A Gallery Wall of Favorite Toys for the Playroom (+ a Coupon Code to Mixtiles!)

This post is sponsored by Mixtiles. There's a special offer for ALL of our readers at the bottom of the post.

There has always been a blank wall in the corner of the playroom that I've been meaning to tackle, but just kind of waiting for inspiration to strike. And then last week, I thought, what if I highlighted a few of the girls' favorite, most special, toys as a gallery wall. The entire project took minutes and the girls love, love, love seeing their favorites as portraits on the wall so much, they keep bringing me more not-as-sentimental toys asking for them, too, to be immortalized. (I might cave.) Here's how I did it!

1. I gathered the 9 toys I see the girls playing with the most, or had sentimental value (my mermaid from when I was a little girl, Polly's binky stuffy that got. us. through. the first year, Greta's polka dot puppy from Ikea that's so thin from being carried and snuggled for 8 years and counting, the first toy they ever bought with her own money, etc.) and set up a little photo studio in the nursery because that's the room that gets the best natural light and has a nice white wall I used as a backdrop. I propped each toy up on a white end table against the white wall and snapped a photo with my phone. To really capture the size of each toy, I tried to keep my phone in about the same place each time, so smaller toys are smaller in the photos and larger toys were still larger in comparison.

2. I ran each of the 9 photos through a filter (I like A Color Story or VSCO), and then loaded them into the Mixtiles app with just a few taps. It syncs up with your camera roll and even brings in your albums and folders so it's easy to find your favorite photos. There are a few different frame options, and they let you preview your photos before deciding. I loved the matted white framed look of Ever. To print, mat and frame 9 photos in a nice, modern white frame would normally be...$20 a piece/conservatively? For the nicest cheap option? Mixtiles is $49 for the first 3 and just $9 for each one after that. And it's a one-stop-shop. The printing and framing is all done in one app--ON YOUR PHONE. It's pretty incredible how easy and affordable it is.

3. The Mixtiles arrived on our doorstep in less than a week (with free shipping!) The quality is amazing, and each one looked exactly like the preview looked in the app.

4. I laid all 9 of them out on the floor, to play with the arrangement so that colors and the varying sizes of the toys were spread out a bit.

5. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I peeled off the cover of the adhesive on the back and stuck them to the wall. There are no nails or hammers or tools needed. I did use a level for the first row, but after that, I just eye-balled it and if one looked a little tilted, I unstuck it and straightened it out and pressed it back on the wall. There is zero damage to your walls!

That's it! Isn't it so cute? Playroom art should be whimsical and fun and I can't think of anything more fun than photos of their actual favorite toys. And the best part is, It actually took me longer to run the photos through a filter than it did to hang the gallery wall.

Mixtiles is offering all of our readers 20% off their first order + free shipping. Download the Mixtiles app or visit Mixtiles.com and use the code LOVES20 for 20% off (making it even more affordable!). And then tag us in your gallery walls, so we can see what you come up with!