We spend time and money creating a beautiful room for the home, but too often we stop short of pulling together a room with drama and personality. Whether you’re country flair, traditionally elegant, or clean-line contemporary, adding a gallery or wall-grouping to a bare wall brings all the elements of the room together with pizzazz. Fight the urge to put a mirror or large framed art over the sofa or mantle. Get your creative juices flowing and begin the search for an effect that is sure to have guests stopping in mid-sentence.
The room is complete and the only thing it needs are finishing touches. A wall-grouping can be whatever you want it to be. It can be a collection of your favorite framed art. It can be a combination of framed art, mirrors, shelves to hold memorabilia, or actually hanging objects d’art on the wall. Using the basic concepts of good design capture an edgy look; moving well beyond a simple conglomeration of “stuff" hanging on a wall.
You all ready know your style, now it’s time to pull your objects together. The most important feature of the gallery is that it flows. Create a theme for your wall-grouping continuing to harmonize the items with the room. Every piece in the grouping should have a commonality. The pieces may showcase a certain color as in black and white photography. Perhaps it’s a vintage collection of Great Aunt Bessie’s tatted lace collars. Fill out the collection, which is at least three of one type of item, with a pair of gloves from the same period, a lovely old portrait or photograph, and an old book of love poems. Establish a theme for your gallery such as a memorable vacation. What would you like to display? Create a story-telling vignette on your wall.
Let’s begin with the framed art. Your gallery may be just framed art or photographs in various sizes and shapes. The key to making framed art flow with dramatic appeal is to keep the focus on what’s inside the frame, not the frame itself. Do not overpower the photograph or artwork with an ornate frame unless it’s large and impressive enough to accommodate such a frame. Frames generally fall into four categories: period, traditional, transitional, and modern. The interior design of your home and especially the room dictates which style frame to use. The frames need not be identical, but keep them in the same color family. Popular colors for frames lean toward the wood tones with cherry used most often, but let your individual preferences come shining through. If oak reigns supreme in your home, use oak frames. Achieve a dramatic effect with black frames surrounding black and white photography. If a
mirror is going to be part of the vignette, choose one in a frame that complements any other framed art.
How the art is displayed depends on the space you’ve chosen. If you have a large horizontal space and you wish to hang side by side pieces, be sure they are all the same size and when you hang them use care to be certain they hang straight. A crooked picture will be that much more obvious when hanging next to others in a single row. A dramatic use of space may include hanging large items such as quilts in a home with cathedral ceilings. Again, each item must be straight as the crow flies.
One of the hottest design trends for the last few years has been to not hang art, but purchase narrow shelves and then lean the art against the wall. This idea looks great if combined with memorabilia or small items that pull the
wall art together. When using a shelf keep scale and proportion in mind; a very large portrait sitting on a narrow shelf looks off balanced.
After you’ve framed your artwork, gathered memorabilia, and small collections together, it’s time to arrange them for the wall. Before you start pounding nails into the wall, lay out the entire collection on the floor. You might even want to use a white sheet, folded to the exact dimensions of the space on the wall to give you a good idea how the wall grouping will look. Keep in mind the basic design concepts of scale, proportion, and balance. Ask your self if the vignette appears balanced. Are the collections in good proportion to the framed art? What about scale? Does your eye flow smoothly from one piece to the next? Does the grouping make you smile, laugh, cry? Are you getting the emotion from it that you want? Once you’re completely satisfied with the arrangement, begin the actual hanging. Be sure to measure and mark before using the hammer.
Self-expression lends a very personal touch to home décor and there’s no better way to give guests a glimpse of who you are than by creating a wall grouping highlighting some of your favorite things. Be bold in coming up with fresh ideas unique to you and your home. By keeping simple design rules of balance, proportion, and scale in mind you will achieve a wall-grouping that will indeed cause guests to your home to stop and notice.
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