Cheap, low-profile picture rail

I have monthly photos/milestone pics of my kids’ first years that we displayed on two clothespin lines on our upstairs hallway. You can see them from the downstairs (our house has a dramatic roofline from one floor in the front to two in the back with an open dining room and cutouts to see the second floor. Very late 70s.) It looked fine, but we’re trying to gussy up the place and make it look a little nicer. The photos are 4 inch square. I found some inexpensive frames for them on Amazon (frames are so pricey! These are plastic but look fine) and looked high and low for super long picture rails that weren’t a billion dollars and didn’t jut out from the wall too much since the hallway is rather narrow. I found none. :expressionless:


(Sorry about the Sonic cup)

So, I went to our local big-box hardware store and bought two eight foot lengths of wooden corner moulding, making sure I got a non-curved profile. They are only an inch wide-which works well with the frames since they are about a half an inch. They got trimmed down to 70 inches long to fit nicely on our wall with the frames (lotsa math to measure twice/cut once) and stained black with the wood grain still showing. They’re held up with command strips on the back (four each-which should hold up 16 pounds-more than enough for this). I think they look great! Next will be stripping the ancient white paint off of the railings in the hallway cutouts and the staircase to their original black, changing the light fixture to something more decorative/modern, and maybe adding some color to the walls—but one step at a time. :blush:


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This is a great job you did - a perfect substitution.

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Visually stunning. Love this

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That looks great! I am totally bookmarking it for later.

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That’s a great solution for a lovely tradition.

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Amazing! Love the clean lines

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What a fantastic idea! Love this :slight_smile:

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This is so striking! The extreme linear aspect really helps tell the story of the photos meaning and timeline. It’s especially nifty how thrifty you were without it looking at all cheap.

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I love it! Looks very sleek and graphic. All the identical frames give it a really cohesive look.

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Awesome solution that looks fantastic! :ok_hand:

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It looks great. We did something like this at my old house. We put the moulding up the other way so it had a lip and used it as a flat bookshelf behind my step-sons door. I think this looks great in a hallway for a low-profile shelf.

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Looks fantastic!

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