All those family photos. So many frames. Such treasured memories. Such seriously questionable hairstyles. This sounding familiar?

A lot of the time we see family photos just like this. There are generally a mixed bunch of pictures clogging up mantle pieces or stuck singly in the middle of the wall. While they tell a family history, it should be done carefully.

 

Other peoples photos are a trecherous mine field for designers. While the photos are generally sentimental – we need to balance that with an aesthetic. We always urge clients to be selective with what’s on view. They may not want to take little Jimmy’s Communion photo off the wall – but thirty years later, does he really mind if its put in an album or moved to a less prominent place?

Here is an example from Pottery Barn in a San Francisco apartment. This is  one way to make a statement from seemingly ordinary photos and memorabilia. 

 Make a short list of all the pictures you want to look at and be ruthless. Get some up to date pictures of living relatives and choose tastefully, pictures of passed loved ones.

One or two non-posed wedding photos and selected animated baby pictures are generally much better than stiff posed ones and less likely to become dated.

Our favoured solution is to group the pictures into similar frames of different sizes, on shallow wall shelves. This way what was a mixed bag of photos now looks like a styled statement in itself. The beauty of this system is taht you can keep adding.

Pottery Barn in the US is a great source of inspiration for this. Unfortunately they do not ship to Ireland (yet) .Check out this link http://www.potterybarn.com/shop/accessories-decor/frames/shelves-ledges/

IKEA and NEXT have really lovely shallow shelves which range from under 1 metre to nearly 2 metres long.

Tags: family photos, frames, interior design, mertondesign.ie, photographs, shallow shelf, shelving
Posted in Interior Design • Will • No Comments »