The Retro-Inspired Way To Display Photos We're Obsessed With

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There's just something about Polaroid photos that makes any space seem a little cooler. They're the sleek, modern-vintage mashup that still feels fresh and somehow never dated, even as Polaroid's heyday was decades ago. Whether you're using the instant snapshots as a fun way to decorate a basic cork board or creating the perfect gallery wall, Polaroids are a stylish way to shake up the everyday portraits and prints that might otherwise dot your home. One display idea involves arranging your throwback images on an oversized, fabric-backed frame. To complete this project, you'll need a frame of your choice (a thrift store find would be great for this), a piece of textile, a stapler to hold it all together, and glue dots — plus your pics, of course.

First thing's first, you'll need some images that either are Polaroids or look like Polaroids. Luckily, if you don't have a Polaroid camera, there are still lots of ways to create the Polaroid effect. Channel your inner artist and get to snapping if your smartphone's camera roll isn't already packed with candidates. Once you've curated your selection, design platforms like Canva have Polaroid templates that convincingly approximate the real thing, which you can then have printed at nearby brick and mortar retailers for around a buck each. Picta x Walgreens offer retro print options as well. Polaroid itself also makes an instant printer, the Polaroid Hi-Print, that turns your digital pics into those classic prints you're aiming to recreate.

Simple as they are, Polaroids can also have an impact when they're all dressed up. Framing a single shot at the center of a mat several times its size can have a dramatic, professional effect. But you can also arrange them in a sophisticated collage in a frame like Instagrammer @lalanyajade. Depending on your choice of materials, something similar can be done for well under $100. The Instagrammer affixed sixteen prints to a swath of hand tailored linen fabric with glue dots before framing it all under glass. To do something similar, first attach your fabric to your frame's backing with a stapler. Then, arrange your Polaroids on the fabric any way you desire — you could even add other momentos like pressed flowers or train tickets from travels, too. Adhere these with the glue dots, then slide the backing into the frame and hang on your wall with a hook or adhesive strips.

Polaroids carry a great aesthetic weight even unadorned. They signal carefree moments in time, flickering beauty, and those lucky, unplanned one in a million shots. So don't stuff any extra pics back into that cookie tin. You can keep it super simple with a unique and sentimental polaroid bowl for your guests to sift through. Or, you can do little more than affix your snaps to the refrigerator with tiny metal magnets to create a grownup homage to childhood art.