It's your home and you can do whatever makes you happy!!! Normally, I don't think a designer would suggest putting them there, but really, who cares? Kids love seeing pictures of themselves! If you love looking at them and it's the best place, just do it and have no regrets.

I, personally, put family photos only in bedrooms. I guess there's an exception for pics of the kids (human and furry) of friends and family who make it on the fridge door with other flotsam and jetsam (baseball schedules, bee hive registrations, yadayadayada) that collects under magnets there. Otherwise, they're in a photo album. But, it's your house and your family. If you want to put the pictures in your dining room, go ahead.

I agree with Olychick. It's your house. If seeing the photos makes you and your other family members happy I would go for it. I have a gallery wall of family photos right in our foyer lol. I love the Houzz design photos of the beautiful living rooms with perfect artwork, but I also like to feel like our house is lived in.

Your home should reflect your own personal style and be filled with what makes you happy. I personally, do not like having family photos on walls. A few smaller frames placed well, as to not clutter up the room will give a room that warm homey feeling.

I agree with Mary. Our family pictures are in bedrooms and hallways. Small ones on the shelf in the master bath. Oh, and on the fridge!!

But it’s your house.

another choice is to have an electronic photo frame, then its just one spot for family/personal photos which you can set *anywhere* in your home, and you can have hundreds of photos on it and enjoy them all more than the same 5 always hanging there.

we have ours loaded on an old iPad, a new photo every morning, its the first thing i look at in the morning on my way to feed the cat.

Love the rose pic!

Don't see why not; however, when it comes time to stage your home for sale, replace all the personal pics with other art.

We have huge portraits (oil / acrylic) in our dining room - one is of me and the other is one of my brother's self-portraits. The one of my brother is life-size and used to be disconcerting to me, but I got used to it.

I don't really have a problem with photos in a dining room, but I do especially like your white rose art. If you do put family photos in the dining room, I would recommend changing them fairly often. Better framed and on the dining room walls than on the fridge. Refrigerator magnets give me the creeps.

I would play around with the family photos, e.g. cropping, black and white, large size, to make them more artistic.

Or group by theme, vacation or even eating :)

I'm against family photos in most places, to me the way most people do them is rather tacky, and yet I find myself warming to the idea in your case. It just seems to fit you and your way of life, and I feel sure you can come up with a display that makes it all look good. Don't let it look random, pretend there is a square on the wall and that you can't go outside that square. When it looks organized that's half the battle. Making yourself and your family feel happy and comfortable is more important than anything else. I'm surrounded by dozens of oil painting, drawings and water colors everywhere, not to mention my large collection of antique Chinese porcelain which cost an awful lot, to be honest. We live in the country, have few guests and most of them don't appreciate that stuff anyway. But, like you it makes me happy every time I walk by or look up from the TV or the laptop and see these things that I treasure, and that's what it's all about. Go for it!

A lot of times family photos seem to go in the bedroom and hallway, but it is your home and we think that it can be done well. You can see below we have some of our designs with family photos in different places:

No creepy half naked kids or decades old graduation pictures. Those are for albums. Most photos are for albums.

The only family photos that should be used as art, are the ones that actually are art. Snapshots and everybody in the surf in white or the baby bump announcement is not art. If you wouldn’t objectively hang it in a gallery for someone to purchase, put it in an album, or your bedroom. And that’s 99% of most family photos. Most family photos are subtle one upsmanship bragging. Which is rude to guests.

If you want "rules", most designers would say that family photos should either be in frames on tables, or in a hall or stairway that is not seen by visitors - in my family, we refer to it as a "Rogues Gallery". DD has hers on the stairs to her finished basement (one in which they NEVER entertain). Mine is at the bottom of the basement steps - again, no one but family and repairmen down there.

Oil portraits or pastels of children are typically place in the dining room. An really fine/large oil portrait might be in the LR - it really depends on the room and the portrait.

Bedrooms are another good place for framed/hung photos of family members.

But it's your house and the "rules police" will not be knocking at your door!

I have 2 wall shelves, small ones, that house my family photos. Its in my family room. I smile every single day passing those pictures. They are updated regularly, except for the one of my children when they were young. Gives me such pleasure to see my very favorite people smiling and happy.

I wouldn't dare allow anyone else to tell me what constitutes art. Art is what speaks to my soul and lifts my spirit, and that is intensely personal. Family photos most definitely are art for countless people, and they can go absolutely anywhere. Reasonable people don't try to read ulterior motives into the things that hang in frames on other people's walls.

I do really like your rose!

Cortney, the Rose picture is nice. I recently sent a (blank) greeting card to someone with that same rose on it. I remember thinking it was worthy of framing.

IdaClaire! Glad to see you back! I admire your response and fully agree. I find the tone of self righteous snobbery lately on this forum becoming increasingly tiresome and have not had the wherewithal to compose a reply that is appropriate and not snarky. OP, why not mock up an interesting trial display and see what it looks like? I was thinking of those removable wall hooks, unless they are for one time only use?? Edited as it took me this long to remember "Command hooks!"

I don't remember who said it, but he said "Art is what we frame". obviously can be understood literally, and metaphorically too

Family photos are not my thing to display, hardly anywhere(but if to think of this hard-all my portraits remind me of friends and family..sometimes in a subtle sometimes in a very obvious way. hm)

But I think it can be done, and can be done very well.

Pick less formal pieces but most lively ones. Most telling..the best. And..here the sad because expensive part starts..frame them. Maybe like nosoccermom suggested. Or in a less rigid gallery but still a gallery. Think of mats(yes/no/what color?)..do you like them color, black and white? sepia? .think of what frames. That's one of these very rare occassions I'd go for same/very slightly similar frames

you can also go for more carefree approach..put couple photos ih frames a la these..

