Tuesday, November 18

Deconstructing the Art Wall

An eclectic assemblage of art hanging in the Kate Spade SoHo store--a mix of sizes, styles and mediums.

I recently came across this brilliant post from Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan Co-Founder/NY Editor for Apartment Therapy. Maybe some of you have seen this before, but it's new to me and seemed worthy of sharing. I for one struggle with hanging art. I know EXACTLY what I want, but I don't always execute my plan to perfection.

This is the starting picture - the keystone - everything hangs off of image number 1. Nothing maintains the horizontal line. Every picture "steps" down.

All the pictures "weep" or "slope" down from that center picture. The pictures in this assembly center around one picture and then "cascade" down on both sides.

Look at the keystone picture, there is an X and Y axis to the whole collection. Outside of picture number 1, these four pictures anchor the whole wall.

More Beautiful Walls of Art:

domino magazine

domino magazine

Miles Redd

Muriel Brandolini

17 comments:

Amy said...

I wish I had the talent to do something like this. I really really like all of these!

Kwana said...

Thanks for the lesson. Very informative. Gorgeous pictures.

K said...

Fabulous post! I am simply obsessed with picture walls but I run into the same problem, how to make order look like, well, not so orderly ;) Thank you so much!

-Kait

Ms. Katee/e-polishblog said...

THANK YOU for the lesson! That is sooooo helpful you have no idea! K

So Lovely said...

Oh thats great. Thank you. I am in the middle of re-doing my "art" wall and there are lots of trial and error holes!

Leciawp said...

Brilliant! I'm going to email this to myself so I don't forget, when I get around to doing a wall in my living room.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ronda,

Nice post. The first photo of a living room with large paintings hanging over the book case is in the home of the very young and smart NYC designer, Michael Bargo. The photo appeared in domino.

Cheers.

Melinda Browning said...

Marvelous post, Ronda!!

Suzy said...

I saw that wall of art when I was in NY and loved it. I'd never noticed how it was laid out though, so thanks!

Rebecca Corvese said...

Ronda,

TAG! You're it! Details on my blog!

Becky

P.S. Love the post. I always have so much trouble hanging pics. This will definitely give me more direction next time!

Lewis Trimble said...

I used to hang Barry McGee's fine art shows and those took this to the nth degree. Imagine 400 pieces framed in Vintage thrift store frames, hung in one massive form with no spaces between the frames. Just hanging them took days. Love your blog!

annechovie said...

Great post, Ronda! There is a science behind making it all look so good and these are very helpful tips. You have inspired me!

Anonymous said...

Achieving the perfect balance when hanging multiple pictures on a wall can be so frustrating! Thank Ronda for such a helpful and inspiring post. Love the images.

Karena said...

Anytime you blog about art you reach my heart! The groupings are just great as is a large single work of art with impact.

Things That Inspire said...

Wow! I love this post. Sometimes I wonder whether groupings of wall art have any kind of pattern behind them, when they look a bit random. As with many things, there can be logic behind the scenes.

I did a post last year on wall art, so I am going to go back and look at the pictures to see whether these guidelines apply.

selene @veganlicious said...

So excited I found this! We just moved and one of the few things we haven't done yet is hang our art and photos.

Metal Wall Art said...

The artworks are so marvelous. I can't believe everything has been collected in just one place!