The Black/White Wall

I've recently had a strong urge to do a wall collage.  So, I decided to use our move as the perfect occasion to make my desire happen.

Luckily, I had a nice collection of pictures that still needed to be hung.  And, whaddya know -- all those pictures were in black and white!  Splendid!  So, I came up with the genious idea to make a collage out of all of them.  After adding a few new touches, the black/white wall came to fruition!


The hallway is pretty narrow, so I couldn't snap a picture head-on.

For the most part, each picture has a special meaning to us.  Let me break it down for you.  :-)

I LOVE old, antique-y pictures.  So, first, we have two columns of 5 x 7s showcasing old snapshots of our families.  The left column shows my family: my dad (in high school), my mom (at my age), my mom's parents, and my dad's parents.  The right column shows Derek's family in an identical sequence: his dad, his mom, his mom's parents and his dad's parents.  It took a little work to get all these pictures then convert them all to black and white 5 x 7s, but it was oh so worth it!

The next picture is extra special to me.  The home where I grew up is a Kentucky landmark.  It was a red schoolhouse in the 1800s that was later converted to a home.  My parents are the second owners.  They have lived there for over 30 years!  They made several additions to the house, but left the school bell intact (although it was moved to a different location on the house).  Pretty cool!  And, if you peel back the wallpaper, you would even see chalkboards!  I love this house -- and I hope I have them convinced they can never move.  Either that or I'll just have to work up the funds to buy it from them.  ;-)  Also, we just recently received the little "Home" plaque as a gift from my in-laws.  It's from a new line of pictures called "Alphabet Photography."  I thought I found a pretty appropriate place for it. ;-)

Next, we have my favorite shot in Central Park (in winter, no less): the bridge that overlooks the Plaza Hotel and several other Upper East side buildings.  The snow makes the perfect addition to this picture!

I made the wooden "F" letter the centerpiece of the wall, since it represents the first letter of our last name.  Underneath the "F" sits two tiles from the country of Turkey.  One of my good friends from dental school traveled there this past summer and brought them home to me as a souvenir.  The picture to the left of the "F" shows Derek and I moving into our new apartment as newlyweds!

Are you getting bored yet?  ;-)  The last series of pictures show London and Paris -- our honeymoon destinations!  I took the first two pictures (of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben) while we were there -- and I purposely left the date on them.  We purchased the last two rectangular posters of the Eiffel Tower and Paris at a later date.

I do love the asymmetrical look of the collage, but I may, at some point, add some additional touches to fill in the "gaps."  I was thinking a silhouette of a dachshund would fit perfectly under the Central Park picture!

I hope you enjoy the black/white wall as much as I do!

P.S.  I hope to get back to blogging more regularly here in the near future.  Derek's been using my laptop for his finals 'cause his decided it wanted to stop working THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS FIRST FINAL!  :-(  I'm glad I could save him!  One more final to go!