apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

(side note: I've soaked in that beautiful bathroom at Wheatleigh-- and J., it inspires me too!)

my last place had a tiny bathroom with zero ventilation and i hung two framed prints in there. i lived there for three years and never had a problem. i think as long as it's behind glass you should be okay.

I went to the copy-shop and had some nice art-postcards plastified and then hung them up in the bathroom.

Thanks for considering my problem.

I've been looking for cheap botanical photos, objects whose destruction wouldn't cause me to feel devastated, but for some reason, every place I've looked at - shops like West Elm, the vendors scattered around Union Square Park - seems to INSIST on damn sepia-toned printing!

Sepia is fine if earned, but in a new print is as jarring as, say, some of the Postmodernist Excesses of the late 1980's.

I think the job Tsao and McKown did at the Wheatleigh is just beautiful, a sensual, modern polish on a handsome older building; I'm sure Phoebe will agree. The hotel website isn't well designed - here's the best place to start:

http://www.wheatleigh.com/hbrochure02.html


Thanks,

J.

I don't know about photos and bathrooms, but have you thought about ceramic art? I was lucky enough to be gifted with a lovely large painted tile that works perfectly in the bathroom. (not the kind of tile that is meant to be cemented to the walls in multiples; it's hung like a picture.) There's a lot of tacky tiles out there, but there's some lovely stuff as well.

My best solution for hanging prints/photos in my bathroom (which I'm in the middle of doing) or other areas where art might get damaged (kithen, porch, etc) is to always use a photo that is reproducable, though if you have a fan or good ventilation, your wall art will likely be ok.

As for photo sources, why not check out photographers online? Etsy is a great resource for some great photos, as are the user-submitted stock photo sites like iStockPhoto and others. The art itself is fairly inexpensive, and easy to send off to your local camera pro shop to be printed from digital (and *you* get to choose if it gets that artifical sepia tone or not). If anything *does* happen to your photos, then you simply reprint and replace the damaged photo with the new one in it's frame.

As long as the photos are framed and the back is sealed properly, you should be fine.

Depends on how much mexican food you eat

(J., I do agree. One thing that really impresses me about the place is the tonal balance of cool and warm that they've found-- they have all of these silvery fabrics and cool taupe tones on the walls, but the palpable warmth comes from the textures-- grey velvets, creamy porcelain tubs, and accents of gold silk.)

I picked up some cute framed florals at Pier 1 a long time ago- they have been hanging in my bathroom for 9 years with no problem.

They usually have cute, cheap framed prints, etc.

I have two small prints in a bathroom smaller than yours, with only a window for ventilation and no fan. They are behind glass in frames, and I sealed the backs of the frames with clear packing tape. I've had no mildew or warping issues after three years.

As an artist and art collector I would say the comments above about buying cheaper prints or using postcards would be ideal. I own a few fine art photographs and just as I wouldn't hang them in an area prone to excessive moisture I also wouldn't hang them where I know they would be exposed to sunlight on a constant basis.

I think you could just as effectively use a print or postcards and not have to run the risk of ruining the investment of an art piece.

I've hung framed prints in my small bathroom w/out a problem. And I've found nice inexpensive botanical prints at antiquarian book sales.

I've framed & matted a series of antique botanical drawings that are actually the fronts of greeting cards picked up in the gift section of a hip bookstore. The look amazing parlor hung in my bathroom and have not had any wrinkling/foxing/mildew problems for the past three years -

That said, I did hang a somewhat costly piece in a poorly ventilated bathroom and it did sustain water damage - so I second the above comments - go with postcards and greeting cards. They are just as impressive and the selection is cheap and vast.

I found great "adult" (not porn, just not kids' illustrations) Dr. Seuss cartoons for my bathroom from a coffee-table book. I Cut them out, framed them under cheap glass frames and voila! they date from teh 20s to the 70s and one is even a bit racy (S&M leather meets Who-ville...)

I often find attractive images in books and frame them.

I had a small, humid bathroom with no ventilation years ago, and I decorated the wall with an interesting variety of woven fans obtained from places like Azuma (remember them?). I figured they were the only thing that wouldn't be harmed by the humidity ... and people loved them! (Of course, this was the 1970s.) My guests joked that, if it got too hot, we could take them down off the wall and pass them around.

I had originally wanted to hang vintage silhouettes in my own bathroom but thought they would be ruined, so I ended up hanging an arrangement of Fornasetti plates that turned out beautifully and provided the same monochromatic look.

Another even less expensive approach would be to use some of the new melamine plates coming out from Thomas Paul in the fall. He's doing a combination of silhouettes of both people and animals plus black-and-white lace and floral patterns that would be divine on a wall. You can check out exactly such an arrangement on Design Sponge or on the Thomas Paul site.

I wouldn't think there would be a problem with actual photos on photographic paper. Remember that the developing process for photographic prints submerges them in chemicals and ends in a water bath that usually lasts for at least 5 minutes.

Oh the Wheatleigh....so dreamy. Never have I been someplace before that is exactly how I would like my home to look someday. Good luck with your renovation!