I love your room; it has a very nice vibe to it..very cozy..something relaxed might work even better. The table and chairs look like they're well behaved kids that dance at night:) Take this playfulness further..frame some of it:)

Who in god's name is going to judge you on whether you should or should not put family photos in the dining room? Who is that trivial person? Cut them out of your life.

It's your home; it should reflect you and your family. Run free.

thank you for your warm thank you..:)

I love your rose..no decals though..they'll take from it or so i believe. It's special; decals, won't be.

just leave it where it is for now..the right things to go with it will find you. no need to rush.

you can off set it though if it feels too small and it bothers you...then you'll have your rose..and more negative space that will tell you what it wants. Maybe it will want from you to put that rose back in the middle where it is now.

(doesn't feel very small to me; but then I'm not in the room so hard to judge)

I have no problems having family photos up wherever - I just try to pick ones that don't look too personal for more 'formal' areas. But I grew up with one of my grandmothers having a huge gallery wall in her living room where she put up nice photos of all the family (school photos, stuff like that, not snapshots) so it doesn't surprise me as a thing to see in someone's home, I suppose.

(I mean, I'd take them down for selling, unless one was legitimately art in addition to being a family photo, so the buyers wouldn't realize it was a family picture. :) But you de-personalize somewhat when you sell, that's just what you do. )

I think the rose looks great too, though. If you feel like it's too small when you're in the space, perhaps you could flank it with similar photos? Make a grouping, not just the one there? Or since it seems to be a picture people have seen elsewhere, you could see if you could find a larger print of the rose?

However this could be a good time to be a little creative yourself, if you feel like it - just go out and take closeup photos of plants and flowers and other natural shapes (branches on a tree, rocks, that kind of thing) and then apply a black and white filter - pretty much all photo programs these days makes that easy - and see if you come up with anything you like that would go with the rose. Or as a family member or child to do it - if they come up with something you like then that's a bit of a way to personalize the wall without having a person there, because you'll know who took it very time you see the photo. :)

If you would like to make the rose picture bigger, reframe in a bigger frame with the new mat over the old mat with a reveal of older mat. If you have access to Hobby Lobby, watch for their 50% off on open back frames. Their framers can cut new mat and glass for a very reasonable price.

To me, the dining room is the center of family. So many memories around our dining room table. The changes in the family, milestones, holidays, birthdays, big announcements, laughter, music.

If you dining room represents your family, maybe it's the perfect place for family pictures!

I love family photos. However, (and this is just me) I get a creepy feeling when they are put in such a prominent spot that for a lot of the time I am in a room, the whole family is staring at me! My beloved SO has LARGE family photos of his whole family on a shelving unit right across from our bed in the bedroom, and it is a small room so the edge of the bed is relatively close to the shelving unit. His whole clan is always staring at me, when I go to bed at night, when I'm changing into my jammies or getting dressed in the morning, and when I wake up. I wouldn't want my clan up there, that's for sure, but different strokes for different folks. He likes seeing them all the time and I am just splitting hairs with that creepy feeling. Better than in the bathroom I guess! My dad has a small photo of my deceased mother in a prominent spot in the living room, and that doesn't bother me, so I guess it depends. I have a mirror in my dining room and hate it because I hate looking at myself while eating. I would love a wall of family in a dining room, but maybe not where they were always staring down at me while eating. A montage of smaller photos that one passes by on the way to the table--wonderful. But really, just some random thoughts. As many have said, there is no one right or wrong way if you like it that's all that matters.

Also, there are some frames that you can buy that mix photos with design and sometimes sayings, those would look fab in your room. You could fit a little montage on the right side of the doorway. I almost bought a piece at the local big box that was a clock where you could put a photo in every time slot. I also think that "mixing and matching" photo exhibits in one room is probably a no go too. So for example, putting that clock in our bedroom along with the photos on the shelves might bee too much of a good thing.

Recently, I decided to put up family pictures in my dining room. I was influenced by restaurants I've visited where they have smiling snapshots hanging on the walls. It made me feel warm and fuzzy so I decided to recreate that feeling in my house. I'm constantly playing with the arrangement so to avoid swiss cheese walls I use Command strips that are like Velcro. I change out the pictures seasonally.

Put them wherever you like, BUT go big or go home!

It's a funny topic. I think it is okay to put photos wherever you want to. Your house, your family. Don't decorate for others if it's not also for you!

That's not to say there aren't right and wrong ways to display family photos; do make them look good. I like April's suggestions, and of course the BIG ones (but not my family. Gah!) and the array of cool framed photos.

I agree with the majority: not for main areas but private ones. However, I love looking at other people's photographs and they bring life, interest, a softness, and warmth to a home. I just wouldn't display them in a prominent place. Perhaps a small entry table with a vase of flowers or on a piano or mantle with a clock, candles, and small vintage mirror, so they're not the only focus. This way, guests can see your family if they're interested but they're not unavoidable.

As suggested above, reframe the rose with a larger matte/frame and keep on the wall to the left of the table. The wall on the right would be a far better fit for your family photos. I'd also reframe them, add mattes and larger frames, and keep all the frames, including the rose, in the same colour. Enjoy!

Hi, I been wanting to make my dining into my living room. But, I been told by people you shouldn’t put up pictures of family. You should just put up you and your husband and your children. But, I feel like it’s my home . Sorry if you don’t like it.

Agree with the consensus - family photos belong in a family home :)

The only exception to me would be if you are putting your home on the market to sell it - then remove the family pics as they are a distraction to buyers. Other than when your home is on the market, keep the family photos where you can see them :) IMO nothing wrong with family photos in the LR, DR, hallways or bedrooms.