family portrait wall diy final

DIY Family Portrait Wall: Mount Your Photos on Canvas

family portrait wall diy finalAfter months of mentally debating about how I wanted our family portrait wall to look, I finally came up with what I think to be a  perfect finished product! What really set me back was trying to find the right color palette to use. I already have a bright colored stairway photo gallery going on, so I didn’t want to compete, but I wanted to stray away from being to monochromatic. (If you have never heard of ColourLovers then write it down, bookmark it and just don’t forget it! There are thousands upon thousands of color palettes to help you find just the color pairings you are looking for.)

I am breaking this Family Portrait Wall into two tutorials: 1) Family Portraits on Canvas and 2) Monogram Antiqued Letters (which I’ll post tomorrow). Both projects would be great by themselves and even better when paired together!

What You Will Need:

family portrait canvases diy supplies

  • Assorted canvases (I used four 3x5s and one 8×10)
  • Photo prints (I just printed them out on heavier paper using my laser printer)
  • Accenting paint for the outer edge of canvases
  • Mod Podge
  • Regular brush
  • Sponge Brush

What You Will Need To Do:

  1. Cut out your images. I had to trim the access paper from around my images since they weren’t true to size. I would recommend trimming them so they are 1/4 inch smaller on each side than the canvas you are working on. This will allow for a better result when you go to Mod Podge.
  2. Paint the edge of the canvas and about 1/2 inch overlap onto the front of the canvas on each side. See image below.family portrait canvases diy steps
  3. You must allow the paint to completely dry before trying to Mod Podge the image or else you will  have paint streaks running across your image.
  4. Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the front of your canvas and place your image centered onto the top of the canvas.
  5. You may need to remove any air bubbles with your fingers.
  6. Once image is in place, apply a layer of Mod Podge over the top of your image. Try to use even brush strokes. I recommend using a regular brush for this to get the nice strokes and add to the “painted canvas” effect.
  7. Let first layer of Mod Podge dry and apply a second coat if necessary.

Step one complete! You could always leave the canvas as is and skip steps 2 and 3, but I think it adds a little pizzazz to the finished product!