apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I saw these at the Terence Conran Shop and generally liked them. The white frames look really great. The black frames are so-so in quality of finish.

Ironically, the pictures in the display grouping were not hanging so straight. :)

Forgetting the forest for a moment, here's a question about the trees: anyone know the maker of the furniture shown in this photo?

http://www.thepicturewallcompany.com/photo8.html

I prefer an eclectic mix of different frames, some old, some new, etc. But I still think this is a great idea for certain types of arrangements! Do they have a large selection of frames to choose for your groupings? The top image seems to show that you can mix and match different ones. I wonder if they have record album size???!!!

What a great idea. Not just for lazybones, but also good for people who are constantly second-guessing how to arrange framed pictures (me).

Diane, I agree about mixing the frames. In fact, their up-the-stairs arrangement would look spectacular with different frames. The wall arrangements I don't like so much, with the whole shape being a big rectangle. But I do like how they didn't trap any white space.

Richard
That sofa looks like the Reef sofa by Cassina.
The chair and table may also be Cassina. Check it out on http://www.cassinausa.com
or http://www.cassina.com
All flash content is disabled on our network at work so I cannot verify. I am going by memory for the Reef but I'm pretty sure I'm right on that.

Bah humbug... I got all excited and then realized I would have to spend $350 for frames that would cost me $30-40 at Ikea. But thanks for the layout ideas...

I believe the wide bench in the last image is from Dema www.dema.it; part of their Le Foglie sofa range; probably available in NYC at Format in Soho

I too saw this at ConranÂ’s and balked at the $350 tag. So I went immediately to Ikea to recreate. But I've figured out that it's impossible to do it exactly. You can go out and buy all the same frames, but because this was designed to be hung up together, all the spaces in-between align up perfectly in a grid. Where as other frames, like the Ikea ones, are designed independent of one another, so I can't get them to line up exactly with even spacing in-between throughout.

I'm thinking of taking the Ikea frames back and getting this at Conran's anyway, cause the cool thing about this is that it all lines up so nicely.

I saw this in Conran, too, and didn't think it was lazy (although since it was at Conran's, I wonder if we can blame the UK) I find getting stuff framed to be so stressful, for some (stupid) reason. Hanging pictures is also stressful, imo.

Bitch and moan, etc. It's still the coolest thing I've seen lately.

This IS the coolest thing I've seen lately. So cool, that I bought two of them and they work perfectly. When I saw the write-up in Real Simple, I bought one. Once I got it up I had to have another. The frames are of great quality, it is well packaged, and the instructions are easy to use. My wife and I were so excited by it that we even contacted the company to tell them. All you naysayers should check it out. This is the greatest home furnishings item of the last 10 years.

I bought two sets of the frames and put them together on a long wall and it worked out beautifully. I have a floral design company and we were able to display our photos from magazines as well as other work. The frames were great quality and hanging it was a snap. We never would have gotten the right look if we didn't have this item.

This is not only a great idea, it works. Bought via the website, delivered no problems, out and up on the wall in minutes, just like they say. You would definitely pay more to try to get this done piecemeal, not to mention the aggravation in trying to get things to match up. This was a breeze. If I had a bigger apartment, I'd buy additional sets.

OK Richard. Assuming your's was not a drive by posting, I got home and checked out the Cassina site. The sofa in your link is indeed the Reef by Cassina but the chair and table are not by Cassina. The chair reminded of the kind of stuff that Zanotta sell so I checked out their website and found it:

http://www.zanotta.it
Look under collections>seating furniture and you'll find the sofa and chair called Zurigo. That is the same chair.

'fraid I don't know who does the coffee table.

If I learned one thing from art month it was how difficult framing can be--I've become obsessed studying how artwork is framed especially in groupings. I agree with Diane about eclectic frames although that may be because my husband does all the hanging here.

Thanks for the tips, Jamie.

jamie pup, good sleuthing!

Here's the cheap version of the zanotta chair:

http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=1732379

wow, great tip for overstock.com!

I totally understand the convenience of having everything in one kit ready to hang. But the sample display arrangements look a bit stiff to me.

You're welcome Richard and thank you k!

Now an actual on topic post.
I just bought about $150 worth of frames from Target to hang in a group very similar to the groupings shown. Spending $300 on a group of frames that are guaranteed to "fit" together doesn't seem so bad.

BTW, anyone have any clues to who does the coffee table on the page Richard linked to?

Could someone please tell me about the quality of the mats that are included with the frames? Are they thin and cardboard-y like IKEA frames, or are they nicer? Thanks!

I think this is great but I'd love it even more if they had a more eclectic range of frames within each grouping.

Reef