A romantic wall gallery in the master bedroom is the perfect place to display wedding photos and memorabilia from your relationship.
Most parents love to take a million pictures of their kids and display them all over the house.
I love taking and displaying pictures of my kids even more than your average mom, but yet I found myself carving out a place that was just for my husband and me to enjoy.
When we first moved into our new home, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about our master bedroom decorations.
I finally decided we had the perfect wall for creating our own romantic wall gallery where I can rotate photos from our dating years all the way through over 20 years of marriage!
Where to Display Wedding Photos
Even though we had been married for 14 years at the time I decorated our room, we didn't have a single wedding photo displayed anywhere in our home.
We have a gorgeous wedding album, but nothing in frames on the walls where we could see it every day.
This was not for lack of frames! I have whole wall galleries up in our dining room and entry way thanks to Change of Art and they are my very favorite things in the house.
But the images in those frames?
- Kids, Kids, Kids!
- Family adventures.
- More Kids, Kids, Kids!
If you looked at those displays, you might think no adults are in the family! Ha!
A Space for Just You
Last year we were welcomed into the home of some of our friends. While the guys chatted, my friend gave me a tour of their lovely house.
When we reached her bedroom, I was so impressed that she had kept that space special to Just Them.
There was not a single baby photo to be found in the entire room despite the fact that her halls were just as filled with kid pictures as mine are.
That thought stuck with me and I knew I wanted to make a change.
And then on a random trip to Target, I stumbled across the pair of wooden signs you see featured in these images:
"You are my greatest adventure."
I didn't even hesitate before that quote along with the distressed metal heart sign made their way into my cart.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do with our room in that very moment.
Get Your Photos Printed
I quickly scoured my photo library for some of my favorite photos of Tim and I:
- The first picture ever taken of us when we started dating
- Fun snaps from trips to Vegas and Europe before we had kids
- I made a very special phone call to our wedding photographer from all those years ago to get special permission to use his images for this project.
(If you don't have negatives or digital files with printing privileges from your wedding photographer, be sure to ask first!! Respect your professional photographer's copyright, please.)
Once I had my favorites chosen, I ordered photo prints in sizes 5x7 - 8x10 at my favorite photo printing site.
The Best Picture Frames for a Wall Gallery
I ordered a mixed collection of frames from Change of Art so that the gallery would be a little wild and crazy.
The less structured the layout, the easier it will be to add on to it over time.
I love the idea of mixing in other objects of art from our future vacations into the various nooks and crannies.
And because the Change of Art frames have those incredible storage pockets in the back, I can easily rotate our images and add to the collection as we have more adventures.
Add Static Art to the Wall Gallery
There was one piece I wanted to add to the gallery that I knew wouldn't be swapped and rotated out.
After all these years, I finally wanted to have something special from our wedding day displayed in our room.
I've had my eye on the gorgeous prints from Minted for a while now.
We got married well before collages like these were popular and I love the simple inscription:
I had a hard time deciding on that particular layout, there were so many great ones to pick from:
All those beautiful options, but I'm especially in love with the ones that have the foil accents.
At some point, I'd love to mix a few of the 8x10 prints into our gallery.
Imagine a few of these foil framed prints with some new couples-only pictures from upcoming vacations:
The other eye opening thing about this project? How FEW photos of the two of us together actually exist! I couldn't believe it.
Out of the literally Thousands of pictures I've taken of the girls, I had to really stretch to find ones to add to our own gallery.
It makes me excited to have realized this now. I know that on future trips we take together we will be on the lookout for pictures that are just for US.
Maybe there will be scenic shots of places we visit, maybe it will be images of us individually being playful and goofy, you can bet there will be a handful of crazy tutu shots going up after next month's run.
This gallery is our spot for memories of our marriage, not our parenthood.
Since the rest of our world right now revolves around the one, it is nice to put the focus on the other.
And where better a spot than in our own room??
If you'd like to replicate this space for you and the love of your life, here are the sources you need:
- A "Staircase Builder" gallery from Change of Art; I started with this set and then added on a 5x7 and a PRO frame
- A wedding collage from Minted; I chose a 16x20 framed version of this print here with a black frame that matches the Change of Art frames perfectly
- Add a couple foil accent prints from Minted in 5x7 or 8x10; hint: you can sort the options by the size you need!
- Add some prints of your favorite photos together. Curious where to get them printed? Check out this review for the best options.
Karen Nicholson
The "Just us" idea is fabulous! I would love to know the paint color you used in your bedroom.