DIY Instagram Wall

When I finally updated from the nightmarish Blackberry Storm to the near-perfect iPhone in 2011, the first order of business was downloading Instagram (you can follow me here). While I don't always have my Nikon dSLR handy, my iPhone is literally always within arm's reach (if not inches from my face), making Instagram a fun way to capture life's little moments and apply beautiful edits to them. But since the advent of Webshots (remember that?), Facebook, and Instagram, I have been terrible about getting pictures developed (is that even the word anymore?) printed. Aside from my wedding pictures and a few other family shots, the most recent framed photograph in my house is from 2006. I wanted to change that with some fun new prints. And so I turned to Instagram.

Yes, you can print Instagram pictures and you don't need a special program or anything. If your Instagram images are saved on your phone, just email them to yourself and save them to a thumb drive. For best quality, you must use the original files from your camera roll, not a downloaded image from the website. Take the thumb drive to any printing kiosk (we went to CVS), and print them out on 5x7 paper. Make sure to crop or zoom out for the image to print properly. Next, swing by Michael's and pick up a couple inexpensive packs of four 5x5 white-matted frames by Studio Decor. Once you trim the images to fit to the frames, space them evenly on your wall to hang. Depending on the size of your Instagram Wall, the total cost should be between $50-75 (or less if Michael's is having a sale - it cost us $36). They make great gifts too!

We printed out about 20 pictures but settled on pictures of our trip King Family Vineyards, our old subway stop in Brooklyn, the James River, ice skating in Bryant Park, Wally as a teeny puppy, another shot of the James from the top of my office building, Cobble Hill in the snow, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. We are completely indecisive as a couple so we will probably be rotating some of these out very soon to keep up with life's new little moments. "The Wall" is the first thing guests see in our entryway and always receives a number of compliments. Hopefully it inspires our guests, and my readers, to appreciate life's little moments.