MAKING ACCESSORIES PICTURES
& WALL HANGINGS
Owning a modest number of
pictures, prints and photographs brings a personal art gallery within your
reach. Achieving a professional look is often a question of careful hanging,
grouping and proportion. As with everything else, there are fashions in picture
hanging. Traditional picture rails can be used to provide a more formal
interior scheme.
Camouflage picture cords with lengths of wide satin, moire or
velvet ribbon or strips of glazed chintz. Large picture hooks can be hidden
with generous opera bows or rosettes. Grouping Frames in the same colors and
finishes give uniformity to a collection of differently-shaped pictures.
Framing disparate subjects with the same color mounts also gives unity to a
collection.
Another attractive way to
group pictures is to revive the eighteenth-century practice of dividing a wall
into picture panels using simple wood beading or wallpaper borders to 'frame'
your pictures. A classical wallpaper border such as egg and dart molding on
pale grey or yellow painted walls could be a perfect foil for a set of
engravings with birds' eye maple frames. Similarly, a chinoiserie fretwork
wallpaper border on red painted walls could enhance a set of Chinese paintings
with black lacquer frames. Narrow wood beading picked out in a color or perhaps
a stenciled acanthus motif could also make effective wall panels.
Placing all
the pictures and objects you intend to hang up on the floor is an easy way to
plan the grouping. Move your groups of pictures around until you are satisfied
and then stand away from them. You can also plan groups of pictures and objects
successfully by sketching the shapes out carefully first on a piece of squared
paper. When hanging pictures over a piece of furniture such as a sofa, bedhead,
chest of drawers or a fireplace you will also need to consider how much space
to leave above and below, both for practicality and visual effect.
