French Door Photo Collage

This is by far the most special project I have been a part of. When my father asked for a photo collage of all his grandchildren, I knew immediately what we should do and called my other "Martha Stewart protege" sister, Jessica. She was instantly on board. We consulted our other siblings, who all agreed. 

Even though we all live far apart, we each undertook an element of the project to make this come together. Luckily, we had ample time to prepare and complete this enormous collage. We all agreed to have this ready for his birthday - more than half a year later. At some point, I am sure our Dad assumed we had forgotten. 

Finding an old french door with 18 window panes was a challenge, but eventually the right one came along. If needed, we could have grouped sibling children together for some of the photos. We might have to do this in the future for replacement photos if more come along.

The door we found is an 8 foot solid wood beast. I definitely cannot lift it by myself. My husband cut both ends of the door to make it uniform and have smooth edges. There was a lot of clean up, minor wood repairs and sanding to start with since this was previously an exterior patio door. 

The window panes were scraped at the edges to remove any old paint and then taped off. Two coats of Antique White chalk paint were applied. 

About that time, I had an awesome sister, Kim, visit us for vacation and she got a crash course on how to apply Dark Wax! 

It is hard to notice a difference in the photos, but they were the best photos I could get at the time. The dark wax added the age back into the door, instead of having a freshly painted white appearance. 

Meanwhile, all the siblings worked on taking photos of their children and providing them to our designated photo editor - yet another sister, Shauna. There are roughly "27" of us, so try to keep up.

After the wax fully dried, we brought the door inside to complete the rest of the project. Thanks to a local friend, I was able to order a custom vinyl decal that really adds something special to the collage. 

Tip*
Be sure to measure your window panes prior to ordering photos. I would recommend ordering slightly larger and cut to size. 

Once the photos arrived I figured out placement of each photo and began measuring each pane specifically for each photo. Each window pane was just slightly different than the next. Just a few centimeters can make the difference on whether or not your photo will fit properly. Remember to measure twice and cut once!

Some of the photos were sent in portrait instead of landscape, so after my brief heart attack, we decided to cut the photos a bit smaller and add a black backing to give the appearance of a photo matte. I honestly think it looks better having some of them different. 

The one step I did forget to photograph was the back of the collage once I was complete. I used blue painters tape on all four sides of the photographs to attach them to the underside. Using painters tape seemed the most logical option, since it will not ruin the pictures or the wood door. This also allows for easy changing of the photos as needed.

We are all truly happy that our Dad loves his one-of-kind photo collage. 

Special thanks to:
Bobbi - For making a long journey to pick up and deliver this to Dad & video his reaction!
Jessica - For providing the most photos and being my support!
Dennis - For looking cool while writing checks!
Kim - For hands on assistance with this project!
Shauna - For being our photo editor!

Most importantly, thank you all for not disowning me after my meltdown :)