If you’ve ever wished you could display your digital artwork and photos in style but didn’t want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a digital frame, there is another way to fulfill that wish. If you’ve got the DIY skills, you can build your own digital photo frame powered by Raspberry Pi. Here’s how you can make that happen.

The inspiration behind the project

Several digital photo frame projects have been documented, but one of the slickest ones I’ve found is by Paul Stamatiou, or Stammy, a designer and coder from San Francisco. Stammy wanted to build something with the Raspberry Pi that he’d use around the house, and he narrowed the list down to either a smart mirror or a digital photo frame.

Stammy said he ultimately realized a smart mirror wasn’t something he’d get much use out of, especially since he was concerned about the privacy aspect of having things like work emails visible to guests in his home. However, he felt a digital photo frame would offer much aesthetic value, especially since he’s also a photographer.

Building the digital photo frame

To begin with, Stammy needed to decide on the display and a frame for the project. Since photographs are usually in a 4:3 aspect ratio, he wanted to find a display as close to that as possible in the 10-inch to 12-inch size.

Some builders have created projects like this using eInk displays. Other DIY enthusiasts have used a desktop monitor, disassembled it, and built the frame around it. Stammy wanted a high-quality display but hoped to avoid using a disassembled desktop monitor. He wanted something smaller and powered by a USB cable instead of a 120v adapter brick.

Stammy found a 10-inch LCD from Chalkboard Electronics, which offers a native 1920x1200 resolution. That’s a 16:10 aspect ratio close enough to the desired 4:3 aspect ratio to work well. The display is lightweight, weighing just 4.87 ounces (138 grams), and powered through a mini-USB connector.

Next was the frame, which presented its own unique challenges.

Stammy’s original thought was to wall mount the photo frame, but he wanted to hide the power cables without too much trouble. He eventually placed the photo frame on a bookshelf and found a 9” x 12” frame deep enough for the LCD and the Raspberry Pi.

Displaying your photos and artwork in the digital photo frame

Once the assembly was done, Stammy went on to the fun part: displaying his photos in full screen. In his project, Stammy wanted to pull images from a specific Google Photos album and chose to do so in a full-screen Firefox browser. He wrote custom Python code to do so. You can duplicate his steps since his project description includes all his Python code.

However, a perhaps more manageable way to display your photos would be through the Magic Mirror 2 smart mirror platform. This option lets you display your photographs from Amazon Photos, Dropbox, Google Photos, OneDrive, and more.

Installing Magic Mirror 2 inside your digital picture frame can also help you add even more functionality. The platform has a thriving community and a large library of third-party modules to customize your digital photo frame.