There are many different ways to creatively showcase photos in a home. I created a photo display for our wedding photos using a recycled farmhouse window.
Several months ago my husband and I attended a lovely backyard wedding. A woman that loved to collect barn wood, windows, doors, and other vintage finds owned the home. She repurposes her finds to decorate her home and to sell at local craft fairs. She was kind enough to give me one of her old windows for me to use in my house.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the window. Then, this post from Cleverly Inspired inspired me. She used an old window to display family photos in her living room. I decided to create something similar using my repurposed window as a photo display for some of our wedding photos.
Creating a Photo Display Using an Old Window
The first step to creating my wedding photo display was to give the old window a good cleaning. It had a thick layer of dirt, dust, and cobwebs.
After spending a lot of time attempting to scrub the window by hand, I decided to spray it off with the hose instead. Spraying the window with the hose helped clean off all the dust and dirt. After a few spray downs it was much easier to wipe off the remaining dirt. I cleaned the window panes on both sides with Windex after washing the dirt off. I wanted the window panes to be sparkling clean for the photo display.
Arranging Photos in the Window
Once the window was clean and completely dry, it was time to select the pictures that I wanted to use for the photo display. My preference was photos shot from a distance and more detailed shots. I didn’t want any photos of people looking directly at the camera or facial closeups.
I arranged the photos in an alternating pattern of orientation. Vertical, then horizontal, then vertical, etc. I also decided that I preferred to have the opposite orientation pattern on the second row. After I settled on a pattern I used clear photo corners to attach the photos to the window panes. I placed the photo corners on the backside of the window pane and then slid the photos into the corners face down. The photos are behind the glass, similar to a traditional picture frame.
I hung the window photo display by attaching D Rings to the back of the frame and hanging them from Monkey Hooks.
AWESOME!!!!!!
I love it! Such a good idea to avoid too many faces – I know exactly what you mean.
This is great! We have an old window frame that I could do this to…
I’m amazed that you got this done and a coat on the bathroom walls. That doesn’t seem like too much of a snails pace to me. You have been busy. The window frame looks great and I look forward to seeing how the bathroom turns out with the new color.
I think it looks lovely! Can’t wait to see it up!
I’m going at a snail’s pace over here too. No worries! Everything will get done in good time 🙂
Looks fantastic! Love the black and white photos. And I swear it… every project I start ends taking up waaaay more time than intended.
I love it! What a great project!
It’s going to look wonderful when it’s up on the walls 🙂
Do we know about slow projects? Uh, yes. I have a shed that took me like a year to finish!! Sorry you missed the Pinterest Challenge, but that frame was worth the extra effort.. it looks awesome!! I’d be happy to hang that up anywhere in our place. We need to start hanging stuff up around here. We got nothing. 🙂
That was me that posted that, btw. Lisa doesn’t build sheds.. haha. Lousy saved email.
That’s so cool. Looks so classy 🙂
~Lisha
p.s. your twitter doesn’t work anymore: aadomestication??
It looks beautiful! The window they gave us for our wedding was pretty dirty too (it had been sitting outside for months) so it took me a while to clean it!
That’s so cute! I love it with the wedding photos in it!
I LOVE this. Pinning … I just found a similar looking window frame but it doesn’t have any glass in it … I’m trying to figure out what to do with it. Hmmmm, thanks for the ideas!!
I don’t think I’ve ever started a project and NOT had it take way longer than I expected! But the window is beautiful! I love all the detail shots!
Wow, it looks lovely! What a great project. You did a fabulous job!
So cute!!! I love it. Can’t wait to see it on the wall 🙂
Oh, I just love this! It’s simple and gorgeous. I have to find an old window now. Hopefully one not so dirty! 😉 Thanks for linking up to Gettin’ Krafty With It!
Love how your window “frame” turned out!
The good things are worth waiting for 🙂
What a pretty way to display wedding photos. I just love it.
I’ve always loved this idea! I have a bunch of old windows and can never decide what to do with them. I love that black and white look!
I love it! I was at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore here recently and saw tons of old windows and thought they were so cool, but I couldn’t think what I could ever do with one. I have my answer now. 🙂
I know what you mean about snail’s pace…. I’ve been working on painting our master bathroom for, oh, a month or so now. But I should be finished today! (I’ve said that before.) 🙂
I’m also still working on a gallery wall for our wedding photos. I want to include lots of detail shots, too. I love the pictures you chose.
Love the ReStore for things like this! Eventually I want to track down some old wood shutters from there for a headboard!
Ashley I LOVE this!! I think the B&W photos makes it look so antique and vintage and simply gorgeous!
This is so pretty. I love it. I just posted it on my FB page!! 🙂 Hope you can come for a visit Ashley! Have a great weekend!
~ Julie
That is beautiful! GREAT job!
Looks like it was worth the hard work. I always love when free projects come together so perfectly.
Nice job! I love your picture selection. It’s nice that all the pics are cohesive. Thanks for joining our party!
i loooooove it! especially with the black and white photos, it adds such a vintage quality to it. Sometimes projects are worth the snail’s pace at the end 🙂
Love how it turned out!! && I know just what you mean… humorously with old windows too! I’ve been working on some for forevverrrr now lol.
Looks great! Very shabby chic. Reminds me I should finish some projects I started!
Pretty much ALL my projects take me way longer to finish than I think they will – two years longer, in one case!
Your window picture frame looks great 🙂 It’s such a nice way to display the collection of wedding photos. Make sure you get strong mounting hardware to hang that baby up!
Definitely! I have a post on that almost ready, should be up tomorrow!
It was worth the wait, it turned out cute. Lord knows I have enough projects waiting for me to get around to ’em.
~Bliss~
Sorry you didn’t make it to your Pinterest challenge. That’s a shame, but thanks for linking it up to Hot Fun in the Summertime. I think it turned out great.
I love this window wall gallery, I just might have to do this too. And the pics you chose are great…moments…those are the best pictures to display, they evoke an emotion, a feeling, a memory…great job lady!
Thanks! I didn’t want to bog the room down with eyes staring at us lol. But these detail shots are definitely some of my favorites anyway!
I did the same thing in my bathroom and I so enjoy it! I am having trouble with the pictures staying STUCK to the window glass. What did you use for your pictures to stay mounted to the glass?
I used transparent photo corners, but I’m not dealing with any steam or heat in my bedroom. Is there a shower in that bathroom? If so it may be too steamy. If that’s the case you could probably super glue the corners to the glass?
I think this looks great and I actually have a similar window I could do something like this with. Thanks for the idea!
Great refashion! and upcycle! I would love for you to link this up to The CSI project this week. The challenge is refashions/upcycles. This would be perfect and you just might WIN! Come on over each week for a new challenge, new tutorials and new judges.
http://www.thecsiproject.com
On Monday I am posting about a door that I transformed…your post was part of the inspiration! I will be sure to give you credit with a link back to your post 🙂 It will prob. be up around 11 pm on Sunday 🙂 Thanks for inspiring!!!!
~ Julie
Who cares how long it took…the project came out beautiful! I love it! 🙂
I love your re-purposed window. I have several old windows from my Mister’s growing up home. I hope to soon do something such as this with mine. I too have a board on Pinterest just for such ideas.
Thanks Mandy! It’s definitely one of my favorite projects I’ve done! 🙂
Hi
I was wondering if the pictures were put on the front of the window or the back?
Thank you
They are on the backside. Thanks for reading!