by Jennifer Farlin | Mar 27, 2015 | How To, Interior Decorating
383 out of 705 people have boring walls, according to people. 3 out of 5 people have art that is too small, according to me. 9 out of 10 dentists… Choosy moms choose bare walls over crap on their walls. Let’s stop this madness.
Memorize this last column. These are standard frame sizes that you can buy at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Ikea and online for “cheap”.
Then buy anything you like that you can fit into these frame sizes. It’s cheaper than buying something that needs to be custom framed. Custom framed means anything that doesn’t fit into the above sizes. Custom framing means hundreds of dollars. You would not believe how much the glass alone costs for large pieces.
I do not want you to buy teeny tiny little pictures that look lost on your wall. Yes, you can make “groupings” that will fill a wall but they are not the easiest thing to pull off and can quickly add a feeling of visual clutter to the wrong room. A room that is busy does not need more busy on the walls.
Pick the biggest piece of furniture in your room and hang one large piece above it. It should be about 2/3 the length of the piece of furniture you are hanging above.
As a general rule, the bottom of your frame should hang 8” to 10” above the back of the sofa.
The center of your artwork should be about eye-height with the average person–this translates to about 57″. So hang your artwork at 57″ on center. This is also a regularly used standard in many museums and galleries when hanging their masterpieces–so it should work just fine in your home when arguing with your husband about where to hang the picture.
Let’s not over think this. Just buy big. Have one big piece over the biggest piece of furniture. Remember the 2/3 proportion. Don’t buy anything that needs custom framing. Think out of the box. Here are some ideas and links.
Poster: 27.5 x 39.5 in ~$18 plus S&H Frame: 27 x 40 in ~$20-30 (Michaels/Amazon/Ikea)
SPA-CITRON
Art Print|By Francois Geo Art.com
Poster: 24″ x 38″ $40 plus 25% and free S&H. 21.5″ x 36″ without border. Frame: Can be “fudged” into a standard 24″ x 36″ frame by trimming with scissors. $20
Poster: 20″ x 28″ $25 plus 25% and free shipping. Frame: 20″ x 28″ standard frame ~$20 (Michaels/Ikea)
1 digital .PDF file (27,5 inches x 39,3 inches) $6.14 Will need to be printed at a copy store. FedEx Kinkos charges 75 cents a square foot to print.
Frame: Standard 27×40 Ikea $25. Found also online by multiple retailers. $20-50.
1 digital .PDF file (27,5 inches x 39,3 inches) $6.14 Will need to be printed at a copy store. FedEx Kinkos charges 75 cents a square foot to print.Frame: Standard 27×40 Ikea $25. Found also online by multiple retailers. $20-50.
Chris Love Julia. HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KIDS | TIPS FOR MAKING ENGINEER PRINTS LOOK THEIR BEST “…I was worried framing a bunch of smaller photos and creating a gallery would be busy and compete with the adjacent wall when we’re done with it, so I went for my favorite–engineer prints. Update: I got these printed at my local Alphagraphics. They are nationwide so maybe you have one near you, too?” She gives a wonderful step by step tutorial on how to make these engineer prints. Basically, you need to edit a black and white photograph with a plain background and take it to a copy store that does engineer prints. It costs less than $5 to print.
18″x24″ $81.00. Pricier but worth a look. Minted.com
Valori Wells Quill Peacock Extract Purple Fabric.com $10/Yard. Runs 44″ wide. For $10 you could get a large, contemporary, and colorful piece of statement art.
This is the fabric I referenced above for $10/yard. I used it for my kitchen window shades. It would look nice framed, yes?
Inexpensive art solutions from my home:
This had a different piece of art. I hated it. I ripped the back apart and duct taped something else in. It doesn’t fit perfectly. Can you tell? Nope.
Poster I bought in NYC. Too short for frame. Custom for this size–way. too. much. See the extra white space at the bottom? Yeah, who cares. I know it looks goooooooood.
This is a decorative paper that cost $3.50. The frame was $3 from a thrift store. Want to read more? —Paper Source, a post from last year.
Thrift store. $20.
Broke my own rules. Bought this poster and it was NOT standard size. Custom was $350 with a flipping sale. I had it dry mounted instead for $20. Done.
Needed something for playroom wall. Had burlap and black spray paint. Done.
What do you got? Let’s do this!
#yourartistoosmall
#saynotoboring
#yougotthis
by Jennifer Farlin | Feb 4, 2015 | House Tours, Interior Decorating
My house is clean and the sun was out. I took one picture which led to another and then another. Back in the day I would go into people’s houses and do photo shoots. This felt like that. My favorite part is editing what I captured…or looking at what I thought I saw and really seeing it on “film”. (Then redoing it.) That’s the best way to really edit/style your rooms. Take a picture and you will see what others see when they walk in the door.
bellahomestaging.net
Kindness and joy to you,
Jen!
by Jennifer Farlin | Jan 22, 2015 | Interior Decorating
Did you read Smoke and Mirrors Part 1? If you missed it you can read it here. Real life is messy. Distract people from the chaotic mess in your rooms with a statement piece aka smoke and mirrors.
HGTV.com
Love the bench with the E A T pillows. No one will notice the fact that there are piles and dishes all over your table. (The team of 12 that styled this picture shoved all of it in the hallway.)
