A big thanks to Shutterfly for sending me this amazing mounted wall art. All opinions are mine alone.
My husband and I just had our 5 year wedding anniversary. We have a few small traditions that we carry out each year, but this year I wanted to do something more to commemorate 5 (hooray!) years of a life together and to show off the family we have become in a special way. Over the past few years I have become obsessed with photography, even turning it into a profitable business for myself, so when Shutterfly gave me a chance to create a gallery wall for my home I knew that it would be the perfect gift for my husband on our 5th. I mean, what better way to display our life and dress up our home decor at the same time? And now that the big day has passed, I can share it with you! I love every part of it, and my husband was floored when he opened his gift. I put SO much heart and thought into each and every piece I chose, and I think they represent our family life in a really meaningful way. And fyi our walls are a weird cream color, which isn’t quite white, but will hopefully be changing soon!
Isn’t that just lovely? I have been a fan of Shutterfly’s photo books for a while now, and because I use a different lab for my clients I had never thought to try their larger scale products like canvases or wall art prints. For this project I was all set to go with canvas, but after a little more though I ended up going with Mounted Wall Art for its durability and lower price per piece. In all I got 13 pieces for just under $700, so that evens out to $53 per piece which is GREAT! Now, I am someone who is very indecisive, especially when it comes to a large scale purchase like this one. I think it comes from me being one heck of a perfectionist, but luckily they offer pre-arranged sets that take the guesswork out of creating the perfect gallery wall. Their process is super easy – just pick you set, add in the photos you want and then add them to your cart! The whole process was very easy and I ended up getting 3 different sets!
Everything arrived a few weeks before our anniversary, and let me tell you, it was so hard keeping this a secret! But the big day finally came and when my husband opened his gift I shed a few tears (yes, I cry at everything these days) and he absolutely loved them.
This guy was all smiles as he looked at each and every piece, and he was SO surprised at his gift. We have both been wanting to display some of our family photos around the house for a while now, so we decided to hang them up immediately!
Each gallery set comes with a hanging template so you don’t have to worry about spacing, leveling and spending your afternoon rearranging pieces because they just don’t quite work. All we had to do was stick the included level onto it, hang it on the wall and the rest was a breeze!
Now I will admit, I’m not one to really do the norm, and since I was combining a few different sets I started with the basic arrangement and then switched up a few things.
Since I had that solid pre-set framework all it took was a few slight modifications and I was finished! One thing I really like about the Mounted Wall Art is how slim each piece is. They stand out from the wall a *tiny* bit, but it gives it a great 3-d effect without looking too bulky. I also love that they are a solid piece rather than canvas so that if something crazy should happen and my little monsters by chance got hold of one I wouldn’t have to worry about tears or breakage.
The living room didn’t get ALL the fun though, we picked our two favorites and hung them in our bedroom so that we can see them when we wake up.
These pieces have become part of our family now. They are a backdrop for our lives, we see them every day, we craft beside them, we cuddle beside them, we do everything beside them. When our children are grown we will still have these beautiful snapshots of these frozen moments in time, and that means more to me than I could ever say. I hope to keep adding to it a little each year, but for now it is just perfect!
