Understanding Picture Walls
By Jane F ~ July 20th, 2009. Filed under: Designer Rooms, Décor.
Artwork Imitating a Picture Wall at MOMA, NY
Arranging a successful picture wall is a special challenge, especially when starting from scratch. I’ve been thinking about two separate spaces in my house for a long time now, which prompted me to begin collecting these idea shots. For me, picture walls are less about specific images than the way they are arranged in the space. Their success depends a lot on the architecture of the wall and on scale – the relative size of the space to be filled versus the size of the images. Is it more effective, for example, to use three large images in a small space than a dozen small images?
To my mind, there are no real rules. The success of a wall is a function of a series of choices and good planning plus understanding a few basics.
- Images: should they be similar or different, set or a collection?
- Frames: same size, style and color or a variety? Matching or not?
- Composition: How much of the wall surface will be filled? How will the background function? Will the arrangement be symmetrical (in set rows?) or a random assemblage?
If possible, draw the walls and images to scale – scale pencil drawings are easy to do on a large sheet of paper (or plain paper taped together) using ½-inch to equal 1 foot. Digital photos of the art, printed out in small sizes – also to scale – are then easy to move around on the sketch.
Each of the photos here illustrates a point. I’ll share my thoughts on them and look forward to hearing observations and comments that embroider on mine. If you collect picture-wall photos you’d like to share, let us know and we’ll post them with your comments!
This dining room inspired the table and flooring choices in my sunroom/dining room, which also has a blank wall flanked by a doorway on each side. While the wall behind the botanical prints is paneled, the prints are larger than the recessed areas and sit on the vertical sections. Hanging them above the top of the adjacent door frames pushes up the ceiling visually. The black frames are narrow but create a distinct architectural pattern – in effect replacing the actual paneling. The scale is large, too: notice how the bottom row of prints extends below the top of the table, nearly covering the wall from top to bottom as well as from side to side. Since the botanical images are not solid, they don’t create any spots that draw the eye to one place and colors echo the tones of the furniture, floor and plants. (Source: Country Home January/February 2004)
Design pros Bunny Williams and John Roselli built a stucco vacation home at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. In the library the “natural world theme” includes a suite of Swedish bird prints – in a variety of sizes with matching frames – hung over a ten-foot long sofa in an airy arrangement of large images that carries the wall. (Source: Town & Country, May 2007)
A wall with a diverse collection of small artwork rests serenely behind a floating platform bed dressed in neutral colors. By my count there are nearly 40 pieces here, expertly hung by New York designer David Mann, for his client, an art expert and advisor. The bedside lampshade is copper; headboard fabric is Casablanca by the Italian firm of Rubelli. (Source: WOI, April 2007)
As if a pow red living room was not hot enough, Los Angeles designer Marjorie Skouras hung a symmetrical arrangement of nine equally colorful pieces of art, in matching frames, over a fairly traditional marble fireplace to focus color-on-color attention in a room that might otherwise cause some visual confusion.
The stunning study of Robert Passal’s New York Gramercy Park home is done in ultra-chic drab colors. Art – punctuated by sconces — hangs from a picture rail at various levels over fabric-covered walls. The monochromatic artwork boasts a variety of frame and picture mat colors shapes and sizes that all blend in.
Jamie Drake’s high intensity approach to this wall starts low and ends below the top of the window on the adjacent wall, scaling the wall down to the level of the table and benches. Because all the images are variations on a theme with identical frames, the arrangement reads like one huge painting even though there are even number of prints that create a slight indentation in the top row.
A pair of English portraits set over pieces of old damask in narrow wall frames function as huge patterned stripes at Hildasholm, the country manor house in Dalarna, Sweden, — built in 1911 by Swedish royal physician Axel Munthre and his wife, Hilda. But there’s always an idea or two to steal in a historic home: the portraits are framed from behind by the damask which makes them seem more important than the third one hung higher in the center. Think about updating this by replacing the fabric with 2-foot wide contrasting paint stripes behind any type of artwork – 100% DIY brilliance with some blue tape and a bucket of acrylic. (Source: Town and Country, April 2006).
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July 20th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Wow. This is my current struggle in a nutshell. My arrangements are stale, I’ve accumulated pieces that are unframed or sit propped against walls, and I’m immobilized. A window set high in a wall in my living room creates an imbalance with the furniture arrangement. I know that a thoughtful display of my art could trick the eye and offset that imbalance. I don’t know what the answer is. It helps to see your pictures and comments though. I have a collection of magazine clippings I need to revisit. I love your examples. One common element I think I’m noticing among these arrangements (and why they work well for me) is that the art reiterates the intensity of wall color and the contrast of furnishings to the walls.
I need to look more closely at how the arrangements are placed. My first thought is that they work to recreate the lines of the room — relating the walls to windows and doorways. (hmm . . . ) For example, the pow red room with the equally vibrant art over the fireplace balances the high windows on the adjacent wall. However, the large portrait over a doorway leads the eye downward to the french doors and garden outside, which also brings a relief to the intensity of color inside. The leafy green furniture balances the heat of the walls and art as well.
So glad you touched on this topic. I am ready to throw my hands up and ask someone to hang my art.
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
When the architecture is good, these walls are logical. When it’s not, they become puzzles. For complex walls I would first start with a scale drawing and plot it all out then mix and match it on paper. It is a very good way to balance.
I’m continuing to collect examples and will do another post on this same subject eventually. If anyone has photos to share with comments I’m happy to include those.
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:09 am
Great post! Robert Passal’s study is intriguing to me. The pictures are not evenly spaced from one another at all, unlike most of your other photographs. The pictures within the sconces are not even centered inside the sconces—I would have thought to start in the middle and work your way outward (especially since the bright white nude sketch catches your eye first in that dark room and would seemingly need to be centered). Instead, it appears he started at the far end of the wall near the windows and worked across.
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I find that “creating” a wall is like composing a puzzle – You need all the components, a few extras and just move them around until they fit – or “click”.
Having done some curating, I have seen walls get stumped or flow – and transform the space. it is a fun visual exercise that involves shape and color sense and some intuition.
Great examples!