“The Story Behind the Picture” will return in a few weeks’ time because the next several Fridays are devoted to addressing some functional questions people have been asking: the “who, what, where, how” of hanging artwork at home.
A few basic rules:
1) When framing artwork, be sure to consider the art itself: a modern black-and-white print of a cityscape probably won’t look great in a rustic, pale wood frame.
2) Keep the color of your frames consistent when hanging a large, asymmetrical grouping of various sizes (as above), but varying the style of the frames will keep it interesting and looking less “matchy” and mass-produced. If you’re hanging just a few prints together (two or three, all the same dimensions), then matching frames are the best way to go.
Many people have asked where family photographs belong: on the wall? The bookshelves? Hidden in the deepest recess of their closets? Personal photographs should be in the personal rooms of your home, which means not places such as the foyer/entryway or the dining room. Think about what you like to see when you enter other people’s homes: do you enjoy encountering the entire chronological progression of every child, including their awkward middle-school portraits, on every available wall? Then don’t do it in your home. Choose one wall (the upstairs hallway, the family room, your bedroom) and hang them together in a grouping. Black and white is the most consistent and pleasing way to unify a large number of disparate images (and to hide any unfortunate color choices in clothing that you might have made over the years…)
More to come next week!