From Pinterest to Real Life: November Edition {How to Make an Instagram Photo Board}

It”s that time again… the last Friday of the month means our fun linky where you can showcase some of the fun things that you”ve taken from your pinboards to reality!

There”s just something about Instagram photos that I love… they are like the modern, digital version of a Polaroid, plus the fun edition of editing options. I love the little snapshots of daily life that they give my photostream.

For a few months now, I”ve been planning on taking my Instagram photos and turning them into a photo display for my living room. I finally got my act together this month and I am thrilled with how it turned out!

My project was inspired by two pins:

Source: via Nicole on Pinterest

I loved this idea but I wanted something a little more casual. The following inspiration provided just the idea I needed for my background.

Source: etsy.com via Nicole on Pinterest

The Project

What you need:

  • plywood cut into 2″ x 2″ squares
  • 50 4″ photo prints (for 2 boards)
  • picture-hanging hardware
  • spray paint
  • thumbtacks

The basic directions:

  1. Cut wood (sand edges, too).
  2. Install hardware on back of boards.
  3. Spray paint using can”s directions.
  4. Pin photos to board using diagram below.
  5. Hang and enjoy!

How we made it (more details):

My husband, David, recently fixed his table saw, so after a couple of rainy weekends and a wisdom teeth extraction (poor guy!) I finally got him to bring it out and cut up some plywood that he salvaged from a dumpster next to his office (score!).

He cut me two pieces into two-foot by two-foot squares. Next David installed some basic claw-tooth picture hanging hardware on the back.

After that it was out to the front lawn with an old sheet and a can of spray paint. This is definitely not the greenest option, but it was the speedy-est. In a perfect world, I would have gone for some no-VOC paint, but for under four dollars and about twenty minutes of painting, I was able to get basically the right hue I wanted.

My first time spray painting!

We let the boards dry overnight in the garage and then the next day I had my engineer-husband measure out and mark where I would pin in the photos. Each board holds twenty-five four-inch prints.

David drew up this little diagram so you can see how he marked off the photos. He started in the center of the board and measured down one inch (there”s an inch of “border” going all the way around the photos).

Then down about another quarter inch and put a little x in where I would put the pins. There”s a half inch of space between each photo, so four and a half inches between pin markers.

Don”t mind the random crayon smudge on his diagram. 😉

I printed the  photos out through a great iPhone app called Postal Pix, that lets you print your Instagram photos (or others from your phone”s camera roll) directly from the phone. I simply pinned the photos into the board with silver thumbtacks. I plan to periodically change out some of the photos with newer ones.

The Finished Masterpiece

I”m so pleased! I have one hung up so far and just need to pin the photos to my other board.

My daughter loves looking at all the pictures (and she insisted on posing with it for the blog). This was definitely a collaborative project, so thanks to my awesome hubby for helping out.

I did make some new recipes this month (and repeated some others) from my pins but this big project was definitely the best example of making my pins into reality. I think my favorite post from last month“s linky was Andrea, the Greenbacks Gal”s foray into freezer organization. Talk about practical and beautiful! I can”t wait to see what you”ve all done this month!

Now it”s your turn! Blog about something you”ve made and link up with us. If you don”t have a blog feel free to leave a comment telling us what you”ve taken from Pinterest to real life. If you link up, please link back to this post in your blog post, and be sure to link to your post, not just your blog.

Happy Pinning and Creating!


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