---
author:
email: mail@petermolnar.net
image: https://petermolnar.net/favicon.jpg
name: Peter Molnar
url: https://petermolnar.net
copies:
- http://web.archive.org/web/20210301080204/https://petermolnar.net/journal/my-image-wall/
lang: en
published: '2020-12-16T11:00:00+00:00'
summary: I made a photo wall on an extremely tight budget, and it doesn't look horrible
at all.
tags:
- internet
title: Ultra low budget photo wall
---
Last December we finally moved to our new place - with a 2 month delay
due to unforeseen renovation needs. The small room upstairs was always
planned to become a study, but then the first lockdowns happened before
we got to the point of buying all the needed furniture - so we spent
quite a few months waiting for them to reopen, with a lot of boxes
everywhere.
When IKEA finally repoened I nearly immediately got there to buy some of
their 50cm deep Ivar cabinets - only to learn on unpacking, that unlike
the 30cm deep ones, the 50cm ones don't have the crossbar that allowes
them to be wall-mounted. Anyhow, ever since then I had a wall, with some
cabinets at the feet, with completely empty greyness above it. We opted
for a light-mid, tiny bit greenish grey, specifically Valspar Sculpting
Clay[^1] for the walls upstairs; it looks great with natural pine.
*Valspar is OK if you use either their 700 or Trade graded paints; but
avoid the 300 or 500 ones.*
So I kept thinking what to do with that empty wall. Initially I was
thinking of two larger photos, but I couldn't choose. Then I saw one of
the examples on WhiteWall[^2], but the price of their "Photo Print On
Aluminium Backing" was waaaay out of the amount I was willing - or able
to - spend on this. Calculating with 24 roughly A4 sized pictures I
ended up with, the aluminium option would have been an in the £900 range
(24x£39.95) (*this is the part when one either bursts into laugh, tears,
or coughing*), but even the cheapest photo prints would have cost around
£200 (24x£9.95 rounded down due to some being smaller, than A4).
We bought a Xerox Phaser 6510 colour laser printer earlier this year to
be able to print learning material. It's really very far in quality from
professional photo print, but still better, than an lifeless wall.
For mounting, I went for a simple foam board, with the simplest process
possible: glue the picture on, cut around with a knife, then use a tiny
bit of mounting tape to put it on the wall. I got 4 A1 boards for £10 in
Hobbycraft, and in the end, the whole wall costed below £20 (including
glue, paper, ink, etc costs).
It's definitely not professional print quality, but it's worth
mentioning that it looks a lot better, than the foam board print[^3]
samples I ordered from WhiteWall a long time ago.
My wife help with arranging it: start from the middle. The first ones
were the middle 5 pictures, everything else went around them following
instincts.
And the result is:
(Click on the photos to visit them on this
site.)
[^1]:
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[^3]: