Arranging Pictures

One of my favorite parts of designing rooms is arranging pictures and paintings. Sometimes we can design the scheme around a painting or collection of paintings and objects. But more often arranging pictures, paintings and objects to display is an organic process of finding, collecting, gathering, then editing and choosing which will look best where and which look best together.

It is a fun process and open to all kinds of interpretation and imagination and a chance to break conventions. However, one convention that always works is a mirror over the fireplace but there are many other places to arrange the pictures and paintings of loved ones or by loved ones: over the sofa, over a bed, the console in the entrance, over a buffet in the dining room, hall ways. Here are a few that I have noted recently and liked the arrangements:

The mix of old and new, different shapes and sizes, photos, graphics, add a few plates and it becomes a gallery.

I like the use of picture shelves, it leaves open the chance to collect and re-arrange:

And I was charmed by the arrangement in the recent Heart Home Magazine by the styling of Sania Pell, the colours fresh and clean and making a feature of the frame.

For me going to museums, galleries and old homes always gives me new ideas and approaches to arranging pictures, I always take a sketch book with me and make sketches of the arrangements. I like the clean modern look of white frames, large white mounts and black and white photos, a look all the galleries use today from the Gagosian Gallery to Tate Modern and the heavy carved guilded frame with an an oil painting or portrait still delights me.

It becomes like a puzzle, you find the shapes that will fit together, do the colours work? and the patterns and movement of the lines. One time while arranging a large collection of photos for a client, I had the frames all laid out on the floor, my client’s husband looked at it and said ” you must have have been good at Tetris.” It was the one computer game I ever got into.

A couple more that I have collected and liked:

Both good use of colour.

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