Arranging and Grouping Wall Pictures

From LoveToKnow Interior Design

Arranging and grouping wall pictures can be fun if you’re prepared before you start.

Same color frames tie this group together.

Getting Started

The key to adding a group of pictures in your home is to match the right pictures with the right room. This will require some planning. There are many things to consider before measuring and hammering picture hangers.

Selecting Your Pictures

The first thing you need to do is select the pictures you wish to hang on the wall. Do you have enough pictures to create a grouping? If you don’t have enough pictures for a grouping, you’ll need to make a few select purchases to complete your collection.

First Home: First Purchases

If this is your first home and have yet to accumulate enough pictures for a grouping, you may wish to spend some time looking at various paintings and photos. Once you decide on the kind of artwork you want to purchase, you then need to select picture frames that go well together.

Buying Tips: Groups of Pictures

There are a few things to keep in mind when you shop for a group of pictures, paintings or photos.

Frame It

Make sure the frames look good together as a grouping. You’ll want to decide on a color or a group of colors for the frames. You may wish to go with a gold baroque and various gold ornate frames for a formal design. If your home is designed for casual living, then you might choose simplistic wood frames or if your décor is modern, black glossy frames.

Mats Create Interest

Don’t forget the matting. You can use a single mat, double or triple mats. Color is also important when it comes to mat selections and hanging pictures in a grouping.

Composition, Style, Theme, and Color

A grouping of pictures becomes a focal point in your room, so play it up. Select pictures that have a common theme. One popular theme is subject matter while another might be based on color. Style and composition will provide continuity. You wouldn’t group three abstract paintings in steel frames with reproductions of old master paintings in ornate gold-leaf frames.

No budget for new frames? Recycle old ones.

It’s important to decide on the theme you want. Perhaps you love the ocean and sailing. A collection of seascapes, beach houses, surf-fishing, and sailboats will create a perfect grouping. If your furniture is dark wood with rich warm leather and your color scheme is golds, reds and browns, then you can repeat those colors with various pictures of sunsets.

You want to establish a color scheme to your group of wall art. Be sure at least one color in your room is predominant in your picture. Darker colors in a painting work better in a grouping when placed on the bottom with the lighter color paintings placed in the top grid of the arrangement.

Using What You Have

You might not have the money in your decorating budget to purchase new pictures and need to use what you have. The challenge with this kind of arrangement is to make a mis-match of frames and pictures come together. You can create continuity between different styles and sizes of picture frames by painting them the same color. This technique works because the frames become a backdrop allowing the pictures to stand out.

Creating New Pictures

If you want to create your own pictures, visit a local discount store and purchase a group of frames. Use some of your favorite photos to create a unique grouping.

Arranging and Grouping Wall Pictures

Now that you have your pictures selected, you’re ready to begin arranging them. Lay your pictures on the floor and begin arranging together.

Making Paper Replicas

You can use plain paper to create replicas of your pictures. Most newspapers offer end-rolls of newsprint for one or two dollars. By purchasing a roll of blank newsprint, you can cut any picture size you need.

If you have a color printer and want to get creative make a copy of your paintings. Some of your pictures might be too big to copy, so you can either tape several pieces together to form the whole frame or simply trace the frame onto a sheet of paper. You’re ready to start experimenting with various paper arrangements on your wall.

Using Odd and Even Numbers of Pictures

Even numbers of pictures work best when all of the frames are the same size. You can group four or six pictures together to reflect a formal style. Smaller pictures work best in this kind of grouping.

Odd numbers are usually used in design, but when grouping pictures, you want them to be in balance. It’s possible that you could group five pictures and still achieve that visual square or rectangle a grouping creates. You might place three smaller pictures to the right stacked on top of each other and then have two large pictures on the left balancing the others. You may decide to create a unique shape for your arrangement like a circle or a cross.

Using Your Paper Cutouts

Once you’ve decided how you want the pictures arranged tape or pin your paper reproductions onto your wall. Now stand back and look at the pictures. Go out of the room and return. Does the arrangement look right? Is it balanced? Does the placement encourage you to look from one picture to the next? Are the colors balanced so there’s not a larger concentration of one color on one side of the grouping?