apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Have you considered this system from Pottery Barn?

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p4318/index.cfm?pkey=caccdecdis

It may get the pieces out far enough from the wall so the curve of the logs isn't an issue.

DON'T COVER THOSE WALLS! If you're desperate for pictures, fit one or two of them on those bookshelves or in a windowsill...

As my Grandmother would say "this should be your worst problem". Your log walls are beautiful. They really stand out in white. If I were to add anything to them it would be small paintings in chunky black frames stacked 3 high. Is there any way we could talk you into doing a photo tour? I would love to see the rest of your home.

Another vote for not covering the logs (wonderful play of light and shadow!) unless you have a huge expanse of wall that looks unbalanced with your furniture arrangement. Then it'd be worth mounting a strip to your wall to support a BIG piece of art, similar to how quilts are hung.

Keep the little stuff on tables and shelves, though.

Make that a third vote for leaving those walls bare. Many people, including this writer, are stuck with sheet rock and would love to have walls with some texture. the white paint looks great as well.

I made a low-budget picture rail for my bedroom and I absolutely love it. Just buy a strip of wood and drill a few holes in it at intervals where you'd like the pictures to hang. Loop thin wire or fishing line through each hole, mount the wood strip to the wall near the ceiling, and attach your pictures to the ends of the wire. It's a bit more work than hanging pictures one at a time, but it really does look good.

I think if you mount the rail to the part of the log that protrudes the most, the pictures should lie flat in most spots. Of course, you'll have to avoid the giant irregularities in the logs.

Hang some small tribal kilims/sumaks or even small rugs on the walls.

A great way to do this is to get a few in roughtly the same size, say 3x5 or 4x6, have a rug shop sew a piece of 2" velcro to the edge, staple the matching piece of velcro to a board (no wider than the velcro)_ that you attach to the wall.

This is archival, won't hurt your rugs or kilims, and you can easily take them down for dusting/vacuuming or rotate them. It's a little spendy at $35 a linear foot to have a rug shop sew the velcro for you but it's archival.

If you're hanging rugs, not kilims, and want to rotate them often, an easier way is to take a piece of carpet-tack strip, seal it with polyurethane (to keep the acids in the wood from staining your rug), and attach that to the wall, with the tacks pointing up.

Then you can just press the edge of the rug into place. Because the tacks are about every 1/2 inch, your rug is very well supported and this won't hurt or stretch the rug.

When you're bored with one rug, simply take it down and press a different one into place. The tack strips are $2 for 16 linear feet at Home Depot and your rugs don't need to be modified. I wouldn't use this method for kilims or sumaks.

That'll help give your cabin an exotic warm look.

I did that in my den last weekend with a 6x9 tribal rug (oh, the "frosted" closet doors in the picture are inexpensive vinyl window clings):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7878321@N03/1084240533/

You can use gallery tracks that are installed where the ceiling and the wall meets. A chain will hang down and then you can put anything you want up!

these are beautiful as is!

You're probably sick of hearing it but I wouldn't cover those walls either. I'm sure to you it's bland and boring but I for one and trying to bring some "Vermont" into my midwest abode.

definetly leave the walls alone, they look amazing.

I agree with "maxwell" --the present wall is f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s as is:

-it has dimension
-great contrast with the dark colored built in bookshelves already there
-IDIOSYNCRATIC

Everyone is on the "walls are great, leave them alone" bandwagon, but you asked how to hang something. Maybe find a way to mount a painting or frame away from the wall, not just hung on a picture rail, but something like four bolts positioned behind the frame's corners and screwed into the wall, allowing 2" or more space between picture and wall. Kinda like it was floating in front of the wall. Like Robb's individual project coffee table mounted on the wall on Design Star.

(And I'm guessing, that had you submitted a large room shot and not a detail of these very same walls, in all their celebrated natural state, the first comments would have been "Get some art up on those walls.)

:)

how about big hooks? that way the art will stick out past the logs but still look cool? That's what lots of log cabin dwellers in AK do and it's a great (and cheap) look. Plus, I've seen people hang those wire line shelves from the ceiling and it looks great.

If you insist on putting art up (I too love the walls, but understand you want to see your art!), then I like the picture rail idea. I also like the look of art propped up against the wall (of course, in one grouping, not everywhere). Pottery Barn also did a look with art hanging from bookshelves. not my speed, but maybe it's something you'd like?

If you really want to hang something, mount a "block" or two on the logs and then mount the picture on the blocks (make sure the blocks aren't too thick otherwise you will see them too much). If done right, it will appear to slightly float in midair.

But, as many others have said, I would leave the logs as is. Another alternative is to use a tall slim shallow bookshelf into which you can place stuff or just place your larger pieces on the floor leaning against the wall.

You can put one or two paintings on floor easels in front of the log walls. Any more than two easel arrangements would look a bit like a retail store, but you could get away with two in one room.

Look at the Walker Picture System or similiar systems in Carr McLean, a preservation and conservation supply company http://www.carrmclean.ca/CategoryGroupBrowser.aspx?CategoryID=198. Using filament or steel cables for hanging should allow you to cope with the textured walls - and would allow you to change the art at will. It is hard to tell from the photo whether it would work in your particular situation, and whether you'd want to mount them on the wall or just above the wall on the ceiling, which might work better.

You could also put up a relatively deep picture rail to get the art out far enough - not necessarily these, but they show you the ideahttp://roomandboard.com/rnb/collection.do?method=get&id=377517&cat=32

Excellent suggestions! Thanks so much. And thanks too for the great validation of all the work I put in on those walls.
You've given me many choices, and a lot to think about. Thank you all.
Pamela

I'd love to see "before & after" pictures when you're done!