Found on EverFour.tumblr.com
The big “a” dwarfs any mess–and trumps dishes overflowing in sink.
www.decoist.com
The whole room could possibly be purchased from garage sales but who cares when the Coca Cola sign is so cool.
295luv.com
No one will be able to see anything negative about your house–blinded they will be by this gorgeousness.
castlery.com
Couches are completely stained and covered in dog hair but you are thinking “What Couches?” All you see is the art.
found on Porchlight Interiors
Christmas decorations are probably still up in May but whatever–this green dresser and wallpaper rock.
GreatBigCanvas.com
House is filthy but good things are going to happen because your room is so stylish.
Martha Ohara Interiors-HomeBunch.com
Island overflowing with clutter. Floor sticky, toys everywhere, but all your company will say is, “Where did you get these chairs?”
Joy to You!
Jen
If you loved this post then you will adore:
Sherlock on the BBC is Back…or Why Wallpaper is the Coolest, You Gotta Have Art, Making Art Out of Objects You Love
by Jennifer Farlin | Jan 21, 2015 | Interior Decorating
I am on a moving walkway at the airport walking in the wrong direction with wheelless oversized luggage carrying a toddler with a banana, while wearing stilettos. Not really, but really. Today I have a head cold. My children got me sick for the 800th time this year. I get better, they get sick, they get better, I get sick, I get better, they get sick…when we aren’t doing this fun exchange there is the snow that renders every road in Washington DC impassable resulting in school delays and closures and more time together in my house. As I was saying, it is snowing outside, rumor of early release from school, and a head cold, but that is ok because I just picked up my whole house. I mean it is GOOOOOOD. Piles gone. Dishes done. Beds made. Clean. Filed. Shiney. Did you hear me? Totally ready to go. Immaculate. So naturally today my landlord decides today is the day that the ceiling will be cut out of my living room and dry wall replaced. Saws, tarps, large equipment, ladders, toilets. Yeah, toilets. Because the toilet is being replaced too and in the middle of said replacement my landlord yells down, “Jennifer don’t come up here and ignore the popping sound and smell.”
Have you ever carried a toddler holding a banana? You will always end up a mess.
I can’t pretend this is a new phenomenon for me. Crazy and chaos are friends and shadow me closely. Over the years I have developed a smoke and mirrors technique to dealing with this inside my home which I teach all my staging clients. Have one thing in each room that makes a great statement and no one will notice the mess, as much.
For example,
The statement piece in the above picture is clearly the toilet. No one notices the tarp, tools, shoes, dust, or mess.
Clearly the statement piece in this picture is the dog, or the snow shoes. Either way no one notices the crime scene tape on the floor because of the smoke and mirrors…see? You don’t see a thing wrong because you are too busy noticing my statement pieces.
In my next post I’ll show you some more “real” examples. I need to go get my landlord bleach and garbage bags now. Really.
Jen
If you enjoyed this post try: Puke is my Kryptonite, Hey Pottery Barn Check Me Out, and Mess=Creativity.
by Jennifer Farlin | Jan 8, 2015 | House Tours, Interior Decorating
New Year’s Resolution. Be very specific about what I want.
Dear Universe, I will take one of these please. Thank you. Jen
The Queen’s Hamlet. Versailles. www.stuckincustoms.com
Rhinebeck, New York
“Hansel”. Carmel, California
Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Architectural Digest
Bee Cottage. House Beautiful.
Bee Cottage. House Beautiful.
If you liked this post then you will just love:
Teeny Tiny Cottages, and Cottage Love
by Jennifer Farlin | Nov 10, 2014 | Inspired Style, Interior Decorating
I thought I would start this week off with a bang and talk about Tweed. I can just feel all the Facebook Shares as I typed that. Pretty sure this post is going to go viral. Tweed. I know, I’ll stop. I’m getting a little too crazy for a Monday. I should have done this one on a Friday, but that’s how I roll. Crazy. Tweed.
I’d like to insert here that my children hid a Whoopee Cushion on the couch and I just sat on it.
Too bad they weren’t here to bask in their success.
Back to Tweed.
The Glenburn Hotel ~ Rothesay, Scotland
Tweed. I know what you are thinking. #How is she going to top this post? Or should I say Tweed this? You know Tweet this?! Right?
Valori Wells Quill Peacock Extract Purple Fabric.com $10/Yard. Runs 44″ wide. For $10 you could get a large, contemporary, and colorful piece of statement art.
This is the fabric I referenced above for $10/yard. I used it for my kitchen window shades. It would look nice framed, yes?
This had a different piece of art. I hated it. I ripped the back apart and duct taped something else in. It doesn’t fit perfectly. Can you tell? Nope.
Poster I bought in NYC. Too short for frame. Custom for this size–way. too. much. See the extra white space at the bottom? Yeah, who cares. I know it looks goooooooood.
This is a decorative paper that cost $3.50. The frame was $3 from a thrift store. Want to read more? —Paper Source, a post from last year.
Thrift store. $20.
Broke my own rules. Bought this poster and it was NOT standard size. Custom was $350 with a flipping sale. I had it dry mounted instead for $20. Done.
Needed something for playroom wall. Had burlap and black spray paint. Done.
