I’ll freely admit to liking family pictures and portraits — my own family portraits, that is. On my living room walls, you’ll find my wedding photo, a picture of my paternal grandparents, posed shots of various family members at significant events, and even a picture of me with my Uncle Antonio in which four-year-old me drew a pirate mustache on the aforementioned uncle using burnt cork.

But really, these images are not very classy and, truth be told, my family pictures are starting to grate on my nerves. As dear as they are to my heart, they simply aren’t as artful or stylish as I’d like them to be.

What I’d really like to see in my home is something like this. Overall, I like the way the blown-up image in black and white pops against the vivid orange palette. And there’s something a little incongruous about the choice of infant portraiture in this modern space, yet the picture of two babies feels right at home.

The best part is that what we have here is an easy weekend DIY project that almost anyone with a little free time, a camera, and a printer or access to a Kinkos can complete. All you need are a few family photos — which you can jazz up with captions or photo effects — and appropriately-sized frames. If your photo printer can handle it, go for the 13″x19″ photo paper, which will create a much more dramatic and striking image than the usual 8″x10″ size. If you aren’t equipped with something like the Epson Artisan 800, you can get your family photos embiggened at your local print shop. Simple and chic!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 5:18 am by Christa Terry and is filed under Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.