Do you display family photos in your home? (children, married, grandmother)

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by no kudzu

................So I was wondering how many photos do you display in your home? And why or why not.

I have a few of family and friends, both alive and passed. I think it is an acknowledgement of the important roll others have played in my life. Those whom I do not care to think about or remember, their photos are not out. Pretty simple really. I do not have photos to the point of clutter nor are they absent completely; rather a few in a few but not every room of the house.

[greatblueheron]

Not even one!

[High_Plains_Retired]

I don't have many photos at the farm here but my primary home in New Mexico does. There are no photos on the walls but the wall-sized tv hutch in the den has framed family photos going back to my great grandfather a Civil War veteran of the Confederacy.

[ADVentive]

This is an interesting conversation. I have never thought about it, and never realized that some people thought it was tacky to have a lot of family photos around the house.

I grew up in a house with family photos everywhere. Bursting from the seams. We'd have new ones, but we don't want to replace old ones, so they just keep adding and adding! My step-mom is practically a hoarder in this respect. We jokingly call her one photo wall "the shrine".

And now in my house we have lots of family photos everywhere, in pretty much every room and hallway. I love it! Well, the one thing I guess I don't love is that then we feel obligated to make sure that everyone is represented. If I have a picture up of my neice, I need to make sure there is one of my nephew, for example. So sometimes I end up with pictures that I'm not even crazy about just to "represent" one part of the family.

I also have many photos around my desk at work, and on my screen saver.

Also, I love going to other people's homes and looking at all of their family photos on display too.

[peppermint]

Yeah, this is something I have never thought about. My family is originally from Oklahoma, but I grew up in the deep south. Everyone had photos -some people had a few, some a whole bunch. I have cousins whose walls are completely covered. My mom had photos floor to ceiling in our hallway at home.

When my husband and I moved up north, one of our neighbors had nothing on their walls. No clocks, no pictures, no photographs. Now, I thought that was strange. The husband said he let his wife control such things, and she thought any wall decorations were tacky. I honestly can't comprehend that. I don't judge it, but I don't get it either.

I am very interested in genealogy, so I have old photos on a few walls. They are photos of our grandparents (who are all deceased), great-grands and other ancestors. I also like to remember great-aunts and others who never had children. I like the idea of remembering someone who might otherwise be forgotten. All the photos remind me of where I came from, of what makes me me. I like it.

We don't have any photos of us on the walls. I feel egocentric when I have photos of myself around. I don't care if others have photos of themselves. It's just personal - I feel weird about it. My husband and I take photos and/or buy local art when we travel, and I frame and hang that in our bedroom so I am reminded of good times and good places we've had together.

[Bakeneko]

I grew up in a home with no photos displayed. It was considered "tacky" - although I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe it was considered vain?

All my mom's generation had a gallery wall but it was located where visitors wouldn't see it unless invited .... we have on the upstairs wall between the bedrooms (but that's more because this place is tiny and there is no other place for it)

I'm not ancient (mid 40's) but I grew up with a bunch of "rules" that I guess the younger generation would consider "out-dated" such as wearing slips, writing thank you notes, not accepting "first -layer" gifts from boyfriends (things that touch your skin), bringing hostess gifts, etc...

[NJGOAT]

We run the gamut in my house...

We have our home divided downstairs between formal living and dining space in the front flanking the entry way and then causal living and dining space in the back around the kitchen.

In the "formal" area of the house, we have no family photos at all. Everything is either real artwork, conversation pieces, etc. The one exception is a small bookshelf in the hallway linking the two areas where we have a couple framed "treasured photos" on the bookshelf and then framed up-to-date portraits of each kid on the wall above the bookshelf.

In the less formal area, we again don't have many family photos. In the family/playroom there is one narrow wall where we have a framed "chain" of pictures of the kids as babies. Outside of that, we have some more casual decorations and wall hangings. In the kitchen area, the kids have a pegboard that displays our most recent art treasures (it keeps the fridge looking like a fridge, lol) and then that is flanked by two frames holding some of our more valuable kid created masterpieces. It's nice because we can switch it out as we see fit.

When you head upstairs though, it's a whole different story. Our staircase is two flights with a landing in the middle, but it's enclosed on all sides. Lining the walls up the stairs are multiple framed photos (all different stlye frames) of the kids, our family, etc. On the landing my wife made several collages out of random photos in large frames. These are probably some of my favorites as they show life, not just posed pictures.

Upstairs, there really aren't many photos at all. In the sitting area of our master bedroom, we keep our framed wedding photos and some other beloved photos, but nothing else. Each of the kids keeps a few photos that they picked in small frames in their room.

[Bakeneko]

So I googled Miss Manners on this and she says that you don't/shouldn't display snapshots in your home where you entertain making exceptions for painted portraits.

Maybe it is something of a genrational thing too though...my mom's generation would never have dreamed of tweeting every little thing they did, or posting blogs either.

My mom didn't start having framed photo around until us girls got married and started having granchildren...

[brokensky]

Originally Posted by Bakeneko

So I googled Miss Manners on this and she says that you don't/shouldn't display snapshots in your home where you entertain making exceptions for painted portraits.

Maybe it is something of a genrational thing too though...my mom's generation would never have dreamed of tweeting every little thing they did, or posting blogs either.

My mom didn't start having framed photo around until us girls got married and started having granchildren...

I was never TOLD not to put photos out, but all the folks whose homes I went into as a child - the wealthier people, anyway - only had oil paintings of family members (portraits). . . and then in bedrooms, they displayed photographs in sterling silver frames (yes, I noticed).

So, to me, photos were something you put in frames and kept in bedrooms or maybe a library/office . . . and the majority go into albums.

I had never looked up the "etiquette" on displaying photos but I can surely attest - what Miss Manners said is how I saw things done when I was growing up and how I always felt was the way to decorate. Having said that, most folks live in more open and casual homes than in the past . . . so it seems to me, whatever makes a person feel happy is what he/she should do.

[Carrie2979]

It just seems strange to me to not have photos up of family, friends, favorite photos of places, etc. It just makes the home feel more "homey" in my opinion.