This is the final installment in the “How to create the perfect art wall” series.
I believe my living room art wall will be my last obsessive personal project in 2010. Even though (spoiler alert) it might not even be finished by December 31.
But to review. Recently, we talked about what to hang on an art wall. Framing. And different ways to hang the art – in a grid, randomly, etc.
Even armed with all of that information, though, there’s that je ne sais quoi that tells you whether an art wall is successful or not. And if it isn’t, you have to make adjustments.
I thought I’d cracked the code when my LR walls were white.
But then we painted. So I re-hung the art, and all was right with the world. For a while.
THEN my lovely Mona Sofette (in Moss velvet) arrived from Mitchell Gold a few weeks ago. I love it!
But egads! The successful art wall was no longer successful! The heavy black frames on the largest pictures were too graphic. And dark. They didn’t look right with the soft gray-green of the sofette.
Plus I was feeling that after living with this art wall for a few weeks, we needed more space between pictures on those zingy yellow walls.
I took the 3 biggest black-framed pieces down (I left the tiny one) and just for fun, I put up two other paintings on those hooks to see what was what.
Potential?
I didn’t have the different scales to play with anymore, which was too bad; these pictures are mostly the same size. But they’re what I had to work with if I didn’t want black frames.
Because there are now 2 pairs of similar pictures in this group (same artist, same frames), the pictures just wanted to be more symmetrical than I’d envisioned. I felt like I had no say in the matter.
So, symmetry.
Color-wise, I like how this looks – can you see the glimpse of the new sofa on the left? But art wall grouping-wise, it feels a little hokey. (Sorry, family. They were here for Thanksgiving, and they loved it. But on second thought, maybe they were just saying that. Now why would that be? Hmmmm…)
Have you been to the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia? Dr. Barnes was this kooky but brilliant collector who bought zillions of pieces from guys who weren’t so fashionable at the time. Relatively unknown artists such as Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso…real losers.
Anyway, Dr. Barnes was SO kooky (and arrogant) that he hung the pictures in a very particular way, quasi-symmetrically, with various Pennsylvania Dutch hinges and things hung in between them.
And then he MANDATED through a variety of legal documents that have kept lawyers busy for decades that the art NEVER be moved or re-hung. EVER.
Therefore, packed with masterpieces though they are, the galleries are pretty strange. And tragically, my living room reminds me of them.
Without the Picassos, of course.
Big fat sigh.
Maybe Santa Claus will bring me one largeish, colorful, wood or silver-framed piece of art and I’ll be able to re-hang the whole darn wall in a looser fashion.
In the meantime, Gentle Readers, I hope this art wall series has armed you for battle against those yawning, blank walls in your house. If you follow those suggestions – and then trust your gut – it will look terrific.