When you are considering buying a home, you walk through the halls and begin to imagine your colors on the walls, your memories and your furniture. More important than the layouts and the ceiling heights are the memories you make in those walls. With the development in technology, keeping and remembering memories has become an easy task. With the plethora of memories, we fail to print them out and instead make our Facebook walls digital memory books.
I have not given up on the power of a photograph and in fact I have taken quite an affinity for the art of framing pictures. Have you ever looked at a picture and been struck by its beauty? Have you ever thought about how the image was meticulously placed and framed? Personally, I love to see how an image can speak even more emotions through its framing and even matting choices.
To your wonderful memories, I present you tips to provide more life to your pictures.
Environmental Considerations
1. Room Decorations
Always remember that the purpose of a picture is to enrich a room. How the room is currently decorated will dictate whether or not your picture is suitable. If your walls are painted some variation of white, the pictures are yours to choose. Be aware that they will set the tone for the room.
If the walls in your home are accented with lime green paint, a black and white picture of your grandparents would not be suitable. If your walls are painted with warm colors, pictures of cartoonish figures would not be suitable. Remember, pictures are to enrich a room not stand out so much that when you scan the walls of your home your focal point is only on the pictures hung.
2. Current Decorations
Do not turn your house into one of those crazy homes, where you walk in and all that surrounds you is cows. Figurines of cows, cow pitchers, cow dish towels and dancing cows on the walls. Look at what you currently are decorating with; look at the style you have maintained throughout the room and pick pictures and frames which will nicely augment the room.
Picking Frames of Voice
Here is where the magic happens. The environmental aspects are important, because you do want the image to fit in the room. But enough with environmental, let’s talk about choosing the right frame for your beautiful memories.
1. Frames, Oh the Choices of Frames
With thousands of frames to choose from, not even including the custom designed frames, it is no wonder there are so many ways you can bring a picture to life. My basic rule is to pick a frame which is an extension of the picture. What does that mean exactly? If you have a picture of an old barn, choosing wooden frames extends the barn image. If your picture is of a vase with flowers than choose a slender frame to extend the delicacy of the flowers.
In addition to extending the image through a frame, think of the frame as clothing on the picture. If the picture is small, a small frame would fit it and vice versa. Placing a thick frame around a small picture would overcome the image.
2. Textures and Glass
If you love to work with mats or even double mats around your pictures, that adds another dimension for your frame. Make sure that all the colors and mats work together. Framing an inside mat white, with an outer mat black and then a white frame becomes a dizzying image. You become more focused on the frame than the image itself.
When you use mats, pick a color which does not play a large role in the image which you would like to highlight. The great thing about mats is you can take your picture in and view it before your make the purchase and have your image fitted. Needless to say, I have made great friends with the local framing store.
Think about where you are placing the image, is it always going to have the sun glaring on it? If so, choosing a non-glare glass is a practical choice. But for more pictures, regular glass does the trick.
I hope that this simple guide helped you get started on decorating your pictures with the right voice. Not knowing your memories, or your homes, I cannot instruct you further on the ideal frame. But, that’s what makes your memories yours! Although, I can’t hide that I love seeing what people have done and if you would like to share it, I would love to see it!
The author of this article is Alisa Carscaden, I am an SEO enthusiast and SEM junkie working at Customer Paradigm. If you enjoyed this article you can follow me on Twitter @avantgaurd. I am writing on behalf of The Plan Collection who provides amazing options for country style home plans.