I love polaroids. From the opening of the SX-70 to the anticipation as the film spits out the front of the camera, I love it all. My only problem is I end up with stacks and stacks of polaroids, and besides leaving them in stacks around the house, I don’t have much else to do with them. There was the mechanics desk, but it’s full now and that’s a fairly immobile object.
I needed a gift for mother’s day for my wife. We generally like to make each other gifts and don’t really believe in going out and spending money on things we probably don’t need or won’t use after a month or two. I saw something similar to this on the net a couple of years ago, sorry I don’t recall the link.
It’s quite simple and inexpensive to make, it’s just pieces of 5/8″ mdf cut to size and painted with mat paint (I used tremclad, it’s thick so you don’t need too many coats). The photos are actually not the original polaroids, but scanned and then inkjet printed so they’d be easier to glue and then I’d still have the originals to leave in piles around my house… The pictures are stuck on with contact cement. A picture wire is on the back to allow it to be hung on the wall. I stuck the white blocks onto the black background with double sided tape. I actually meant to glue and nail gun it, but I didn’t have the right size nails, and I ran out of time, but the tape has worked so far and it’s been over 2 months, cross your fingers…
Craft Collective 
I love this! Great idea.
Wow this is beautiful! I am going to make this as a gift for my mom and my bf mom who loves photography. I might also use this as a gift to the parents of the kids in my classroom, they always love the picture gifts.
Questions though! Do you remember the dimensions of the mdf and the photo? Embarrassing but what is mdf? Lol.
Also it looks like you put a finishing glaze coat. If you did what did you use?
Thank you again for posting such a creative and sentimental/precious gift!!! You’re wife is very lucky!
Hi, glad you like it!
dimensions – I used actual polaroids, so they were 3.25 x 4.25 inches, the picture inside the white border is square, but not sure the size (currently travelling the world and this picture is packed up in a box many miles away…).
mdf – it’s a type of “sheet good”. Basically it’s saw dust mixed with glue that gives you a hard and smooth board. It’s available at all home reno stores and they sell it in smaller sheets (sometimes they’ll even cut it up for you)
no glaze coat, although I have seen people do this and I’m not sure what they used. For mine, I just printed the photos on ultra glossy photo paper which gives it the shine which looks like a glaze.
If you don’t have a way to cut the mdf (ie. a table saw would be best), you might want to go to an art supply store and buy some foam board instead. You can get it in black and white and you can cut it with an x-acto knife easily. The sides won’t have quite the same finish but it will save you a lot of work and sawdust! Also a lot lighter.
good luck!
This is a Fabulous Idea that looks absolutly spectacular! I do hope that if the double side tape ever fails that you will repair it quickly – it would be so sad to know that this is not being displayed. What a wonderful gift from the heart that I am sure is being treasured
So far the tape has held up for a year, so I think it’s a good way to go. It’s the same type of tape that you use to hold carpet down, so it is extremely strong.