How many of you watched Wednesday’s Oprah show? It featured Oprah’s favorite designer Nate Berkus helping homeowners break out of decorating time warps. It was a great episode and offered a ton of great tips; however, the part of the show that stuck with me came at the end when Nate showed off a mock living room that featured collage frames. You know, the ones found in just about every home in America. They are large wooden squares that feature a series of circles, ovals and other shapes that frame your prize-winning shots.
Your pictures may be fabulous, but the frames are really hideous (sorry mom). But, who can blame anyone for using them? After all, they offer a great way to display multiple images in one area. On the show Nate urged homeowners to rid their walls of the outdated collage frames and instead use a series of single frames to create an attractive family photo gallery.
It’s a method I use in my own home, though I must admit I wasn’t inspired by Nate; rather I got the idea years ago from a Pottery Barn catalog. But, I digress. The key to turning an empty wall into a fantastic photo gallery is to buy sets of plain black or white matching photo frames. I purchased nine 8×10 frames (all the same size and color) to make a large statement. You can hang them horizontally or vertically, but collectively they should form a unified area. Simple, square picture frames are best for this purpose, since they don’t draw attention away from the photos. You want to keep the frames relatively close together and have them form a square or rectangular space so there is little doubt that it is a photo exhibit. Also, if you plan to intermix vertical- and horizontal-format photos, it’s best to have natural-tone mats around the photos in the square frames to provide a uniform look.
Photo walls are perfect for snap happy parents. However, if you do go with a design that features more than six frames you should use 8×10 frames, which are better for viewing (anything smaller than 5×7 and you detract from the overall look). Also, I recommend you fill the frames with a variety of different images—close ups of your child’s face and wide shots of the entire family. It’s easy to replace the prints in the frames so your wall can be easily updated every few months. (I change out the pictures in my photo wall every two months.)
Finally, Nate suggested filling the frames on your photo wall with pictures printed in black and white or sepia. Doing so gives a photo an antique look. The process is made easier if you have photo-editing software. Simply select the Grayscale setting and you will be able to view your digital color photos in monochrome on the monitor. If you like what you see, take the digital images on a CD or memory card, to your local photo shop and ask that black-and-white or sepia-tone prints be made from the color images. You may be surprised how captivating your shots look when they are converted to black-and-white images.
Do you have a photo wall in your home?
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