My friend Shawna sent me this link the other day and it inspired me to try something similar in the little girls’ room. I am itching – ITCHING! – to get Ellie and Amania’s room done. It may or may not have been part of my “mama-meltdown” last Friday. I just hate unfinished projects; they make me nutty. And as the Lord would have it, we just moved into a giant one. See, He’s refining me.
Anyway, it feels like we have been working on their room for at least six months, even though when I look at a calendar I realize it’s only been, really, three or so. And we’ve been a little busy with life and unpacking and other little things here and there, so, again with the showing myself grace. But, we are soooo close to finished. A ceiling fan, some paint on a few pieces of furniture and maybe hanging some of their artwork on the walls, and that room is done. Woot!
So, back to the Pinterest project. We had two different family photo sessions this year with wonderful, talented photographers. But because of all the crazy the past few months, I’ve done nothing with the photos. Until now.
I tried the engineer print as suggested in the post. However, our local printing company couldn’t print that large and the quality of the Kinko’s engineer prints in black and white were very poor (as in, whole sections of the photo wouldn’t print). I could have done them there in color, but they charge by the square foot, making a 24″x36″ print close to $45. Mmmm….no. So, back to planning my cheap enlargements.
Enter, Sam’s Club. They offer very reasonable color enlargements and their print quality is usually good – certainly good enough for the girls’ bedroom walls. The first print I tried was of the two girls together. I didn’t want it quite as large, so I did their “poster board” print (I can’t remember the exact name and I’m not finding it online). They print the photo directly on some sort of super-thick stock, so it was ready to hang when I got it. The 16″x24″ print was less than $15.
Happy with the way the first one turned out, but wanting larger prints for the individual photos, I opted for “poster prints”. They were about $9 each for 20″x30″ prints. Then, I headed over to Hobby Lobby as directed in the original post, where I had them dry mounted while I waited, for about $15 each. I then bought the 3M Command picture hanging adhesives, so as to not put holes in the prints or the walls.
I have to say, I love them! They may not be the same quality as a canvas or more expensive prints that could be done, but for the price and the way they look on the wall, I will definitely be doing more of these. (Our photographer may be cringing in the corner right now. 😉 ) And they look so fun on the girls’ wall. The other thing I like about these over the engineer prints, is the fact that they are in color. Black and white would have been lovely too, but I just love the color.
I also tweaked their bulletin boards, mounting them inside open frames to make them look a little more formal. I’m not sure I love them, but it did help dress the room up a bit. 
This is the smaller poster board print I had done at Sam’s. The next two are the larger poster prints mounted on foam board. You can also see my “framed” bulletin boards above Amania’s bed.
Next up – chevron stripes or marigold furniture? The jury is still out, but hopefully I’ll be posting about that finished project soon!
For His Glory ~
My Ears Are Tired 