IKEA Picture Wall How-To & Budget Breakdown

How many of you have thousands of pictures on your phone (45 THOUSAND sit in mine!!) but have no real photos of your family and friends on your own walls?? That was me…(insert yikes emoji). Here’s how we added a beautiful picture wall that totally transformed a large empty wall in our house AND how much it cost.

I dabble in photography as a side hobby and truly love the art of capturing moments, people, places, things, and details! So when we moved into our new little fixer upper, that is HALF the size of our old home, I wanted to really utilize the space. What better way to do that than to use those walls?

THE COLOR

Thus my idea transformed and I first imagined the wall color and flooring:

THE DESIGN

Then, I imagined how the space could come together and loved this!:

THE INSPIRATION

At first I was torn between making the space a book wall or a photo wall to be honest, but I wanted it to be unique to the design that I got my inspo from for the design of the wall from the picture seen below.

So I decided on photos, and began by collecting photo frames from all over. I wanted them to be a mixture of black and gold frames and I didn’t want to spend a fortune on them so I tried to find them at as many thrift shops as I could. So I began collecting them from Goodwill, Ikea, Hobby Lobby, Joanns, and Target. Stores like Hobby Lobby and Joanns are great spots to shop because they nearly always have deals on frames or coupons you can apply!

TOTAL Frame’s Cost: $123.00

THE PHOTOS

All photos I printed at CVS as they were the only ones that printed 12×18 sized prints nearest to us available for the same day. I mixed 16×20, 8×10, 14×16, 12×18, and 12×12 inch frames. Alternating there positions is a great way to have dimensions and less uniformity in the way you design how they go on the wall.

The prints were not the cheapest things to do. Because they were considered “poster size” for their print sizing, I paid between $3.99 for the smallest print and $15 for the largest. And of course, I opted to print all the photos in BLACK & WHITE for that seamless look of color against the darker wall.

TOTAL Photo Cost: $130

Yikes! Writing that kinda makes me cringe but it really turned out to be worth it for 16 prints. Roughly about $8 a print though, but seeing my family’s face every up there = is priceless 😀

PHOTO LEDGES

For the photo ledges, I didn’t want to spend too much on them (Amazon has some packs and so does Target but they are super SPENDY! So we went with the Ikea MOSSLANDA picture ledges. We purchased 8 of the 45 1/4″ white ledges and decided to paint them Iron Ore Matte Black to match the wall.

MEASUREMENTS

After they were painted we placed two pieces against each other to make a wall of four rows. We spaced them 16″ apart and 3.5″ in from either side of the wall. (Always measure to your own wall and find the appropriate distance that will need to be spaced on either side for that centered look).

Because of the way we placed them, we didn’t hit any studs which worried me BUT we bought these pretty snazzy drywall anchors for the screws and they hold them up so well!

TOTAL Picture Ledge Cost: $143.92

TOTAL Photo Wall Cost: $396.92

As you can see it wasn’t the cheapest DIY project by any means, but it could have been CHEAPER! Had I thrifted more frames or collected them slowly over time, I could have cut the picture wall cost by HALF.

Had I not been in a rush to just have one wall done in my home after months of living in renovation we definitely could have saved on the cost of the photos by going through Costco or somewhere else.

But, I’m so happy with how it turned out and I am so excited to be able to switch out the photos throughout the years that we are here, and as the kids grow older too 🙂

A Couple of Things to Note if You Try This Picture Wall Idea:

1. Make sure you put your hair up! I did the first coat with my hair down and kept getting random strands of hair stuck on the paint, lol. Not cool.
2. If you go with the Ikea ledges you MUST and I mean MUST prime first. (Here is the best one we’ve found!). I skipped this step and ended up doing so many coats! Ikea furniture is made of particleboard and doesn’t take paint well at all without primer.
3. Make sure you are always checking the sides of the ledges for excess paint. You don’t want it to dry like that or it will leave paint blobs and bubbles.
4. Measure twice and use a leveler or laser level to make sure you are getting those ledges straight.

If you liked this post you may also like:

DIY Collage Wall

or

DIY Calendar Wall

Products Used Links:

 

Hope this inspired you to refresh a space in your own in 2021!

Happy New Year!