How many photos do you reckon you take in a year? One rough estimate for 2017 was that 1.2 trillion digital photos were snapped throughout the year – and that was in fact a pretty conservative estimate based on one billion of the five billion smartphone owners across the world using the camera function on their phone to snap an average of three a day.
What exactly can you do with all those photos of your kids, your family, your friends and those fun nights out with the girls? There are only so many photos you can upload to Instagram and Facebook after all.
So why not put some of them up around the house? Photo displays can be cheap and easy ways to show off your memories and brighten up a room with truly personal pieces of art.
Here are five ways to display your photos
Display your photos in coasters
Nobody likes coffee rings on their brand new table. Prevent it from happening with a set of homemade coasters. Simply print out the photos you want to use, fix them to white tiles using decoupage glue and then when that has dried, apply more decoupage glue over the top, adding three layers with two hours between each application. Once they’ve dried overnight, apply three layers of clear acrylic sealant to insure they are completely waterproof and prevent indents from appearing and leave to dry again, after which you’ll have your own homemade coasters.
Create your own calendar
The household calendar is an indispensable way of keeping track with what is going on. Most of us use a calendar at least once a day, so why not dispense with one featuring cute dogs or world landmarks and build a personalized calendar with a raft of family photos? Websites such as Calendarcraze.Com allow you to do just that.
Hang up your photos using clips and string
When you think of developing photos before the advent of digital photography, do you picture a darkroom with photos peg to pieces of string dangling from the ceiling? You can make a nod to the traditional way in which photos use to be transferred from film to picture by displaying your photos pegged to string hung across a wall.
Or use a tree branch for that rustic look
Take the above idea and move it on a step further, by hanging polaroids from a tree branch attached to the wall, creating a rustic looking piece of art.
Pin photos to a map to show off your travel memories
If you are well traveled, then you’ll probably have photos from all around the country or the world. What better way to display them than by purchasing a giant map and pinning them to the city or country they were taken in. You could even go one stop further and cut your photos into the shape of the places you’ve been to display them. Visited Buckingham Palace? Cut it into the shape of Great Britain and display it over the United Kingdom on the map. You’ll be creating your own little window into the world and have a constant reminder of the great times you’ve had on vacation.