Family Photos

[gardenswithkids]

How are your family’s photos displayed in your home? How often do you change them around? Or do you put them up and then leave them in the same frames for decades untouched? Can you share any clever idea from the homes of friends and relatives? I’m particularly interested in displays for families with multiple children.

Right now, we have a “baby wall” with a large baby pictures of each child displayed. Senior portraits of our graduates are displayed too. Otherwise, we have mostly formal group portraits (with varying numbers of children as they’re added through the years), plus a photo from our wedding. Those are displayed on the stairs and it looks rather formal. There’s a few others scattered here and there. I try to change them around from time to time.

Right now, I hope to create a more casual picture display on one wall using our favorite snapshots. I think I’ll have the photos printed in black and whites (or sepia) so that the colors in the photos don’t clash with the colors on the other photos and in the room, but I’m not sure.–I’ve never done that before. I’m not nearly as artsy as I wish I were, and I’m trying to figure how to get it to look nice. But the bigger question is which pictures to display.

I’ll make sure that all of my children are in at least one picture, but I’m pondering how “fair” it should be in terms of does each child need to have the exactly equal number of pictures? Does everyone need their own “solo” shot if I include some with solos? I’m not sure if I want to go through pictures from years ago or just want to display recent photos?

I found some nice frames and bought them before I realized it would be this hard to do this. There’s clearly a good reason why many family pictures are stored in shoe boxes or in buried in computer files while the walls stay bare!

 

[Kelfa28]

We still have a small family of just two kids so we don’t have too many framed pictures up yet. My plan is to do a separate baby picture frame (the one where you can place about nine 3x5s) for each baby in our living room.

I don’t think I will change too much around even when we add more children. It was something I did worry about a little but I’ve come to peace with the fact that right now my eldest has the most pictures up.
We have a few pictures up. One with our honeymoon trip to Europe, a couple of wedding collages that my sister made for me and some Christmas portraits of the girls this past year.

I have other ideas too. Instead of art work I’d buy I want to enlarge pictures of some of the buildings and landscapes we took pictures of in France and Italy and making that our own art.

 

[pianistclare]

When my daughters were little, we turned the finished basement into a play room fro them. So…their milestone portraits were hung in that long stairwell down. As they grew, I added the “newest” version into the existing frames. This protected the past portraits as well from getting bent in a drawer.
Their large First Communion portraits will stay in the dining room. Forever.
Now, that they are older, the milestone was high school graduation. Each had a lovely portrait that is over the fireplace. I imagine those will be replaced someday with wedding photos.

 

[Blessedwithfive]

My husband loves to take photos so we have lots. We switch them out seasonally. Like sledding pics in the winter and swimming in the summer. Some stay forever. Like a wedding photo of us. When we have a big celebration such as graduation or confirmation I switch most of the photos to that person. I try to be fair in the number of photos normally displayed in the housevcuz, no kidding, the kids count how many photos they are in.

 

[bitterhope]

We move just about every two years so we don’t put much up on the walls. We keep most of our pictures in photo albums and on the computer. I always planned on doing tons of pictures at various ages, but I feel like I’m just getting unpacked before it’s time to pack up again. Maybe when we retire we will be able to do the nice frames with wedding pictures and baby pictures as well as all the grand kids too

 

[Cariethra]

We have a frame with 3 photos that I put up just after my son was born 2.5 years ago. I have meant to update it, but life always got in the way. I have one photo of my husband and my daughter just after she was born. It is not a glamorous picture, but I would trade it for any other picture. I have several of my son’s baptism out, but none of my daughter’s (there weren’t any good photos).

My favorite picture is one of my daughter on my lap “holding” her brother still in the hospital. I am really hoping to get a similar picture once this next one is born.

 

[gardenswithkids]

…
Their large First Communion portraits will stay in the dining room. Forever. …

Keeping up those First Communion pictures is definitely a way to remind your family of their Catholic heritage! One of mine will make her First Communion next month. I was thinking that it would be nice to dig out our other children’s First Communion pictures to display at the party on the big day. Now I definitely want to do that–and I’ll have to give some thought leaving those pictures displayed. Thanks!

