You have so many frames that you don't know what to do with them all. There's no longer any room to space them neatly along your walls, circling around a room or descending the staircase. But they all deserve to be hung; it would be a shame if any of them were put away and left to gather dust. The only thing for it is to create a whole wall of hanging art ? except that your frames are all different shapes, sizes and colours and what's in them doesn't exactly go together either. Should you create an eclectic mismatched wall of art, or should you re-frame everything into nice matching frames that complement the colour of your walls? Should everything be the same medium ? just photos, only paintings or nothing but posters ? or is it okay just hang everything indiscriminately?
You might find that having everything neatly matching is more aesthetically pleasing to you. If your room is decorated fairly cleanly a nicely matching wall will keep the simple look while adding some character. Frames of the same shape, if not the same size, will slot neatly in with each other, particularly rectangular frames on a rectangular wall. Several frames all of the same colour will have a great impact too, particularly in one of the room's accent colours. If you use the same medium, for example if everything is a black-and-white photograph or a bright watercolour, there's less risk of the art itself clashing, resulting in different themes and colours competing with each other.
Don't rule out contrast though, especially if you want to go for a more eccentric look. Since vintage is in again this year, and probably will be for many more years to come, mixing and matching (or not matching) frames seems like the logical thing to do after you've been digging through bric-a-brac stalls and found those perfect frames that don't quite go together. Paintings from different periods mixed in with photos and shabby wooden frames among ornate metal ones may look a little crazy, but if that's the effect you're going for it works really well. Of course they don't have to be antique, vintage or retro. You can buy brand new frames to contrast with each other too.
There's always a happy medium. It's possible to hang contrasting frames without it looking like they're all clashing with each other. In fact, it's best if there's at least one thing to bring everything together. Perhaps all your frames are different colours, but it works because they're all extremely bright colours framing black-and-white photos. You might choose frames that have a gold finish, but are different shapes, which gives a quirky look, but with the colour pulling everything together. Contrasting doesn't need to mean clashing and it's possible to find a way for all your different art in.
Article Posted: 23/04/2018 13:12:36