fun part is deciding where to display your photo collages. It is nice to have the photos in a high traffic area so you can look at them often:)

 

MOM PRO TIP: Keep a favorites folder filled with your top pictures throughout the year. Then, when you are ready to make a picture you do not have to sift through an entire year’s worth of photos. (Trust me when I say it is a lot of work if you don’t!)

Family Yearbook

Another idea for displaying family photos is to create a family yearbook. I will admit that is something I am working on this year. For several years, I made each of the kids a photo album and then we also had a family photo album. Plus, I made travel photo books or albums. Making all these separate books can be VERY TEDIOUS!

The best solution is to make ONE FAMILY book for each year. Now, with the ability to store photos on the computer, phone and web long term, there is no need for me to make individual books for everyone.  Plus, one book versus many photo books is a huge space saver. Are you like me and have a ton of old, bulky photo albums??

I sometimes shop around for the best deals on photo books, but mostly I stick to Shutterfly. The books are always beautiful and there is always a deal! Currently, Shutterfly is offering a free photo book a month when download their app!!

MOM PRO TIP: If you still like the idea of printing out pictures, especially of your kids, that you want to save long term, these photo storage boxes are the best!! You can file photos by year, family member, holiday or event, etc!

Create a Photo Canvas

Over the last few years, photo canvases have really become a popular way to showcase a favorite photo. There are so many benefits to a photo canvas. You do not need to buy a frame. The canvas really is a piece of artwork that provides a beautiful focal point in the home.

I recently partnered with Canvas Factory to share their canvas collection. They provide high quality products and very fast service! I was so pleased with how our canvas turned out, especially since it was a photo taken from my phone!

Be sure to pay attention to sizing and cropping when you order a photo canvas. Sometimes, depending on the orientation that the photo was taken, cropping can be a little funny. However, Canvas Factory has a nice feature that helps you make the photo fit to size. Their canvases also wrap around on the sides, which is a little nicer than blank or black sides.

 

MOM PRO TIP: Order photo canvases sooner than later! Capture your favorite memories right away while it is fresh on your mind. Waiting until later might mean you never get it ordered!

Special thanks to the Canvas Factory for collaborating with me on this post!

Create a Picture Wall

One, very fun way, to display family photos is with a photo wall. All credit is given to my daughter who came up with this creative photo display idea for her room. If you have a photo loving member of the family, a photo wall is a really creative and neat way to display actual photographs!

Photo walls are a great, temporarily and easy to change option! You can keep your photo wall uniform with the same size pictures, or get really creative and use different sizes and shapes. My daughter also added in some quotes (that she printed on photo paper) along with all of the photos.

Tweens and teens (and college kids too!) really love photo walls, so this is a great photo display option for kids!

How to adhere your photos to the wall (and what not to do!)

We had a bit of trial and error when we decided to create a photo wall. First, we considered using small thumbtacks and pushpins, but I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of a ton of little holes in the wall.

Then, we tried to create a large bulletin board to the wall. But for several reasons, this method for adhering photos did not work out. We started by buying several packs of corkboard squares and then adhering the boards to the wall with the sticky tape that came with the packs.  Unfortunately, this project turned out to be a total bust as the sticky tape was no wear near strong enough to keep the corkboards attached to the walls. 

 

We adhered all the boards which included cutting some of the boards to work with the angled ceilings. But, by the next morning, all of the boards had fallen off of the wall. We were bummed, because we had already invested a lot of time in the project!

So guess what method worked best for the photo wall? Mounting putty (also known as sticky tack). We got this very inexpensive mouting putty and it worked like a charm. A few months in and not a single picture has fallen off the way. It goes to show that sometimes we don’t need to over-complicate the project!!

MOM PRO TIP: Use mounting putty to adhere photos directly to the wall. This method does not damage the walls and it does not leave any marks when removed from the wall.

 

Photo Collage Wall Inspiration

Lastly, another creative use of favorite photographs is to create a photo collage wall. You can stick with frames that are the same color and size like I did here.

Or, you can use frames and sizes like I did here. You can even mix in some photo canvases and art work to a photo collage wall!!

There are so many great ways to make a photo wall gallery! You can create a themed photo gallery like “travel” or “family” or you can display a mix of photos. You can decide to keep your favorite older photos in the frames or maybe you want to update your photo wall more frequently. Whatever way you choose, you can not go wrong with creating a photo wall gallery!

Mom Pro Tip: Organize all of your pictures and frames on the floor EXACTLY how you plan to arrange them on the wall!

These are just a few ideas for displaying favorite family photos! What are your favorite creative photo display ideas? 

Looking for more tips on photo organization and creative photo display ideas?

Check out these posts from my blogger friends! We are linking up today to share our best tips for photo organization!!

April at Love Our Real Life is sharing how to organize digital photos (& love them)!

Morgan at My Pear Tree home is sharing how she gets photos off her phone and into beautiful photo books!

Amanda at Miss Sue Living is giving us the technical low down on how to organize photos on the computer!