This is a picture, below, of our downstairs guest bathroom:
It’s a small room, but it has high ceilings; it’s where we hang photos of our friends and family along with interesting old things we find in antique stores. We like to have an entertaining bathroom for our captive audience! But I had this idea on how to take it one step further.
That’s my great-great grandmother in the round frame; above it is Joe with all his best friends, and below it is a thank-you-for-dinner note from Peter Mayle (who wrote one of my favorite books, A Year in Provence, and came to our house for dinner once!! Of course I had to frame his note!!). I thought this narrow wall between the window and the bathroom door might be perfect for a real picture wall.
So I pulled out some favorite old photos of us with our friends and families (and kitties) . . .
And on a sheet of foam core, using a metal ruler as a guide, I cut around each photo with a sharp exacto knife (it needs to be really sharp so if you do this, plan on changing the blade often). I make three shallow cuts, first through the paper, then the foam, and the last through the bottom paper (rather than trying to go through the whole piece in one cut). I protected the table top by turning my blotter calendar upside down and using the heavy cardboard back as a cutting surface.
I put down newspaper to protect the table cloth, and then sprayed acid-free photo-mount on the back of each photo and, as carefully as I could, attached it to the foam core.
So now the photos are more substantial and will stand out from the wall a bit.
Wonderful memories for us . . . there’s me when I first started painting; us at Joe’s 40th birthday luau; Joe out sailing when he weighed one pound; John with his girls when they were babies; my best friends forever singing on the porch of my old studio (♫You don’t own me, don’t say I can’t go with other boys . . . ♪); Joe and I when we first met; Margot’s children where she painted them in elf and Santa outfits. To the back of each foam core photo, I attached a sticky double-sided foam mounting square . . . so I could hook the photos to the wall. The mounting squares are removable — just in case this turned out to be a terrible idea!
At the top, I hung up the Friends embroidery I did when I was around twenty-two that’s been in every bathroom of my life . . . Then I started sticking my photos to the wall, one at a time, years of wonderful memories and our favorite people. Sooner or later everyone passes through here and now they will find themselves on our wall!
There is only one “seat” in this room (unless you’re Jack, our kitten, who can find extra seats anywhere!), and it’s directly across from the picture wall. We do have other bathrooms in the house in case people go in and don’t come out! (BTW, a very long time ago this bathroom, which is at the far back of the house, in a corner off the pantry, was called, according to papers that came with the house, a “three holer.” Bathrooms were much more festive in those days!!) Hope you like this project . . . it would work well in a kitchen too, very fun to have wherever your friends gather. Another way to show them how much they mean to you! ♥
I have “potty” pictures of both my husband and myself…we were maybe around 2 or so. I have one of my “golden” books and my husband has on his cowboy outfit – including a holster with guns! I plan on putting them in one picture frame, side by side and hanging them in the bathroom. I think it’ll be quite the conversation piece. Hubby just rolled his eyes over the project 🙁 but once it’s done I think he’ll like it!
It’s going to be adorable! One of a kind!
Your bathroom wall is adorable. I’m planning on doing it in my kitchen. It will be fun to look at family and friends as I’m cooking. Thanks a bunch for the idea, you are the greatest inspiration, I can’t wait to see your posts!!!
These days I’m finding 3 people in the bathroom at once, just looking at the wall! 🙂 I think “where is everyone” — oh yeah, in the bathroom!
We just moved to Colorado and have a new home. Our “powder room” is where I am planning a picture wall. I may do a wall of “brides and Grooms” since I have a collection of vintage Bride and Groom cake toppers and have everyone’s wedding pictures from our family. I found an awesome shadow box at a garage sale and am working on redoing it to fit in with the bride and groom theme.
I love that idea, brides and grooms — just wonderful!
Wonderful idea! Since I am such a craft nut, family above all and always looking for new ideas, this is great. More – more!
xoxo glad you like it!
Thats is a wonderful idea ! I just recently bought a roll of magnet and took my grandchildrens pictures off the refridgerator and mounted them to the magnet sticky paper. You can stick the picture on and then cut it into the shape you want it to be. It keeps your photos from rolling up also! I luv having my grandbabies faces where I can see them all the time. (I have nine grandchildren!)
