How I did my "Floating Shelves Photo Wall"

Two "how-to's" in a row, I'm on a roll!  I first talked about my vision for a photo wall in my living room here. 

And as I mention in my original post, the first time I knew I wanted to do a floating shelves photo wall in my living room "entry way" was from watching my fave non-reality show, Parenthood.  Then I stumbled across Kristen's floating photo wall she copied from this lovely lady and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. 

It only took me, ohhhhh, 2 months to finally finish, but hey ... it's done, I absolutely LOVE it and that's all that matters.  Not kidding, I kick back on my couch and stare at it every day:

HERE IS HOW I DID IT:

1. Gather Supplies

Priority one was buying the shelves.  I got mine at Garden Ridge for $24.99/shelf and they are 3 feet long in an Espresso color.   I found a very similar shelf at Hobby Lobby for $44.99 half off last week ($22.99/shelf), but I wasn't going to mess with returning and re buying just to save $6.  Although I should have, gas prices are too high and I'm too lazy to mess with that. 

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you the shelves were easy to hang.  They were anything but.  I was sweating and cursing trying to get those biatches hung.  It literally took me 2 days to finish hanging them because I quit half way in.  I needed a break.

Priority 2 was getting everything to put on the shelves. 
While I was at Garden Ridge, I bought 2 picture frames.  One was $2.99 and the other was on clearance for $3.99.  The rest of the picture frames I bought at Burlington Coat Factory of all places.  Super random, I know.  I got them in a package that was 10 frames for $9.99.  They were a hideous gold, but I knew I could easily paint them. 

I already owned the candle + candle sticks (from Target) and 2 of the picture frames that I used (Kohl's).

I bought the round mirror and large "L" at the Hob Lob for $9.99 and $3.50 ish.  They were both half off.

2. Once I got the shelves hung (FML), I "staged" them so I could figure out which frames were going where before I painted them. 

3. Next, I painted the tacky gold frames.
I bought acrylic paint and a paint brush from Michael's.  As y'all saw here, my living room is mostly deep brown with red accents, so that's what I painted the frames.

It's currently around 100 degrees in Dallas, so I just put them on my balcony to dry and it took less than hour to dry even with 3 coats of paint.   

4. The last thing I did was print pictures @ CVS. 
I converted each picture to a Sepia color using Picnik.  I had a hard time deciding if I wanted the photos in color, black and white or sepia, but eventually decided on sepia.  Sepia has a brownish tint to it, and since my living room is mostly browns, I thought it would match best.

I saved this fortune that I got when I was in a really sad place after the break-up with Lucifer.  I've always had it on my fridge, but I decided to mat it (used gold wrapping paper from Christmas) and frame it.  It means something to me because the fortune was so true for me, so I love it.

Once everything was painted and framed, I decorated the shelves.  This is the finished product, I hope this "how-to" helps you if you are looking to recreate something similar!  If you still have questions (I hope I didn't leave anything out), just email  me or comment this post and I will be happy to answer!