A long time ago, I saw a gallery wall of black and white photographs in a restaurant.  I decided then and there that I wanted to do the same thing using photographs of my grandparents.  Going through all of their old photographs was a really wonderful way to spend time with my them and it also prompted me to create a photo album of my parents’ childhoods to give to them for Christmas one year.  I bought cheap wooden frames after I had chosen and blown up my photographs and then painted them black.

I guess it really was my first DIY project.  This was a long time ago.  So long ago, in fact, I had to get negatives made of the old photos and then have them blown up.  Like 20 years ago.  God, I’m old.

So my family wall has been in every place that I’ve lived ever since.  I always get so many compliments on it.

Here it is in our new house.

When I was looking for pictures, I decided that I wanted pictures of my grandparents when they were young, pictures of my parents when they were little, and pictures of my grandpas’ businesses.  We have a serious work ethic around here, and the fact that my grandpas started a construction (sand and gravel) and logging business really lent shape to the direction our lives took.  My dad and uncle carried on in the construction business, and so did their sons after them (my brother and cousin), and I ended up teaching at the reserve where my grandpa had his sawmill.

Funny old world, isn’t it?

Here is my uncle and dad in the wagon in the mud and a shot of all of my grandpa’s trucks out at a job in Kananaskis.  I love all of the laundry hanging.  Can you imagine how hard they had to work?

Here is my grandpa Jack, holding my dad (after his kids were born there were no pictures of him without them- literally- he was always holding one of them or was surrounded by kids) and the lady responsible for all of that laundry in her skating-on-the-river days, my grandma, Marguerite, who left her home on a northern Alberta farm to work in a factory in Toronto during WWII.  They were so brave.

My mom and her siblings grew up in the Rocky mountains at the sawmill camp where my grandma cooked for 30 men while raising a boy and twin girls only a year apart.  She finally insisted they move to town so the kids could go to school.  Here are the kids on a horse.

You can see the tar paper shacks that they lived in and my great-grandpa is in the bottom picture as well.

I love their style!!  Why can’t we wear hats anymore?  My grandma Ileene is where I get my love of crafts and creativity from.  She was a talented artist and made many beautiful things for her friends and family.  Mom says I remind her of Ileene when I am working on a project.  My grandpa Ingmar was the gentlest, kindest man I ever knew.  When he came to the reserve where I worked to go to a bingo, they gave him a standing ovation because they remembered him from his sawmill days 40-plus years before!

Here is the view from the upstairs landing.

And from the kitchen.  I love that they are always close by.

And one final picture of the wall.  I have now started collecting pictures from my husband’s family and we will start adding those soon.

Do you have a special photograph wall or area in your house?