3 framed photographs (including one large-format c-print) and 3 small oil paintings have been up in my bathroom for just over a year and a half. So far, no damage from humidity. I run the exhaust fan and leave the bathroom door open when I shower to minimize humidity. Also, I keep 2 tubs of a product called "DampRid" under my sink to wick additional moisture from the air.

I collect original black and white photographs and have three of them in my bathroom - I had them framed professionally and told the framer where they would be residing. It has been six years and they seem to be fine.

Thanks, all! Some really useful information here.

I'm going to continue to look for cheap photos. I've just spent a somewhat harrowing hour looking at photos on Esty. I've learned 1. Beware anything labeled "Fine Art Photograph" and 2. It's time for a national moratorium on photographing flowers.

Thanks for the Esty tip, and for the iStock one too. I wish there were ways to narrow a search to B&W photos.

For those with photographs in the bathroom, I know one person had sealed the frame edges with clear plastic tape - you others, is there any special backing you're using? I've always had my photographs and prints framed by Peter, at the excellent Mascot Studios on East 9th St., and generally those are backed with dark paper.

Thanks again,

J.

Since my bungalow was built in 1953, I found an old Life magazine at a thrift store for a dollar and cut up some vintage ads and framed them in simple Ikea frames.

Jonathan: You could also try searching these sites:

http://flickr.com (should have a b&w tag to search with)

http://sxc.hu

Best of luck in your quest. For decent prints of photos that won't break the wallet (though there are hundreds if not thousands of places you could get them printed), check out winkflash.com. I've used them before and quality is excellent.

Little late to the game here, but as a photography major I will pretend to be a bit of an expert for a minute...

Humidity and high temperatures are pretty much a photograph's worst enemy. But when it comes down to it, any place other than an archival storage box in a sub 70 degree climate will eventually cause deteriotation. A silver gelatin print will hold up the best. Inkjet prints are the most susceptible to humidity.

My recommendation would be do not spend too much on the prints for the bathroom.

Okay, I had a print that I'd taken (so, no professional work here) and had developped from digital prints online (so not super expensive) and put it in a clip frame where the print was up against the glass and put it in my bathroom. I would not recommend this as the glass stuck to the print and tore it. Dont' know if the humidity had much to do with that, more like Stupidity on my part!

I'm glad this question was asked, though, because I was wondering the same thing...

Again, thanks all. This has been really helpful.

I think I've been successful - I took Waylon's advice, poked around on flickr, downloaded an image and have ordered a print from winkflash.

Now comes the challenge of finding a simple white frame...

Try using the advanced search on http://istockphoto.com. They have a search by colour option.

Also remember that any colour photo can easily be converted to grayscale (though it may not look as good as you imagine, so test this out on the preview size first).

hello all! i just wanted to throw in my two cents, which go along with Nathan, the photography major. I run a fine art photography gallery, and I have seen some very simple framing "fixes" that are really quite damaging to a photograph over time! Just want to throw a few tips out there...
*Don't use corrogated cardboard at ALL when backing a frame or adding support to the back of a photograph! Don't use clear packing tape to seal it! Don't use masking tape! These are the three most common materials used that really take a toll on a photograph. They "offgas" as they are not acid free materials.

If you actually care about your photographs, go to a frame supplier, Light Impressions is a great one, and invest the $10 in the archival materials. Over 5-10 years, you may not see a huge difference if you have those "no-no" materials on your frames and photos, but any longer and you will start to have irreparable damage! Use acid-free foam core and Tyvek tape instead, and your photograph will last SO much longer!

Sorry so long, I have just seen many people come in with a valuable photograph (money or sentiment!) and it is quite thrashed because the framer used one of these materials.

That is all! Cheers!

Jessica
in Austin

With respect to vintage botanical/biological illustrations....please, everyone, be careful what you buy. Some old biological texts had fantastic color plate illustrations in them, and in particular you see a lot of these of plants and of birds for sale. Take a look when you see one for sale--does it look like it has been cut out of a book? It may well have been cut out illegally from a vintage book at a major scientific library.

Most of these books are rare, and utterly irreplaceable. Recently there has been a trend of people cutting these plates out of library books and selling them to antique shops for wall art. Please don't buy these unless you know where they've come from. And yes--there has actually been a sting operation related to this theft in recent years! There's also been a massive effort to restore stolen plates to the books from which they've been taken in North America's major natural history museums. Plates that they have not been able to match to the texts from which they were cut have been sold, in part to raise funds used to protect undamaged collections. As a biologist, I can say that this recent increase in theft is a tragedy both for biology and art--admire them in the library, or take care to purchase ones that haven't been stolen.

Jonathan,

Just wanted to say you have a gorgeous website!

Ha. Thanks, etslee. Thank god for portable digital cameras!

Back to the bathroom: I ended up ordering the same photograph twice, with slightly different printing parameters; at $3 a shot, it was worth it.

If you don't keep the bathroom too humid for too long you may be ok. Take a shower/bath with the exhaust fan on. Then open the door soon after and let some fresh (drier ) air in the room. This will keep the moisture from having time to work into the frame.