I have to tell this about my granddaughter Abbi , (shes 6). She was over last night for a little bit and she loves carrots! Well mamaw had the “big” carrots in the fridge this time. I asked her if she wanted it skinned? So , I get out the potatoe peeler and show her how. She did a really good job and asked me if she could take my peeler home. I told her no, that her mother has one of her own. She took an extra carrot with her and went home with her daddy for the evening. Later my son sends me a picture of Abbi on my phone. The text said Abbi told me this is how, you taught her, how to skin carrots! The picture was of her sitting on the toilet with a trash can in front of her and she was using her mom’s potatoe peeler on that extra carrot she took home with her! I guess there wasn’t enough for her to do or ” look at” while she was on the potty! Ha Ha That would be a cute potty room picture !
My father-in-law graced us with the purchase of a new refrigerator . It’s georgeous and stainless steel on the front. Does not take magnets! The old one was solid family and friends pictures. So I love this idea . Now my pics will have a new venue. Thanks!
My girlfriend has one of those refrigerators too …. I found a metal bar at the Gift Show you can attach to your fridge and then put magnets on! Pretty smart!
This is so great…….our guest bathroom is
Everyone loves the idea and I never met anyone else who was doing this…..everyone thinks I am crazy or as I would say eccentric.
Lauren
I have a friend who enjoys Geneology. She has a family tree of pictures with painted vines connecting them all the way around her powder room. You have to find her daughter’s picture and then work backwards. It get a little dizzy turning in circles around the small room to follow the family lines and you are in there a little longer than usual on your first visit.
Love it! Dizzy from the bathroom!
I am up early today and decided to check your blog. But I found your bathroom also very interesting and have given me an idea for my small powder room. I have alot of pictures and no plac eto display them, so maybe the bathroom would be a good spot. I can’t wait to get started and tell my husband that I’ll buy the paint today! I can always comment that I’ll start painting, which will wake him up because I am a lousey painter.
LOL! Whatever works!
My freind Bonnie reminds me quite frequently to look at your blog for this or that. One day she mentioned your “bathroom wall” and all the photo’s. I have recently moved to Colorado after 40 years in one house in Illinois and have mentioned “I need some inspiration for the poweder room”. She suggested your blog and the bathroom pictures. YES,YES, YES, now I have to get the husband to paint it before the gazillion pictures go up. I am so excited and glad I checked out your blog. And the trip to England makes me want to go, but I will see England through your eyes, can’t wait.
Love, love the picture wall. I’ve been saving pics of my grandkids cooking in the kitchen for years. I’ve always planned on making a cookbook for Mommy & Daddy. The oldest is now 18 & I wanted to start. I ‘m now going to add to the idea by converting all the pics into black & white and do a picture wall in my black &white kitchen for all to see & enjoy. Guess I better purchase contrast colored frames to make it an even more fun attraction for the eye. maybe red or lime green. All frames will be just the one color not to make too crazy. :- )
I’m so excited to try many of your ideas along with your fellow bloggers.
I’m 68 and and love any kind of positive change in my life & you are one of them I’m happy to say. Inspired, Cheri
Nice to meet you Cheri — happy wall-making! 🙂
wow al of you have many ideas to do it…i will do someones for mi house. thanks angels. huges matty
Matty, Your accent is so cute to read!
I have a beach theme in my bathroom. Not too original, but much more personalized when I added family pictures at the beach. The mats had wavy ocean like lines in them. Everyone comments on them.
Cute, a theme!
I was going through some of your home pictures for inspiration as I have to send a designer we have found some ‘ideas.’ I just love that you have so many wonderful pictures and things to read in the bathroom—-you’re just too cute, I tell ya!
We’re in a rental home right now, but this makes me want to paint the bathroom anyway….. it needs to be more personal!!!
Thank you for sharing your spaces with us,
Joann
xo
It’s the one place in the house where you can get people’s undivided attention!
hi Susan, I have a large collage of pics (fam&friends) framed – maybe I’ll just hang in the empty wall in lower level bathroom. I’m sure people will love it and we’ll have lots of questions to answer. thanks for your cozy warm web site – I love it. love, ruby (marti) 🙂
Sounds wonderful Ruby Marti . . .xoxo
We did this in a powder room in our old house about 15 years ago. My husband didn’t get it but I said it was the one room that everyone used, so the pictures would be seen all the time.
