Kid free photo zone: Keeping your master bedroom a romantic space for YOU

Last summer I shared how I was struggling with finishing our master bedroom. We’ve been in the house for 2+ years and it was the last space to get any sort of attention. After several more months of sitting on my ideas, an entirely new bit of inspiration came to me just before Christmas and within just a couple weeks I had everything in place. I’ve been so excited to share this with you, I love how it turned out!

Handyman Tim and I have been married for almost 14 years and up until just a couple weeks ago, 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 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! It’s no secret that my girls are my very favorite thing in the world to capture with my camera so it’s no surprise that my galleries would be overflowing with pictures of them.

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. This thought has stuck with me all year.

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.

I quickly pulled some of my favorite photos of Tim and I: the first one ever taken of us, trips to Vegas and Europe, and 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, be sure to ask first!! Respect your professional photographer’s copyright, please.)

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.

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 8×10 prints into our gallery. Imagine a few of these foil framed prints with some new couples-only pictures from upcoming vacations:

It’s enough to make me want to finally schedule the professional family portrait session I’ve been thinking of for years. I desperately want to have some pictures of us taken both with and WITHOUT the kids. 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 5×7 and a PRO frame
• A wedding collage from Minted; I chose a 16×20 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 5×7 or 8×10; 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.

P.S. Looks like Minted is having a 20% off foil-pressed art prints deal right now, you’re in luck!! Check it out:

Peanut Blossom is proud to be a Minted affiliate. We were given a complimentary custom printed piece to review for this project but all opinions are our own. You may view our full disclosure here.