Ever set your eyes on a lovely print but did not like the frame it was housed in?
If you frequently visit charity shops, you will see numerous vintage prints. The best prints will have no visible damage because the previous owner has often taken care to frame the print correctly, blocking all air access with the right tape, preventing condensation accumulation by hanging it somewhere suitable and being careful over the years to protect the print from chemicals.
Those types of prints are vintage art, but being vintage, the frames they are currently in are outdated by their very definition. Modernising a vintage print is really tricky because, in a lot of cases, the only type of frame that works is a wood frame and even at that, it’s often made better by distressing the wood to give it a chic look.
Rather than stress over finding the right replacement for vintage art, you could try the unframed display.
3 Ways to Display “Inexpensive” Vintage Art
1) Pins and Clips
It is never wise to punch a pin through a print. It is going to ruin it by leaving holes. The way around that is to use a clip. Not a standard paper clip though. Foldback clips are much better as you open them, put them over the print, then close them without dragging it over the print, which can damage either the print or the paper. With a foldback style paper clip, you can put the clip in place then use a decorative pin placed between the wings of the clip to attach it to the wall without damaging the print.
By using pins and foldback clips you can still get creative with the display by using varied colours of both pins and tacks, or perhaps pins with a decorative touch to the design.
2) Map Tacks
Map tacks are really thin tacks but with a ballpoint on top instead of being flat so you can push them into a wall. The intent is to use these as a marking tool to pinpoint locations on a map. Lightweight maps could either be pinned up with these or string can be wrapped around the pin then secured to the wall for a print to be hung.
For those with numerous holiday photos from adventures around the world, map tacks can be superb for an unframed wall display as you can pin small prints to the different countries some of your favourite holiday pics were taken.
3) Simple Hanging Displays with Clothes Hangers and a Chain
Wooden coat hangers can be a super creative idea to hang multiple unframed photographs. Where these are likely to look best is alongside a wood frame. Ideally, displaying a prominent photo with the same theme. Think of this as a space saver wall display for a narrow gallery wall using a vertical stack of prints. All you need is a wall hook, a chain for the length of drop you need, whether to the floor or to only run the same height as the wood photo frame it’s displayed besides, some string and clips to hang prints from the hangers and wood coat hangers.
Attach the hook to the wall,
The chain to the hook,
The hangers to the chain,
… Then suspend as many prints as you need to.
As a complementary display beside a solid wood picture frame, it can take a bland space of wall and transform it into something completely rejuvenated.