Easy DIY Monthly Photo Wall Collage

When it comes to art, I am sentimental for the most part. I like most of the pieces in our home to tell a story. I am awful at printing out photos of special moments our family enjoys so I wondered how could I achieve a sentimental look with photos. That’s when the DIY monthly photo wall collage idea was born.

DIY Monthly Photo Wall Collage

It hit me, why not make a grid of 12 photos. Each frame would represent a month of the year and I would pick one photo a month to print. I can handle printing one photo a month.

So, I looked for frames that would match my style. I purchased 12 of these ones that hold 8×10 sized photos.

Mapping Out the Photo Wall

My math-minded husband measured the wall so he could make a grid so we knew where to hang each frame. He had to account for the electrical plug and light switches so that we could have equal distance on all sides of the frame. We opted for a 2 inch gap.

Once we had the plan, he started hanging the picture frames vertically with a nail. Why did I hang them vertically, you ask? Most pictures we take with our iPhone are vertical and I knew I would never remember to take horizontal photos each month.

DIY picture collage wall photo frames — Black Picture Frames

Time to Pick 12 Photos

Meanwhile, I started scrolling old photos on my phone. I didn’t think about it too long, I just scrolled back through and picked a photo that was a highlight of that month. It might be a family photo from vacation, it might be a further away shot of the kids running down to the boat dock at the lake.

Then it was time to print them. I just used the Walgreens photo app on my phone. They usually have a coupon so make sure to apply that! Once they were done we could pick them up and add the photos to these frames.

We started with January and worked our way down to December.

Updating the Photo Each Month

Now, once a month my kids remind me to look through my phone and pick a photo. They always want a say in the one I pick and it ends up being a fun way to look back and remember all the highlights of the month.

I have to clean the frames often because my kids will be playing and walk by the wall and just stop to point, admire and reminisce. It’s a talking point for guests when they come over and it’s one of our favorite art installations in our home.

What can I say, seeing the highlights of the people I love everyday when I walk by can’t be beat!

Quick tip – Once, you place the picture in the frame, you can add half of a command hook strip to the back of the frame to keep it from going crooked.

What do you do with the photos when you put the new one in?

When it’s time to update the photos, we just take the old photo out and place it in an album. I hope as the years pass, we will have a few special photos from each year that represent our family’s life.

So, even if I don’t get all the photos printed off that I would like at least we have some and like I always say, some is better than none!