DIY Heart-Shaped Photo Display

Just in time for Valentine’s Day! (Although it was actually inspired by something else altogether.) A heart-shaped photo display.

Dirt-cheap, easy, a great conversation piece, and a lovely way to reflect on the past year.

By: Kimberly

By mid-January, I finally caved and tore down my Christmas gallery wall. And I mean this literally. The 3M strips I used to hang my frames failed me and I lost chunks of paint and drywall. A small sacrifice for home decor, right? So I was on the phone chatting to my sister late one evening, and our conversation turned to custom photo art. Before Christmas, I had printed a few heart-shaped photo collages for myself and the grandparents (see Photobook Canada and Minted if you are looking for these). My sister was looking to print something really big, like show-stopping, fill-a-whole-wall big. But, she didn’t have the budget for it. Hmmmmm what to do? Build your own heart of course. So I told her I’d try it out.

Here are the steps I took:

Step 1: If you haven’t already done so, sort through your favourite photos from the past year (or from whichever time period you choose). This could be really neat if you used photos from one photo session so all of the colours are consistent. Or you could do the whole thing in black & white. Lots of possibilities here.

Step 2: Print photos. I printed approximately 180 and I did not use them all. I chose a square 5 x 5 size. This cost me roughly $30. I spent another $4 on sticky tac at Staples. And that was my entire budget.

Step 3: Start sticking. I chose a centre-point on my wall for the bottom of the heart and then roughly figured out where I wanted the top of the heart to be. I started filling the heart in and then decided to move the top up by 2 inches. This was easy to do with the sticky tac.

The rest of it was sort of like working on a puzzle. I built the perimeter of the heart and worked my way in. It’s not perfect and that’s what I like about it. Some of the photos overlap and there some spots where the wall shows. 

Robin enjoyed helping me and had she been a bit older, it would have been a pretty fun activity for her to do on her own (with a little help). When someone visits, she shows them “our big heart”.