Another Playroom Project (from Mommy)

I have a new project completed that makes me smile every time I see it, so I have to share. I was inspired a few months ago by the Picture Perfect Wall. I loved the idea of a system for making a picture collage on a big wall, and I had a big, blank wall in the playroom that needed some help. Here's just one thing you can do with their amazing system.

My playroom budget didn't allow for the price tag, however. Thank goodness for Ikea Hacker, which has been inspiring me to do things myself for just a little bit of money. I decided to make my own wall collage using Ikea's Ram frame series. They are super cheap and paintable. Instead of glass, the clear part is plastic. I figured that would be great for the playroom both because they'd be unlikely to break and because a kiddo would be less likely to get hurt in the event of any wild playtime. Ikea's website lists the dimensions of the frames, so I cut out some little models with graph paper and played around with them until I had a plan that I thought would work on the wall. (That may sound silly, but I figured it would be sillier to drive all the way to Ikea, pick out some frames I liked, and get home to find out that I needed different ones.) Here's what Jeff and I chose.

So...we purchased the frames, and I painted them and distressed them a bit with sandpaper. I used painter's tape to map out the boundaries of my plan on the wall and started hanging pics. Here's what our collage looks like:

I have to say, I had so much fun choosing the pictures! I had to leave out a lot of special ones, so if you are a close friend and don't appear on the wall, it's not because I love you any less. :) These pictures include our parents and siblings, some of our favorite hikes, and some faraway friends. They make me happy. (And here's a little secret: I put velcro dots behind the frames to keep them straight. I don't think it would be relaxing to have to straighten frames every time I come into the playroom.)

And this is what our "picture perfect wall" looks like on the far wall of the playroom. It would have taken a lot less time if I had ordered the system. But, for a tenth of the cost of ordering one, I'm thankful to have come up with an "Ikea Hack!"

(To see other playroom projects, click here, here, here, and here.)

Edited 2/25/09: Thanks to Jules for mentioning us here! So fun!
Edited 5/25/10:  Thanks to Laurie for mentioning us here!  Yay!