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How do i decorate my walls?

8 years ago

I'm fine with paint and furniture but walls... ugh. I have a few stacks of pictures and shelves waiting to fill up the walls of our new house but how does one figure out how to arrange them? Are you either born with an eye for this or not :) ? Any tips for wall decorating?

Comments (8)

  • 8 years ago

    Hmmm... I have been staring at a whole home of blank walls for months. I' ve slowly been collecting art, but cant get up the courage to put it on the wall :). So many houzz pictures are also full of gallery walls, i will never have that much art! Somehow there has to be a balance of too much and too little.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Lol.

    Then you need a different something. The courage:) Remember, like in the Wizard of Oz, everybody needed something different?

    What will help you to get the courage?

    I can mix a little something in a nice jar and tell you it's the courage:)

    Or I can tell you-who the hell cares about other people's pictures? They're an inspiration, yes. I have 30 or something Pinterest boards myself, and enjoy them tremendously (obviously they're not all dedicated to decor). But it doesn't prevent me from enjoying my own place. At my own pace. lol

    You don't have to have a gallery wall. (I don't. Not yet. even though I love, love the idea). You don't have to have a large gallery wall if you go for a gallery wall-five pieces look terrific already. You don't have to have it all look oh-so-finished all in once. You can add or subtract for years. You don't have to be stuck with an arrangement you don't feel is quite right for you. You don't owe anything to anyone.

    You're collecting art? I'm also collecting art. It's a pity I don't have funds for big art, and it definitely will never look as great as if I had these funds. But I love what I have. And it's nice to dream too. Who knows..maybe one day?

    You also love what you have. Or else you wouldn't be collecting. As a fellow collector-you'll be fine. And take this jar:)

    Janelle Van thanked aprilneverends
  • 8 years ago

    If you can post a pic of the room and what you have it it so far, more than likely you will get more responses. What's colors do YOU like and the style you prefer etc. We need a little more information. The gang here is more than happy to help.

    Janelle Van thanked Yayagal
  • 8 years ago

    I like to prop things up where I think they might look nice, then stand back and look. If someone with hands is nearby, I'll have them hold something up for me so that I can take a few more steps back to see what I really think. I'll also ask the opinion of whoever is breathing in the room.

    If the artwork is too challenging to prop, or no one is nearby to help hold things up, you could use painters tape or paper cutouts made to the size of your artwork and hang those instead, fiddling with the locations and proportions until it feels right, and then hang the artwork for real.

    Gallery pictures can be laid out on the floor to get a pleasing arrangement. Taking pictures of a few different arrangements can be helpful for comparing to see what you like best.

    For most items, they look ideal centered at eye level (for me, that puts the middle of paintings at 5 feet off the floor.)

    I love the Nester's take on hanging artwork in her book It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful. She tells her readers to stop worrying about making holes in the walls. Just grab a nail and pound it in with the heel of a shoe and get that artwork hung. Nail holes in the wall are tiny and relatively easy to fix. (That's a poor paraphrase. She says it much better than I just did!)

    Janelle Van thanked laughablemoments
  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    To add to the laughablemoment's post -I just like to prop art and lean art.

    One painting, I loved on my aubergine sofa:) I put it there while I was thinking about where to put it permanently

    I swear if we didn't need to sit there -I'd just leave it there:)

    was admiring it standing on that sofa for a week, lol.

    Janelle Van thanked aprilneverends
  • 8 years ago

    My walls are pockmarked with holes, many of which are thankfully covered with paintings but not all by any means. Pick some pieces that you think will look good in a certain room. My poor husband has held up more pictures than you can imagine and that is a very good way to go. If it needs to go further up or down than you thought, or more to the right or the left, go ahead and make another hole. I promise the world will not end. Try to use smaller nails except for the really heavy items. You're going to be a lot happier when you're not staring at empty walls, even if you have to move every picture several times. Been there, done that - I have a lot of wall art and several gallery walls.

    Janelle Van thanked ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
  • 8 years ago

    It's exactly like Algebra. The more you practice, the better you get, whether you have any talent for it or not.

    Janelle Van thanked hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
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