The glossy magazine covers make it look like anyone can do wonders with any room in the home. That, you can, but it is not always made easy how to do just that. Read enough cover stories though, flick through gallery portfolios of designers, and browse the aisles of home decor stores (or categories of online stores), you can distil a few tricks that make it a breeze to integrate artwork into your home.
The kind of displays you would expect only to be created by a pro…
3 Neat and Simple Display Tactics for Art in Interior Design
1. Use a group arrangement for collections
When you have multiple prints to hang on display, you have choices. You can frame them together in one multi-aperture picture frame, use single frames hung together with no spacing between the frames or display them in single frames with equal spacing throughout the display.
Consider each framing option before buying the print. Some art is available as massive prints or as smaller individual pieces. As an example, the 1746 Map of London by John Roque can be purchased as one large print measuring 9.8 ft x 4.96 ft. The same print can also be purchased as 24 individual prints designed to be displayed in individual frames together that creates a grid over the map. In instances like this when the frames are intended to create a grid, the frames become part of the art display.
2. Keep the walls pale to feature bold art
To really make your art stand out, go against the common wisdom of making your art and frames compliment the room. A pale wall sets a great staging background to make your art and frames pop. Use dark frames on pale walls to make your artwork a feature of an interior rather than part of the room decor. This is ideal for displaying collections of artworks.
In general, family photos are the ones that appear visually better when framed in a colour tone to compliment a room. They are part of the home. The artwork is part of the design of the home. When you have a mix of family photos and artwork to display, feature walls can help combine both. Create a feature wall with a pale colour and hang your artwork on that, then on other walls, have family photos displayed in a complimentary frame rather than the bold feature frame.
3. Use creative wall mounts to enhance your art
Wall mounts make a terrific pairing for picture frames. In particular, in homes with high ceilings as they help keep the art in proportion to the room.
A common problem when hanging frames at eye level (as they should be) is that it leaves a vast amount of wall space above the frame completely bare.
You can fix the blandness with wall mounts and they can contribute to the theme of a room. Wall-mounted objects can be anything from bison skulls, zebra heads, animal-themed wall shelves, or a coat of arms plaque.
For rooms without high ceilings, consider accentuating frames with wall mounts or shelves to the side of the frame. An idea could be angel wings one hung either side or a narrow floating shelf with decorative pillar candles used for accentuation.
Sometimes, it is not just the art that makes a feature display work. It can be what surrounds the art, too.