I’m sure he has learned to trust your innate brilliance by now! 🙂
I’m surprised that I never saw this post as I thought I had covered every nook and cranny of this blog! I wanted to do something quite similar with favorite photos until I realized how expensive it was to mount the pics. (I had a few mounted in a similar way but on wooden blocks(?) and stopped after 2, at about 30 + bucks a piece. Using foam board gives the exact same effect at a fraction of the cost. What a great idea….though I think I’ll wait ’til winter; it will be a nice snowy day project!
I keep adding things to the drop downs when I get a little time. Glad you liked it, it’s been really fun to have here. Our friends like finding themselves on the wall!
I decorated our master bath w our children’s artwork from grade school instead of using or fridge back in the days when hubby was active duty AF ..This is such a lovely idea..
What about the moisture in bathrooms? Does it mess the pictures up? Love this idea!
Not yet, but this bathroom of mine is really a powder room, no bath or shower in there. In another house I did the same thing on a wall in the kitchen. That works really well too.
Ha Ha – I thought I was the only one that hung their Art in the Bathroom –
only problem no-one wants to come out! My house is 100yrs old, bathroom is very long and only 4 feet wide, with 12 foot ceilings – it seemed to be a great way to store my paintings of all my travels. Yes, Susan you are on my wall, and some of my girlfriends from your book signing at Bunch of Grapes last summer!
Where can I forward copies to you – I am sure you would like them, especially Joe hiding behind the books during your lecture
No one wants to come out of mine either! How wonderful, I made your bathroom wall! You can send photos to [email protected]/~susanbs3/susanbranch/ … I’ll see them there! Thank you D’Anne!
I have a bathroom that has a fishing theme, so i have several pictures in there of all of our big catches, one i love is my son when he was young ,and he is holding up the BIGGEST crab anyone has ever seen, it makes me smile every time i see it.
I love your bath….and the kitty!!!
We have this sort of arrangement down a long hallway, and everyone stops to look at it with each visit. It makes me smile really big when the grandgirls start telling a new victim the identity of each and every picture :^)
Oh, and the bathroom is the showplace of all my raccoon collectables….. We have never lost anyone in there, but sometimes they are slow to return, and dazed looking as well :^)
Blessings to you,
J
Wonderful!
What a wonderful creative idea! I am going to do it – so excited to see the result! Thanks for sharing. Kathy
New follower here and have determined today it will take me a month for sure to explore all ‘The nooks and crannies’ of this blog! Fascinating!
Have I overlooked a wall of “followers’ w sign in?
No, I’m not sure what that is, but I already want one! 🙂
OMGosh Susan! I’m a lover of bathroom wall décor also but adding old photos is a wonderful idea & the wall with special events on it is great. This digital world we live in keeps us from having things out & visible. Great ideas!
I love your bathroom – makes me want to change mine which has a Paris theme. Keep up the good writings!!
Well, themes are fun too!
Welcome home! We missed you and look forward to the slow unfolding of your trip memories in days and weeks to come.
What a pretty powder room you have.
We have an ancestor photo wall on our staircase wall, and every time guests stay the night they take their time walking up the stairs to admire pictures of my granny in her military ball gown, or my grandparents-in-law on their wedding day, or my dad’s medals from the air-force.
Eventually, we’ll have to move, as I’m running out of wall space for my growing collection.
Your home. And you are all on board with being here with all of us. Thank-you for filling this tired soul with a moment of refreshing. You are always a great reminder of what is important, home. When the occupants of our home are filled and refreshed here at home, they can spill out love and encouragement to others outside the home. I love to think of home as a re-filling station. The Keeper at Home must re-charge first of all. Welcome Home
Love reading your Willard! So happy you went to England and Scotland. Hoping you will write about your adventures there. Since I cannot visit these places it was wonderful to read about your previous trips. Love all your books, calendars, etc.
Thank you for sharing your bathroom art with us! I have several black and white photos in my black and white bathroom, but you have inspired me to take it a step further : ) P.S. Glad you’re back!
Thank you Sue, for brightening this time of year for me. It has been a frightening Fall, with the election, but Christmas will come, and thank goodness for your goodness!!
