Pinterest strikes again!

Above our fireplace the wall is longer than it is tall.  Which has made decorating up there challenging.  We couldn't put the painting we had in our old house up there, the dimensions were wrong. So I put the picture of our feet up there, and it was dwarfed by the space, but I wanted something, anything up there :)  Free-standing frames, candles, coasters, etc, were also added to the mantle.

On pinterest the other day I saw a beautifully done mantle that I want to replicate.  It had a large black and white photo of an adult holding a child's hand.  Layered in front of that was a smaller piece that just looked decorative, not a picture, and then a small medallion.  There were tall black candlesticks to balance it out.  I don't want to do exactly that, but pretty darn close.

So what to do with all the pictures that were collected on the mantle?  Put them up the stairwell, of course!

Before, boring white stairwell...

Using newspaper cutouts to arrange the pattern...

First photo goes up, our feet from above the fireplace...

All done...for now!

As I went to hang some of the photos, I realized not all of the frames were able to be hung.  But I love that I'll be able to add onto it as the years go by.  We can change out photos as needed or just hang more frames.