Photo Frame and Vintage Postcard Wall Decor Hack

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I’ll admit it. Wall decor isn’t something we have covered much here at HomeFixated. In fact, most of our wall-related coverage inevitably involves smashing said wall with a hammer or other opportune demolition device. Every once in a while we need to mix things up. Now that I’m a fancy-pants Realtor, decor and generally how homes are perceived by others is more on my radar than in past times. A while back, the stark emptiness of our bathroom walls was driving me crazy. This ultimately led me to a quick, simple, yet very cool decorating idea that can be customized to suit your location, home style and even hobbies. It involves some off-the-shelf inexpensive Ikea frames and vintage postcards in a style of your choosing sourced off ebay.

The Before shot - a lonely and boring blank wall.
The Before shot – a lonely and boring blank wall.

Although my real estate work spans most of the San Diego region (and sometimes beyond), my most focused-on neighborhood is a coastal community called Point Loma. I was doing some googling of the neighborhood as part of my research on the area and stumbled across a vintage postcard of the area on eBay. I then search for the neighborhood just on ebay and found dozens of listings showing cool vintage postcards with a variety of scenes from the neighborhood. They were so cool, and so cheap (many were just a few bucks), I couldn’t resist making them into a little project.

If you luck out you may even get a glimpse into the past!
If you luck out you may even get a glimpse into the past! Note the acid-free tape to secure the card in place

While my themes were all focused on my neighborhood, there are vintage postcards available on ebay in a zillion different themes. Pick something relevant to your home and/or your interests and shop away! Picking out the ideal vintage postcards is really the hardest part of this project. From there, all you need is a quick order of small, cheap photo frames from Ikea, some acid-free tape, and you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll!

Pick a theme and then search ebay for vintage postcards that matchi it
Pick a theme and then search ebay for vintage postcards that match it

The particular frames I liked at the time from IKEA had a rear stand that made them hang in an less-than-ideal fashion. My simple solution to this problem was just to rip the stand right off the frame. That worked fine and allowed me to mount the photo frames much more cleanly.

Minor surgery for a cleaner install - ripping the stands off
Minor surgery for a cleaner install – ripping the stands off

ikea-vintage-postcard-mainOnce I had the vintage postcards mounted in the frames, I liked to play around with different layouts on a flat surface before hammering nails into the wall. While I used three in my particular plans, you could easily decorate your wall with 10 or 20+ frames too. By hindsight I actually wished I had done 5 or so frames instead of three. Next time! The nice thing about the low price-point of this project is you can scale it to whatever size wall you have and it still remains a very inexpensive technique for handling wall decor.

The After shot - a little local charm, history and interest added for only a few bucks
The After shot – a little local charm, history and interest added for only a few bucks
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About Marc Lyman

Marc grew up under a brave single mom who "encouraged" home improvement on the family home. Early toddler gifts included a tool set, and even a cordless Bosch drill when cordless drills first came out. In grade school (give or take a few years), Marc's mom said, "We need to cut down some trees. . . . here's a chainsaw." A father figure also involved Marc in many home improvement projects, including a summer of home remodeling in Palo Alto, CA. Toss in some Obsessive Compulsive personality traits researching everything home improvement related. The end result: a genetically pre-disposed, socially sculpted home improvement machine! For his complete profile, please visit our About page. Really, it's worth it.

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