Making a photo stick

Before we even moved into our little place I had suspected that fixing things to the walls would be a bit of a drama. With a cement-based render you can pretty much just fix things using masonry screws and fixings. But our clay/sand render is so crumbly I just knew that wouldn't work.

Some people plan for their hangings before the rendering stage, and attach pieces of wood to the strawbales, then render around the wood and attach screws/cupboards/picture rails etc to the timber once the place is rendered. We had planned on doing this as well, but the frenzy of our workshop, trying to build as much as physically possibly in the minutes when the rain stopped whilst also trying to keep everything covered in tarps when the rain did inevitably come down, meant that several things - like our cupboard and picture fixings and conduit for the electrics - fell by the wayside. We just couldn't afford the time.

Now we're in, it's not actually a huge drama. The orange and yellow sunshiny crockery cupboard above our kitchen bench was hung from our trusty rafters using the gal strapping that's normally used to brace roofs. A crafty and functional solution!

Bigger, framed pictures are hung, gallery-style on long wires which are also attached to the rafters. But what to do with all our little photos and cards? Some kind of display method was called for, and, as in all of my how-the-hell-am-I-going-to-do-that moments, I turned to my trusty pile of fence palings and made…. drumroll please… a photo stick! You can make a photo stick too. It's super-easy-peasy and, like all things made with recycled hardwood, it looks super-awesome. 

Step 1: Find the most beautiful, interesting piece of old hardwood you can lay your hands on. (I was really excited when I rummaged through the pile and found the paling that I used, because it had a little crescent-moon shape that had been eaten out of it by critters! Gotta love creatively-chewing critters helping out with the decor). While fence-paling are clearly the most beautiful building material in the world, I believe that something like this would also probably look good made with driftwood or a really interesting/gorgeous branch, if you're into that hippy stuff.

Step 2: drill randomly-spaced holes along its length. Or less-random, if you're a non-random kinda person. That's cool too.

Step 3: Thread small-guage wire though the holes, to make flattish 'loops' on the front side.

Step 4: Attach lovely photos of people you think are awesome and landscapes and reminders of happy times using little wooden pegs clipped onto the wire.

Step 5: Stand it up and enjoy!

Photo stick in action

If you don't have fixing-challenged walls, you could also hang something like this horizontally, with photos above and below your sexy fence-paling.