Love the pictures in the bathroom idea. And I LOVE reading your trilogy. I’m sharing the books with my sisters-in-law. Would love to visit all the small villages you stayed in during your trips to England and Scotland.
They’re wonderful, so historical and charming!
Welcome home!
Susan, I have been one of your devotees for a long time, own and read all your books. I have absorbed your passion for England and Scotland and it is the next “big” destination planned for my husband and me. Hoping to learn of more good plans in your coming blog. Don’t think we’ll be going on Queen Mary but still trying!
You can go on the Queen Mary 2 for almost as cheaply as you can fly … if you can spare the days it takes to get there!
Susan, you always make my day a little better and my life more relaxed and
less stressful with your words of wisdom in Willard. Thank you for taking
the time to give us all such wonderful inspiration and fun!
My pleasure Dianne!
I just purchased A YEAR IN PROVENCE by Peter Mayle. How fun to see you knew him and had him for dinner and have a note from him on your wall. Sweet coincidences are a blessing to me. Now to go see if I can find your wall Calendars on Amazon! Sorry they were sold out at your store. Much love to you and Joe, in this wonderful season of Christmas.
We still have wall-calendars! So that’s good. And, you are SO lucky to be reading A YEAR IN PROVENCE for the first time, you are going to LOVE it! Wonderful book. Happy Christmas, Jane!
This idea is fantastic. I have one very appropriate photo on the shelf in my bathroom. It’s a picture of my beautiful himalayan cat “Phoebe” sitting on the toilet (lid down of course). She’s an angel in heaven now but still manages to make me smile every day when I see her perched there on the lu 🙂 If only we could teach our kitties how to use the toily…and flush too!
Perfect loo photo for a good laugh!
OMGosh, how I love the bathroom photo wall. I must do this, I just must! Thank you, Thank you Susan!
Can’t get people out of my bathroom, and for some reason, the photos never get old! You’ll love it!
How can I receive your blog (newsletter) by email? dunk310@gmail .com
Just finished reading your trilogy for the second time – love those books!!!!
Shirley Duncan
I sent your comment to Sheri at the Studio and she’ll take care of it for you Shirley!
Do you remember the paint color in that room? I love it!
In my bathroom? It’s wallpaper … put I bet you’re speaking of something else?
Yes sorry! I have been reading on here today a lot and commented wrong place.. your kitchen.. didn’t you repaint it not too long ago? Time goes fast so maybe it has been a handful of years 😄
I think maybe three years ago…
Maybe it’s just me, but I would have mixed feelings (feel disrespected) seeing pics of myself, parents, grandparents, etc hanging on the walls IN THE TOILET.
LOL, my friends love it, we have to drag them out of there, they get all caught up in the memories. Hey, they’re a captured audience. Where better?
I don’t know how I missed this before. Our powder room has the world’s ugliest wallpaper…blue cherubs frolicking around in what look like (unintentionally I’m sure) rather risque poses, one part of the pattern resembles a uterus (my nurse s-i-l pointed that out, lol) and if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s gilded, too. Circa about 1970. The other rooms had to come first, but I’m determined to get it down this summer and paint the walls and trim. Thanks for the inspiration!.
Yes!! Get that OUT of there! 🤣 My prayer is that it’s a small bathroom!
Love the picture wall! We frequently stay at a rambling old hot springs—Chico Hot Springs—here in Montana. When they built a new set of cabins, they decorated each bathroom with vintage photos of family members through the decades wearing bathing suits. Everyone loves those happy photos.
I saw a shower curtain at Target that had all kinds of slots of various sizes for sliding photos into. I thought, why not do what Chico did…and rounded up images of my husband and me as children wearing our bathing suits, as well as various shots of our three young children in theirs. (I scanned them and printed each on photo paper because I was afraid of moisture damage, but it is very arid here and we had no problems.) It was a huge hit…there we are inner tubing on Spring Creek, my husband’s middle school swim team portrait, sandy babies on the beach on Cape Cod, building sand castles on Mangrove Cay. There’s something very carefree and fun about images of people smiling in swimsuits. 🤽🏻♀️🏄🏽♂️🏊🏻♂️😍I can almost smell the sunscreen every time I enter the bathroom!
What a darling idea! People do love the photos . . . I’ve had the same ones up for years, and they are as fresh as they were the first day, endlessly interesting!