the koster klan: Just for the fun of it

I have been wanting to spruce up our living room, and one thing i have been wanting to do is hang some more pictures- but holy smokes are picture frames expensive, at least when you want to multiple it by 10. So on a recent trip to one of my not-so-secret-anymore favorite stores, I grabbed a few super cheap frames from Hobby Lobby in their craft section (I am talking about start at $1 a frame here) as well as a couple other odds and ends and ta-da! i got a wall collage of stuff for a steal. My wall started out like this:

i wanted to make sure what i got would work so i quickly organized a layout i thought could work (this pic is missing a few pieces but you get the idea)

I actually used white paint that we had left over from when we re-painted our picket fence outside. So yes it is exterior paint, but it sure worked great! And i swear by frog tape (the yellow tape below) for any project that you need crisp lines for.

After a few quick coats of paint, I let my frames dry over night and quick threw in some pictures we had on hand.

I knew it was going to be tricky hanging these, so i quick traced the frames on some paper and cut them out so I could have templates to work with (I also poked holes in the paper where the nails should go by just laying the paper on the back of the frame and poking a pencil through the slots)

After I got everything lined up and leveled, I got Nate to help me hang them (usually we can't do projects together, but this one went really well! I thought so at least..) And we ended up with this layout. I threw some cork in the frame on the bottom to use to pin up christmas cards (ok, so we don't really get too many- maybe because none of our friends have kids yet? I'm just gunna go with that..) or for other random stuff I find to be PIN-appropriate (get it? cause i love pinterest? ah, i crack myself up sometimes...)