I love visiting friends. Even more, I get excited over seeing family photos displayed on the walls and down the hallways. This has been a desire for my place. It has taken years to collect photos from family & distant cousins. My dream has come true.
I scanned photos in my family’s collection & also collected photos from cousins. I originally was to put these 4x6 photos in a large 22x28 frame. This idea did not work out for me. I wanted a tree painted on a wall inspired by one I had seen. I also was inspired by small metal trees to hang smaller photos, but you could not really see them or who they were in your family history.
I was enthusiastic when I found this tree made with peel & stick wall decals on Amazon. I measured the space I had in my new location and it fit! I ordered it. It was easy to place & replace on the wall without pulling off the paint. It is made by Timber Artbox.
I printed out current family members to also place in 5x7 cream mats. I did not want to use frames to put more nails in the wall. I decided to use thick scrapbook green paper to frame each picture to add color to the tree. I wrote on the back of each green paper the identity, the relationship, location (if known) & time of picture or painting (if known). I used scrapbook photo mounts.
I was thrilled with the way it came out. This was the best way I could take the picture of the wall (from the laundry room) to see the whole layout of the tree to include all of the photos. I will have to add more branches to the top of the tree at a later time to include the older generations.
‘The Love of a Family is Life’s Greatest Blessing’ is a wonderful quote to be added to the tree.
The oldest person on my hallway tree is Samuel Cooper 1686-1761, my 6th great-grandfather. The copy of his painting is from my third cousin 1x removed, Richard Austin-Cooper.
I have already posted the stories of several of the photos on my hallway family tree. I am excited and inspired to continue with the rest of them.
Thank you, Diane Gould Hall, for the inspiration to finish my dream of having a ‘family tree’ photo wall.
