2 Ways to Tastefully Display Family Photos

Happy Friday! How is it already the day after July 4? Summer is really flying by. Today, I wanted to talk about family photos and how to display them. I LOVE photos. I take a lot of photos, I print a lot of photos, and I like to display them. In our last house, I had A LOT of photos displayed – on our walls, in frames, on desks, etc. etc.

I think displaying your photos really makes a house feel like home – like people live there! I do like to keep minimal evidence that we actually live in our house by keeping clutter at bay and always tidying up, but you can definitely get a feel for who lives in a house by their photos. But, there is a way to display photos tastefully. It’s easy to get carried away and if not done correctly, photos can distract from your house and decor. The wrong frames and placement can make it really hard to have an elegantly decorated home!

Below I’m going to share 2 ways to display your family photos to enhance your decor and some tips for making them look perfect!

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Gallery Walls

The first way to display photos tastefully is a gallery wall. Gallery walls are a great way to display a bunch of photos in a really elegant way. They also take up a lot of wall space, which is great if you have large walls like I do! I did a gallery wall in our staircase. There are several different types of gallery walls you can do and they can fit any style decor based on the frames you chose and layout.

I went for a modern and sleek look with my gallery wall by using brass frames that were all the same size (you can shop them at the bottom of this post!). We did 12 frames that pretty much took up the whole wall.

If you wanted to make your gallery wall more farmhouse, you could vary the frames, both in size and actual frame. Also, to make it less modern, you could hang your pictures in varying places rather than in a grid, like mine.

A few tips for displaying a gallery wall – once you decide where you want to put it and how you want it to look, make sure you use frames that fill the space appropriately. They need to be the right size to fill up the wall. If you are doing a gallery wall over a table or sofa, you need to make sure you place the frames fit the furniture. If you are going to do a grid pattern if your gallery wall, make sure the spacing between the frames is the same. In terms of the actual photos in your frames, you want to make sure they look good together with complementary coloring and exposures. I laid out all of the pictures that I had printed (15 photos) an then selected the 12 that looked the best together. A few were took dark and/or vibrant compared to the bright and airy style of.most of my photos. I also played with the layout of which photo would go where to make sure I liked how each one looked next to the other.

Check out Pinterest for more gallery wall ideas!

Incorporated on shelves

One of my favorite ways to display family photos is to incorporate them where I have other decor. A lot of times this is on a bookcase. The trick here is to make sure that your photos work with your other decor and that you don’t overdo it. When styling your shelves, not every shelf needs to have a photo on it.

Here are some tips for how to accomplish the look:

1. Vary the size of your photos so that they are the feature of some shelves but an accent on others. You can even vary the shape with some being rectangular and some square. Another great idea is to put picture frames on books to vary height and display some pictures horizontally and some vertically.

2. Use frames that compliment your decor but also add interest. Thick wood frames and floating frames add an extra element to your photos. Also play around with the matting so that some frames have more blank space vs photo.

3. Layer your photos to create depth. This also works great on a picture ledge!

Similar to the gallery wall, I print extra photos once I know what size frames I have. I then hold up different photos to decide which one compliments the overall look and decor the best.

Lastly, (and this tip also goes for gallery walls) consider having professional pictures taken (if you haven’t already!) and displaying those. Most of the photos I display in my house are now professional photos and there is something to be said for the quality of them. They are beautiful. We look our best, the lighting is excellent, they are edited appropriately, they aren’t grainy, etc. etc. I really cherish these photos and although it can be pricey, I look at them every day and have never been sorry we had any of them taken! We’ve had professional photos taken a few times now – engagement, wedding, honeymoon, maternity, and newborn – and I’ve loved it every time. If you display other photos, just make sure the quality is good!