Oh, Canvas Prints! Oh, My!
What in the heck can we do with your wedding and family photos? Most people don’t have a clue what picture to choose as a statement piece, what size to print, and where to put it in their home.
These are all the things I LOVE helping my clients figure out after our photo sessions together. It’s a collaborative process and easily my favorite part about being a professional photographer. Even though I’m a bigger fan of metal prints, canvas is a timeless and solid choice too.
How Canvas Prints Are Made
Check out this SUPER cool video of one of my wedding photos being made into a custom canvas print! My photo lab sent this to me and it’s awesome!
SO cool to see the behind the scenes of how these gorgeous heirlooms are created. Love it!
Canvas Photo Print Decorating Ideas
Over the years, I’ve worked on several fun projects for my clients in creating heirloom wall art for their homes. Canvas printing is just one of the many things we have done together.
Here are just a few recent projects:
This project was really fun! The Bride came up with the idea to have their wedding vows on the canvas above their bed…. as a constant reminder of the commitment they made as the years go on. It was my idea to just have a small 4×6 picture on each nightstand… Her favorite picture of him and his favorite picture of her.
Then, just one more large canvas print from their wedding on a facing wall. It softens up an otherwise masculine bedroom.
Mother’s Day Gift Idea:
For Mother’s Day, Jeremy surprised Jodi with this collection of images – one from their wedding, one from her pregnancy and one of their little boy Mason. She cried of course! The canvas prints are 12×12 so they can go together in a gird or be split up around the house.
Canvas Photo Gallery Wall:
This wedding photo wall gallery looks small here, however, the Bride and Groom are planning on having their own family and wanted to save a lot of room for the wall to grow. Each image here is a grouping from their families at the wedding. 12×12 to 24×36 in size.
I can’t wait to photograph their first child!
Candid Family Photos on Canvas:
This family is much more understated and wanted their snowy picture to be with the willow tree art, so we created a 16×20 image on canvas print for their rustic living room.
Ironically, they hired me to come out and take a large group photo, as all of the family was there for Christmas…. and this is the only photo they bought. Happens all the time.
See how small a 16×20 looks on a wall? Yet, it sounds so big!
6-Month Old Baby Photos:
Trisha & Neil like a more scattered, asymmetrical look to their wall of canvas prints… A little known fact is that most labs offer groupings of sizes at a bulk price. This is what we did here. {Thanks for texting me these pics, Trisha!!}
3 -10×10 / 2- 20×16 / 1- 20×32
Wedding Photos on Canvas:
We loved the placement of this image in the bedroom between the two blinds and how the image has it’s own frame within.
Are you ready to get your images off of the computer and into your home? I’ll guide you every step of the way.
My Top Tips On Creating & Installing Your Own Gallery Wall:
- Cut out pieces of paper in different standard sizes and hang them on your wall. This will help you see what the proper size is for your space. Save these pieces of paper for hanging them later (another post about this soon!).
- Usually, less is more and you should just go big. Generally, I’m a fan of one or two really large images that have an impact, rather than a lot of smaller images of basically the same thing. The benefit of a lot of smaller images is that as the years go on, you can move them around the house very easily. Just be sure they aren’t super redundant.
- Close up images translate better to smaller sizes and full length or ‘environmental’ style pictures will look much better on a large scale so you can actually see what is happening.
- Viewing distance matters too. How close will you be standing to the photo once it is on the wall?
- With canvas, specifically, I’ve learned to make the sides black. This way, if they get dinged up over the years, a simple black sharpie marker will fix it and also the images look like they are floating off of the wall.
- Not all images should be made into a canvas! Metal prints are totally cool and better for certain images. Especially ones that have a lot of color saturation. The benefit of a canvas print, however, is that they are VERY forgiving in regards to print quality and file size.
- Use a company like Canvas On Demand. They have amazing quality, frequent Groupons & sales, are SUPER easy to order and have one flat shipping rate!
- If you spend more than two hours trying to sort this out yourself, then just email me! I do consultations all the way up to just doing it for you.
- Free your images from the computer and use them all over the house! Print out an amazing image of your wedding bouquet and put that into the guest bedroom…
Why buy artwork at Michael’s when you have the ability to create something truly special yourself? It’s easier than you think.
LOVE these ideas!