 

[mommamaree]

We do portraits twice a year, so we have the most recent portraits displayed in a casual arrangement. We get each child individually, the children together, daddy and son, mommy and daughters, and whole family. We also have a “Sacrament Wall” of babies in chrism gowns and First Holy Communion. We get portrait collage books printed, too, which are fun to flip through. Most of the wall space in our entryway and family room is covered now!

 

[gardenswithkids]

My husband loves to take photos so we have lots. *We switch them out seasonally. Like sledding pics in the winter and swimming in the summer. * Some stay forever. Like a wedding photo of us. When we have a big celebration such as graduation or confirmation I switch most of the photos to that person. I try to be fair in the number of photos normally displayed in the housevcuz, no kidding, the kids count how many photos they are in.

Ideally, that’s what I hope to do. I put out different pictures when I decorate for Christmas, (like the old Santa photos) and for other events. As the spring has finally arrived after this very long winter, I want no pictures with snow anywhere in sight—I want to see pictures of my children in the sun, grass and sand and water that’s unfrozen!

Yes, at graduations I put up more displays with that child’s pictures. For our last graduate’s party, I took spray paint to a bunch of our old mis-matched frames, and then displayed pictures of him in them. After the party, I had to immediately switch the pictures back around because my other kids noticed that I had covered up their pictures to display their brother’s pictures.

I want to be fair in displaying the number of photos, but I’m wondering if the kids might embrace the idea that “fair” can be averaged over time rather than having to have exactly equal numbers at all times. It sort of reminds me of how I used to count jelly beans in Easter baskets to make sure they had the exact same number of each color.

 

[gardenswithkids]

We move just about every two years so we don’t put much up on the walls. We keep most of our pictures in photo albums and on the computer. I always planned on doing tons of pictures at various ages, but I feel like I’m just getting unpacked before it’s time to pack up again. Maybe when we retire we will be able to do the nice frames with wedding pictures and baby pictures as well as all the grand kids too

We’re exactly the opposite. I’m saving the photo albums for retirement.

 

[gardenswithkids]

We do portraits twice a year, so we have the most recent portraits displayed in a casual arrangement. We get each child individually, the children together, daddy and son, mommy and daughters, and whole family. We also have a “Sacrament Wall” of babies in chrism gowns and First Holy Communion. We get portrait collage books printed, too, which are fun to flip through. Most of the wall space in our entryway and family room is covered now!

I really like the idea of a" sacrament wall."

 

[Allegra]

I’m practically addicted to photography, so we have electric photoframes that change the picture every few seconds. I also use Shutterfly to make year books and photo albums for special occasions.

 

[Saralinda]

We have a wall near the front door that holds pictures. We have 4 children (2 single & 2 with kids). We have a 8x10 of my husband & myself in the middle. Arranged around this picture, we have pictures of the 2 single kids, 2 family portraits of the kids with families, one picture of all 5 grandkids, and 5 individual pictures for each of the grandkids. Except for the one 8x10 in a gold frame, all the other pictures are in black 5x7 frames. Currently, the pictures in the 5x7 frames are all 4x6 with mats because that is what my computer prints, but sometimes they hold 5x7 pictures. The pictures are updated when a newer picture is available. In the case of the grandkids, at least once a year.

On another wall in another part of the house, we have the 4 “senior” portraits of our kids. In our bedroom, we have one frame with preschool pictures of our kids. Both these sets of pictures are on “permanent display.”

 

[Musician]

I’m a big scrapbooker so I make albums for everybody including all the grandchildren.

 

[Joe_5859]

My wife scrapbooks, too, so those tend to get more attention than the wall pictures. We have wedding/honeymoon pictures, a few other pictures, and the kid’s annual portraits that get rotated out every year.

Some of our friends used to do something neat in that they had twelve (4x6) picture frames in a row with one for every month. Every month, they would put in a new picture from that month to replace the one from the previous year. I always thought that was a neat idea. We don’t really have a place to do that in our house, though. My son likes to swing picture frames, so the less we have on the wall, the better.