Thank you Personal Creations for sponsoring today’s hour-or-less home decor project and giveaway!
So, we’ve been in our house for almost exactly a year, now. And do you think I’ve been on the home decor bandwagon? Nope. Only in my head. I’ve been struggling to find something unique, something “us”… and something that will fill our living room area wall, without getting lost. My husband is a HUGE fan of decorating with photos. I think I’m lucky – we really don’t butt heads when it comes to decorating. But I just have a really hard time pulling off that “gallery wall” look. Can anyone else out there relate? Am I the only one who feels a little unskilled at balancing a photo gallery?
So when we saw Personal Creations’ Puzzle of Life pieces, we were both instantly excited. My husband LOVES personal. I love easy. And this is a project we could do together in under an hour that we will enjoy for a long time.
The way the Puzzle of Life works is you can start with a kit, or design your own interlocking pieces. We started with the wedding kit. It’s been 5 years since we got married (where does the time go??) but we don’t have any wedding photos up… which seems weird, when you consider that’s really the starting point of our family. So we embraced it! I hopped onto the Personal Creations site, and started personalizing.
The hardest part of designing is deciding! The actual personalization process is easy. The basic kit starts with 3 pieces, and I ordered a few more to add our kids into the mix, too. As our family celebrates more milestones, we can add more puzzle pieces – and move the existing ones around, too. There are 4 different pieces you can choose from to add to the top, bottom, or sides. We laid it out to double-check our placement before we began. The pieces interlock smoothly and perfectly, and the engraving and finish are beautiful! They’re handmade by Amish woodworkers. We chose the wood veneers for our puzzle, but it also comes in a painted black-and-white theme if that better fits your decor.
For now, to fill out the wall space, we placed one piece on top and one on the bottom. We can move the bottom piece up later, and add more of our kids’ achievements and celebrations near their pieces later on!
Kevin was enjoying going through the pieces. I knew he would. He was really excited about our puzzle.
That’s why when I placed our order, I decided to design a surprise piece for him. After all, since we were doing a wedding theme as our center piece – I thought adding a touch from our wedding would be sweet. I picked out a few of the lyrics from our wedding song (which is uncharacteristically sentimental of me, I know – don’t laugh!) and I added it to our order. He loved it! The only dilemma was – what photo do we put in there?
And he had a great idea – to every year, put our new anniversary photo in there. Our anniversary isn’t until September, though, and we didn’t have a great one from last year. So he surprised me right back, and while we were up north last weekend, he packed our honeymoon sweatshirts to take a new photo in the town where we honeymooned. :)
Yeah. He’s a keeper.
We have had so much fun not just putting up our living room decor, but also planning our future pieces. The kids’ first days at school. My first ArtPrize competition. Honoring the special members of our extended family. I think that’s the coolest part about it, we can update our puzzle pretty much until we run out of wall!
We’ve got quite a bit or space over the couch, and this was a great starting size. We also added some personalized vinyl to help fill in the space for now, as we get started with our puzzle.
Let me offer the following tips for designing your puzzle:
- Measure your space. You can design your puzzle to be a vertical or horizontal layout, but choose before you begin so that you can select the interlocking pieces that fit.
- With 4 different shapes to choose from, you can make any layout you like! Just be sure that the pieces you choose will fit together the way you envision. You don’t want to end up with 2 tabbed sides or two port sides if you’re planning to interlock them.
- Consider other add-ons for your gallery. Personal wall plaques, or vinyl like we chose can also make for a great touch.
- Start with a central theme for your design – wedding, family, whatever you like! But don’t feel limited, because you can always leave space for the future, and add pieces on for future family milestones.
- Design your puzzle on the Personal Creations site by filling out the personalization fields, and before you check out, enter code PCSM20 for 20% off your Personal Creations order!
Personal Creations is also offering a great giveaway to a Happy Hour Projects reader – a $100 gift card to get started on YOUR Puzzle of Life! US & Canadian readers may enter (void where prohibited) and fulfillment is by Personal Creations. Rafflecopter will walk you through how to get your entries in through July 24, 2014 at 11:59 pm EST. Good luck!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Personal Creations.
Hi i recently purchased this puzzle of life for my wedding. when i received it i noticed that its not like any other picture frame, my question is how do you hang this flat on the wall? do you use double sided tape? glue? nail? i would like to be able to rearrange it in the future, but don’t want it to fall off while on the wall. please if anyone has any advice please let me know, by emailing me. thank you.
There is a rectangle cutout in the back. That’s the hanger, there’s a groove that will fit over your wall screws, and it will work either horizontally or vertically!
I would most definitely hang it up in our family room. It would look amazing i’m sure ;) I absolutely love these!!
I would hang it in my family room.
this is the cutest and neatest thing I have ever seen..just a great item..would love it for my bedroom thank you
I would hang it in my upstairs hallway.
I would hang it on my bedroom wall. It would look great there.
I would hang this front and center in our living room! We just got married and this is perfect!
I would hang it in my living room.
I would hang it in the living room so that everyone would see it when they came in :)
i would put this in our living room, it’s beautiful!
I would hang it in the living room of course!
I would love this for my best friend. She is pregnant and I think this would be so cute in the nursery!
My first thought was our living room, but I think on the wall next to my desk would be an even better place!
I would hang this in my living room!
In my living room
I would hand it in my long hallway. We can add more to it in that location!
I would hang it in my living room.
I would hang it in the living room. Such a pretty set, I would want everyone to see.
I would hang it in my living room so that everyone could see it
In our living room.
