For Those with the Decorating Gene .. An Eye for Art

[mrdreamjeans]

gotmoof is helping me with a post which will feature photos of the house I'm moving into this weekend. I am joyful that I've found new digs. Tim has graciously offered to help me with a layout; otherwise, the pix will take up too much space on LJ (At least with my limited posting skills:)

While we're getting the post together, I have a decorating question for my friends. I have a lot of wonderful art .. oil paintings by dear friends, framed photos of family and an especially large collection of theater memorabilia. I plan to do an ego wall in the office and otherwise very selectively hang pieces of the collection.

My new space has 14 foot ceilings throughout. I have always hung my artwork so that it can be viewed at eye level. (I'm 6'1".) However, with such high ceilings and so many pieces that I would like to put up, what is the proper height to hang them, especially groupings? (If I hang them at my eye level, there's still 6-7 feet of empty space above them.) I want the artwork to be tastefully displayed and enjoyable to all. Any advice or opinion is appreciated.

Comments

[woofytexan.livejournal.com]

One of ours favorite restaurants in our neighborhood, Tillman's, just remodeled. They had a lot of pictures all around the restaurant at eye level. But none of them really did not go with the new theme but, together, they told a story. What they did was group them together in a diagonal from upper left to lower right. Their ceilings are probably 18 - 20'. That left the other walls for new decor but a reminder of their past.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I've always been told by my Mom is to hang most things from the vantage point of sitting down as that's how most things are viewed and that most things are hung way too high. This is true of single paintings or several things that will be hung together say, over a couch.

But for large groupings, you can go quite high and quite low to create a collage of pictures on a wall.

One suggestion with your groupings, vary the pictures by size. Any really small pictures should be more or less within easy viewing and larger paintings/pictures can be hung much higher/lower and it's not always good to line things up linear fashion in this case.

I'm sure others will have additional suggestions but these I know of.

[apparentparadox]

I'd say that if you've got tall ceilings, take advantage of them, especially with those pieces of art that don't need to be viewed up close.

By the way, are your colors more "sage & brown, the colors of the earth" or more "rose & cherry red"?

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

My colors are on the warm side ... gold, bronze, copper, deep red ... However, I usually do one room in bold colors ... My theater memorabilia is framed in black so that the focus is on the colors of the posters, etc .. The color you won't usually find in any of my houses or apartments is beige:)

[sfmini.livejournal.com]

I've had several homes with high ceilings like that. Rule of thumb is to have the 1/3 mark of any artwork to be at eye level, meaning 2/3 above and 1/3 below actual eye level. It always worked for me, no matter how high the ceilings.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Is that a variation on the Rule Of Thirds?

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Good suggestion! Thanks!

[gotmoof.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you don't put up that Animaniacs artwork, I'll be MORE than HAPPY to take it off your hands. :-)

I'm just sayin'.... I call first dibs.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

OKay:) You have first dibs ... Right now it's lent out to Colleen for use in her rental duplex at A&M. Just sayin' ... *grin*

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

Having watched way too many home decorating shows, I think the answer to your question about picture placement is 'it depends'. If you intent is to have a cozy intimate space, then keeping the pictures low makes sense. If you wish to pull people's focus to the high ceilings of the room, then use every square inch!

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

The office is long and narrow. Very small, but lots of wall. It really can't handle much furniture, so I think I'm going to turn it into a gallery of sorts and use the wall space to full advantage. Thanks!

[rifesterich.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your new digs! Yay!

I don't know anything about hanging pictures on high walls. The highest ceiling I've ever had was about 10 feet and I didn't own *any* art at the time.

Good luck!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

How about some empty frames? Small ones, either in linear fashion or another arrangement depending on the size and shape of the empty space.

[designerotter.livejournal.com]

First off - WHA-HOO! Big Congrats on getting a place of your own - Excellent! Next: 14-foot ceilings? ..that sounds really wonderful (and I'm dying to see pics).
On picture placement: you've already gotten some really good advice ... I like the diagonal idea. Yup, the big ones can go higher (especially posters). You could also try a series of groupings that includes several sizes in each group. The blank picture frames is a fun idea - or you could intersperse a framed mirror or two.
If you can, try a 'rehearsal' ... whether it means laying out groupings on the floor, or possibly devising some electronic means of simulating layouts. Or you could photograph the pics (keeping them in proper scale to each other), then print and cut them out so you can move them around. If you have a program for it, selecting and moving the images around electronically can also work.
Finally: if it's feasible you might try painting the 'picture wall(s)' a vivid or dramatic color: Venetian red? terra cotta? merlot red? egg plant? chocolate or cocoa? desert tan? yellow-ochre? jade or forest?
...depending on your general color scheme. Im my first apartment I simply stapled up several yards of tomato-red burlap ... that way I had color and texture as a foil for Japanes prints framed in black lacquer.
Go have fun !!!!