DIY Modern Hanging Photo Wall

This DIY project will be the perfect showcase for your family memories

Item List

  • Old Family photos (4″x6″ or 5″x7″ work best)
  • Felt or other fabric pieces
  • Yarn or string (your choice of colour)
  • Wooden dowel (or old tree branch?)
  • Shoe box or scrap cardboard or heavy cardstock paper
  • Scrap wood (I had some circle and squares laying around but you can make this work without it)
  • Wooden beads
  • Paint (your choice of colour – I did black) and paint brush
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • Glue Stick
  • Scissors and hole punch
  • Pencil
  • Ruler

Instructions

  1. Paint your wooden dowel (or tree branch) in the colour of your choice. Set aside to dry for a few hours.
  2. Select 19 family photos you want to showcase (4×6 or 5×7) work best.
  3. Using a ruler and scissors (or utility knife) you want to trim all your photos to be 4 x 4 inch squares. NB: If you do not want to cut your photos, you can do what I did…scan each photo (they are phone apps to do this) and send them to your computer. I then resized them on my laptop (I simply used power point but any photo editing software would work). Then print them out on cardstock paper and trim.
  4. Cut out five 4 x 4 inch squares from your cardboard or shoebox. 
  5. Cut out five more 4 x 4 inch squares from your fabric.
  6. Using your glue stick, glue each piece of fabric to the cardboard squares. Allow to dry.
  7. Make 5 tassels (see instructions here)
  8. Now you are ready to put it all together.
  9. Attach 5 pieces of wool or string to your painted wooden dowel (evenly spaced apart).
  10. Lay out your photos – you want 3 rows of 5 photos across. Make  sure it is an evenly spaced grid. Followed by a row of only 3 photos (centred) and finally one lone photo on the bottom (centred).
  11. When you are happy with your lay out, flip your photos so that the wrong side is facing up. Now using a few beads of hot glue, attach your photos to the strings/wool.
  12. To finish off the bottom of each row, you want to add your 5 fabric covered squares followed by a wooden bead, followed by a wooden circle. Space these out similar to your photos (it does not have to be perfect).
  13.  Using your hot glue gun, glue the back of your fabric covered square and wooden circles the same way as you did the photos. Trim off extra string.
  14. Finally glue on your five tassels to the bottom of each row.