Ahhh, I am SO excited to be sharing our first “home post” in the new house!! I know its taken me awhile (and it will probably be awhile before the next home post) … but it is what it is! Home projects take a lot of time and I don’t want to rush anything just to be able to share photos! They also cost a lot of money and we have an entire HOUSE that needs an overhaul (over time, over time …) so I will just keep sharing as I’m able!! ; )

DIY Metal Wall

I’m so excited to be sharing this first little corner of our home with you. Here in Madison, some of our friends own an AMAZING vintage rental company and they have a space in their warehouse that I fell in love with the very first time I saw it. You can see in the picture below on the left, but it is an entire wall covered with photos of all the clients they have ever had. Since we rented some of their decor for our own wedding, we are on the wall … and so are MANY of our friends! Whenever we go to A La Crate, I love looking at the wall to see if I can find anyone else I know!

One time, when looking at the wall with Sarah (the owner) we came across a picture of her and her husband from when they first started the business many years ago. She probably doesn’t even remember this, but the way her entire face lit up when she discovered and pointed to the photo … and then described when/where/why it was taken just stopped me dead in my tracks.

That photo did my favorite thing that photos do — it allowed her to relive a moment in her life and look back with such warmth and love for husband “when they were just babies” as I think she might have even said : )

And then it came to me — I NEED a photo wall like this in our house some day!!!

Cue buying house.

Cue photo wall as project #1.

Since A La Crate’s building walls are MADE of metal, we needed to come up with a way to make our drywall metal! Why metal? The photos you see in the picture above (at A La Crate’s space) are polaroids that Sarah takes and then puts on the wall with tiny little magnets. Since I am NOT good with this kind of stuff, Sarah helped me come up with a plan to make a metal wall in our space!

After deciding where the photo wall would go (see top right photo!), I reached out to Madison Sheet Metal (I’m sure every city has a place like this!) and cast the vision for my wall. They had me send over the exact dimensions of the space where the metal was going to cover and then they cut two pieces of sheet metal (I opted for white sheet metal to blend with the wall!) for the space as it was too big for one solid piece.

The Process

Hanging the sheet metal was a feat in and of itself and definitely required three people — two to hold the sheet metal up while the third person drilled it into the wall. You MUST make sure you are drilling into studs or else the sheet metal will just pull right out of the drywall because it is so heavy.

You will see in the finished product below that the screws we used to hang the sheet metal are visible but I am totally okay with that! I wanted the overall feel to be a bit industrious … but like a luxurious industrious ; )

In summary, you will need:

• Custom sheet metal (you can order silver, white, or you can paint metal any color apparently?!) from a local sheet metal business. Honestly, they are the experts so I would share the project vision with them and get their opinion!
• A drill
• Screws
• Three people
• A Letterboard
• Polaroid Camera with film
• Magnets

The Vision

Every time anyone comes over to our house, I take a picture of them on the Polaroid camera. I have little stickers that I then put on the back where I write the date, who it is, and why they were over. As you can see, right now we don’t have a ton of pictures yet as we just completed the wall! But over time — in the YEARS to come — I cannot wait to FILL this wall with photos of those who have entered our home.

I can’t wait to look back on all the memories that have been and will be created here.

I can’t wait for our friends, for example, who are currently pregnant with their first, to look back at the photo I recently took of them in 5 or 10 years and say with that same lit up face that Sarah had in A La Crate’s warehouse that one day, “Look at us! We were so young and only just pregnant with our oldest. How time flies.”

And that it does. These moments, though? They won’t be forgotten <3