apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The Paris hang looks like a great idea. I've been trying to do the "mosaic hang" using picture rails and picture wire, and it's a bear to figure out with all the wires crossing. (am I the only one who thinks of the seinfeld episode when I hear that phrase?)

I have a TV in my bedroom that sits on a long, low (2 feet off the ground) bookshelf. It's one of the older TVs, so including the bookshelf, the entire thing comes to just about 3, maybe 3 1/2 feet on the wall. I've been toying with the idea of adding some art on the wall above. Would this look too cluttered to have art behind a television. I'm thinking of a longer piece of artwork, or several frames of the same size or even maybe a long mirror. Any thoughts?

we (in Europe) call the mosaic hang "St. Petersburg hang", actually ...

@maike Like in Russian Ark? Cool

This was interesting.

I think art over a low TV would be fine. I guess you'd have to figure out what type of art would look best -- colorful, more subdued, etc.

Another suggestion for buying inexpensive art is to go to student art sales, even at high schools, also at college art depts.

The mosaic hang above seems kind of viewer unfriendly. The little pieces way up at the top might be hard to see. Maybe it's easier in real life, but I'd want people to actually be able to contemplate the more intimately-scaled drawings.

Domino has a slide show on various ways to hang art, including the salon hang. You can find it here if interested: http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/objects/accessories/art/hangingart?slide=1

I really like this presentation. The problem, usually, is finding good spaces to hang art, not finding art to hang!

I agree with Susmita: student art is good. Cheap little thrifts are good. Lots of small antique stores will have older original pieces: some lousy, some quite good. There was a wonderful AT post on buying paintings on Ebay, which is another good place to look.

Galleries are wonderful, but by definition everything starts at thousands and thousands.

For hanging heavy items on drywall w/ no stud, I highly reccommend "Monkey Hooks." All my stuff is hanging on monkey hooks --- they are small and make just a tiny hold in the drywall but hold up to 50 pounds each! Got mine at the local hardware store.

http://www.monkeyhook.com/

Sorry, meant to say tiny hole in the drywall.