Rectangular Frame Arrangement

083009 frame arrangement.jpg The trend in hanging art lately seems to run towards walls of mismatched frames clustered devil-may-care to create an amorphous arrangement. It's a look we often love, though we admit this photo felt like a breath of fresh air when we stumbled upon it...

The wood and neutral tones of the room and the uniform black & white framed photos create a calming effect, and the no-nonsense rectangular arrangement is thoughtful while the varied frame sizes keep it from feeling too rigid. A simple concept and pitch-perfect execution.
(Image: Robert Pelletier)

Comments (9)

i like the up lights in the floor, nice mood lighting for a hallway

posted by matt manfredini on September 2nd 2009 at 7:55pm
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So fresh and airy! Love!

posted by citychic on September 2nd 2009 at 8:18pm
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I like the colors...but the art on the wall is making me dizzy. Does not work for me.....

posted by latinwaterpolo on September 2nd 2009 at 10:45pm
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I love the clean, calm look. I like the cluster of various frames look, too, but it's too helter-skelter for me to pull off. This one, I could probably pull off.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on September 2nd 2009 at 11:08pm
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Love the arrangement, but I don't like that it's static- the one thing I like a lot about those clusters is that they can grow with you. I'd fret a lot about what pics to use and what to ever change out!

posted by CozyLittleCave on September 3rd 2009 at 2:42am
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Aside from the fact that it's practically a monochromatic display, this actually looks quite haphazard to me, definitely not like a breath of fresh air. I really love when clustered displays maintain a relatively equal space between the frames, and when each piece of art or family snapshot is framed to best complement it. Then, even though the over all appearance may be a bit chaotic, you can really recognize how much thought went into framing each piece. You can also appreciate that, when the collection grows or moves into another space, or is separated, each framed piece will stand on its own.

In the case of this display, when I focus on each individual framed piece, I see poorly proportioned mats and funky spaces between the frames. What may looks soothing at first glance really falls apart for me when I study it more closely.

posted by visualingual on September 3rd 2009 at 8:33am
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Modern and warm. I love the blond wood with the b&w and sepia photos.

posted by jeffnyc on September 3rd 2009 at 9:46am
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Yeah, I like it a lot better when all of the tops are the same height. The frames and subject matter all match, but my linear nature wants to "fix" this arrangement.

posted by queenbee1230 on September 3rd 2009 at 2:20pm
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CollageWall is another approach. It does away with the frames and uses the wall a "the frame." I've seen a number of people use our system to make dynamic, uneven layouts that still work with our grid. Here are a couple good examples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31737018@N06/3798971602/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31737018@N06/2969995494/

There are more at http://collagewall.com/

posted by Jeff Southard on September 4th 2009 at 11:55pm
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