Today I am going to give you guys a few tips, tricks and ideas for creating wall displays in your home. Next week I am going to create some sample wall schematics, utilizing these ideas, to give you even more direction. I will also post some images of wall groupings to show you these concepts on real life walls.

Idea #1 : One Cohesive Element

If you have been in my studio and met with me to go over your images you have heard me talk about this idea. One of the simplest ways to create harmony in a wall grouping is by selecting one guiding cohesive element that you stick to. Your one element can be any number of things. One of the most obvious is frame color. If you pick one color of frame (black, silver, gold, white...) and stand by it in all that you do on that one wall it will help unify all of the various frames and images. You can have all different moulding styles. You can then have color, sepia and BW images. You can have multiple opening collage style frames and single image frames. The color alone will help everything stick together.

You can be more strict about this idea and have all the frames match in color and style. This is not my favorite only because it makes it much harder (what happens if your chosen frame goes out of stock?). It can look great though and be very clean and graphic looking. Make sure and pick a simple readily available style of frame or purchase all of your frames at the same time to guarantee that you can keep it all the same.

You may decide you want to only hang canvases and have that be the theme. Again, this can be more limiting but it can also be very striking.

Idea#2 : Lots O Sizes

One afternoon, my husband and I were gardening (it was before kids, ah...leisure time, but anyway) and he was working on one side while I was working on the other. We had all these little annuals we were planting. At one point I look over and his side looked like a field of crops - perfectly spaced rows of little flowers. It was hilarious, and terrible looking by the way. It just didn't flow or feel natural. Don't let that side of you come out when working o your walls either. You don't need a chalk line or a spreadsheet to do this. Don't be afraid to use all different sizes of images on your wall.

The trick here is to spread it out correctly and achieve the proper balance. Try alternating and mixing the various sizes to make it flow. The eye will do better and enjoy the looking more if it can periodically rest on larger images before moving on to smaller groupings. A common mistake people make is to have too many small images, which makes the wall feel more like a grid. "Small" is a relative term but, in my experience, people tend to print and frame way too small to really achieve impact. I get why, it feels scary to purchase and hang large images but, in most cases, it really looks better.

Alternate your horizontals and verticals to add interest too. I think it helps to lay out your frames on the floor somewhere and play with your arrangement before you go banging holes into the wall. Pay attention to how your eye moves along the image set. Use the motion and gesture in each image to help guide your eye along a wall. When we start looking at images of real walls, this will make even more sense. One of the tricks to making this eclectic happy mess work is in the next idea...

Idea#3 : Center of Interest

I like walls that have a central focal point. Pick one of your favorite, large (this is key) images and have it be near the center and move out from there. For a family wall, consider the wedding image in the center (the beginning of it all). A large family group image would also work well in the center. At our house (which I will show you next week), I have two large individual images of the boys in the center and other small frames on the sides.

Quick Tips:

- Place your frames at eye level in most cases (about 5' from the floor). Hang higher if you have really high ceilings.
- Plan your layout before you start hanging. Cut out pieces of paper that are the sizes of your frames (or sizes that you are considering). Hang these papers simply by using tacks or painters tape to get some ideas before you commit to a layout.
- Alternate color, BW and sepia images to create a more balanced effect
- Don't be afraid to stack frames. 2 smaller frames one over the other looks nice next to a large frame.
- Purchase a laser level. It is one of the most amazing and smart tools made today. You will wonder how you ever hung pictures without it. Black and Decker makes a great one.

Now that I've gotten you thinking, do you have any specific questions that you would like to ask? I will answer them next Monday when I post images of wall groupings.