Art can and does transform rooms and can change the feel of the environment when you walk into a room, up a staircase or along a hallway.
With only four walls and limited flat space using shelving and side tables, there can come the point when you find yourself lacking the space to display a great piece of framed art you would love to put on show.
Depending on the number of frames you already have on display, and the sizing of the frames, it can be tricky to display what you want and achieve the look you want your art to have once it’s up.
A little creative thinking can help to highlight some unusual places that framed art can look right at home and enhance your room at the same time.
3 Creative Ways to Get Framed Art on Display
1. Install a Column Gallery Wall from Floor to Ceiling
Gallery walls can be done from floor to ceiling on any size of wall space, but where this is particularly handy is for those narrow walls you struggle to decorate.
It could be a divider wall that’s only a couple of feet wide, or the blank canvases of a narrow 30-inches either side of a window frame or the end of a narrow upstairs hallway.
Gallery walls are only a collection of frames displayed together with spacing between them for aesthetic purposes. For narrow spaces, vertical column displays, either single column or double column, could be ideal for filling difficult to decorate narrow walls, giving you a perfect blank canvas to personalise with your own favourite wall art or family photographs.
2. Anchor Your Frames to Built-in Shelving
A lot of older properties have built-in alcoves. Over the years, some of those have been covered with drywall and plastered over to have one flat wall that is easier to decorate. Drywall makes a hollower sound when it is knocked and is usually discovered when decorating. Whether you find an alcove in your property or you already have one that is getting in your way of decorating, there is a way to use it to your advantage instead of giving up and hiding it.
By installing shelves in the alcove, you can anchor the frame to the top shelve and then use the surrounding shelving for additional decor such as small plants and ornaments to compliment the art.
Any built-in shelving can use this decor trick to hang art to the front of the shelving and have some hidden shelve space behind the frame for a little hidden storage space.
3. Hang smaller picturesque art inside glass displays
Some kitchens have integrated glass units that can be used to showcase your best kitchenware. There are also glass display cabinets used in lounges and dining rooms which usually display ornamental collections, glassware and crystal.
The back of display cabinets will usually be mirrored, and the top can have integrated lighting too.
If you have a display cabinet, whether it’s mirrored or not, provided it has glass doors, the back of the cabinet is a great place to lean smaller framed art to add a beautiful picturesque backdrop to an ornamental crystal or other glassware display.