U have a long wall between the living room and bedrooms and this would be a great spot to put progressing growing pictures of the grandkids.
I would hang the Puzzle of Life in our family room. It would look really nice.
I would hang it in the living room for everyone to see!
I think I’d hang it in the front hallway that goes from the front door to the kitchen / great room area. It would be a nice display area and guests would see it.
I really don’t know as I am smack dab in the middle of our move, and we haven’t picked a new home yet. Since I am one to cover ever available wall with new personal touches I’m sure this would be showcased. I’m thinking kitchen or dining rooms since that is where our family really works well together.
I would hang this in our livingroom.
jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com
It would be good on our stairs.
I would hang this in the entranceway.
I would hang it in the front room.
These are neat.. I would love one for the nursery!
How unique! I would use it for a gallery wall!
I would hang it in our living room
I would put this in my family room :)
I would probably hang in the hall way which leads to the bathroom and bedrooms.
I love hang it in the dining room. I’ve been looking for something special to put there, and this would be such a unique and beautiful thing!
I have a hallway that connects our bedrooms where I have all our family photos – this would be an amazing addition to that assortment!
I would hang this above my fireplace. So cool
I am fascinated with puzzles. This just adds to the mix.
I would give it as a gift.
So cute! We have a blended family and sometimes it feels like a puzzle. This is so representative of us!
Love this !!! I would do this with my 4 girls and hang it in my bedroom so I could see it first thing when I wake up in the morning.
I would hang it in the living room.
So cute!! I love this idea!!
I would hang it in my family room it is where most time is spent
I’d love to hang this in my living room for everyone to enjoy! I really like these frames!
i would hang this in my bedroom
Oh I would love to hang it in our hallway when you first come in our home!
i would hang it in my living room
I would hang it on the wall by the staircase
It would go in my living room. Thank you for the wonderful giveaway!
I love this! I would hang it in my family room.
I would hang it in the family room next to the spiral staircase leading upstairs.
I have a blank wall in my dining room that would be perfect for something like this.
I would hang ours in our den :)
I would hang it in my family room
I would hang mine in the living room :)
In our dining room!
i would hang it on our wall in the hallway where everyone could see it.
In my dining room!
Thanks!
I have the perfect half wall in the living that this would be perfect on. Thank you!
I would hang it in the living room
I would hang it in our family room.
I would hang this in our family room.
Hi! This is such a great idea! I would give it to my son and daughter in-law. They would probably put it in their dining room. So cool! Thank-you!
I would hang it in our living room
I would hang these in my family room.
I would hang it in my livingroom!
I would hang it in the family room
I would hang it in my gallery wall near the stairs
I would love to display these in my entrance way for all my guest to see!
I’m not sure if I would hang it in my living room or kitchen.
Oh gosh, that is so cool! I think we’d hang it in our living room so everybody could see it!
I would probably hand it in my front room in the middle of the arch. It would be one of the first things you see coming in the door and we spend a lot of time in the front room. Also, a puzzle/puzzle piece is a symbol used for Autism awareness and my 7yr old only child has mild Autism. It is a great way to remember they fit together just a differently as we do. She is just a challenging puzzle, every time I fit a piece I am over joyed!
On my post I forgot to put my twitter name on.
I would hang it in our hallway.
I would hang it right in my living room for everyone to see! :)
I would hang it in our living room
I would hang it on a wall in my dining room.
I would hand mine either in my master bedroom or in the living room. Awesome product!
I would put it in my family room .
How beautiful is this? It would definately be showcased in my living room!
Love it! It would be right in my living room
I would hang them in our family room. :)
I would hang it in my living room
I would hang mine in our family room.
in the living room! I’d want everyone to see this fantastic way of showing great pics! :)
I have a photo gallery down my hallway
Loving this!!! So want to win! Thanks so much for hosting this giveaway Love that puzzles photo frames!
Hugs
I would love doing one of my grandchildren! I would put it in my living room.
What a beautiful gallery wall! If I had one, I would hang it in my hallway or my dining room. :)
I would love one in the living room!
in my living room
Definitely the living room!
I love this!! I would hang it in my entry way :)
I would hang it in our dining area
My living room. It’s looking pretty blank.
I love this!
I love this frame idea! Very cute. I would hang it in my living room.
In the family room :)
nice idea! Great use of wall space
Without doubt mine would go above the couch. It needs to be seen by all its so beautiful!
This is so unique! I would put mine in my entrance hallway
This is SO clever, I absolutely love how you did 2 of the same color in the middle and your newer family branching off! Such an amazing idea!!
I’d definitely hang this over my couch, as well!
I’ve never seen anything like this!! Super cute :)
I would hang this on the stairs, also visible from the entryway. I love the concept!
Such an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing!
This would totally go in the living room…I love it!
This is so beautiful!!! I would love to have one of these hanging in our entryway! Thanks for the chance!
In the living room
This is super cute! I would hang it right in the entry way or on the stairs so everybody could see it.
Love this! I would put it in our living room!
I would love to have one of these for the dining room wall that is currently empty.
In the upstairs landing!
I would give it to my brother and sister in low since they are just starting a family with the baby arriving in January. They would love this!!
I would hang it at the base of the stairs in my basement!
Wow! That’s so neat, and right up our puzzle-loving alley!!
And I’d have to say hang it in our entryway!
I would hang it in the entertainment/living area. It has light to med. wood walls and I think the dark pieces would look really nice
Love this!! Such a neat idea and it’s beautiful!!
I love these! I would hang them in our family room. We currently have bare walls.
What a novel idea! I would hang mine on my LR wall for all to see.
I would hang it in my living room