Have you an excellent photo or photos or artworks lying in your house without a frame? If you have, you might have thought many times to get a beautiful frame for it and hang it on the walls to get admiration from your guests. But alas, frames are so pricey! Moreover, there are so many options that you just can’t decide which one to choose.
The good news is that now you don’t have to struggle with the thought of what type of frame you should choose and how pricey it would be. Chrisman Framing, a chain of framing shops, provide custom picture framing services in the Portland and its surrounding area, and help you choose the right design, colors and materials of frame so that you can display your picture at its best. Their experts share a few very useful tips here on framing. Let’s see.
1. Mat or No Mat?
If you want to frame a work on paper, maybe a print or a drawing or painting, your best choice would be mat because it makes the work look lovelier. On the other hand, large format photographs look stunning when not matted, as the image has a higher impact without anything suitable to what you’re seeing. If you have multiple pieces, such as diptychs or triptychs, that are created to be read as one piece, it will be a more compact and consistent story without a mat.
2. Framing Should Protect Your Picture
Framing not only makes your picture look beautiful, but more importantly protects your picture from elements over time. The matting materials must be acid-free and its back should have a dust cover. Normally there is a glass cover over the front, but sometimes acrylic is also used. Acrylic is more lightweight and shatterproof than glass; however, it’s also more prone to scratches. Whichever material you choose, make sure that it’s been treated to offer protection from UV rays.
3. Consider Irregularity
Experts at the framing shops of Chrisman Framing suggest thinking beyond hangings in straight lines. According to them, when you’ve multiple photos or artworks to frame and hang, the grouping can look much better as a flowing cloud or a falling trellis-like pattern. You can lay down your art on the floor just beneath the wall first and experiment. Now to hang the pieces on the wall, measure height and width of each of them, and then mark their outermost points on the wall with a painter’s tape. Start hanging from this point. Here the key is to embrace imperfection rather than avoiding it.
4. Create a Focus with the Images
Some images are capable of drawing attention, even creating a mood. For example, photos of babies, flowers, pets and birds create a pleasant mood. If you have a group of photos containing a baby’s photo, hang it on the top so as to create a look as if the baby is looking into the group or in the room. A side-facing portrait too should be hung with its face towards the group. Or while hanging it near a window, its face should be as if the person is looking into the room and not outside the window. This way you can create a focus with the image.
5. Relate to Other Objects
You may want to hang your framed photo or artwork in a space that is affected by architectural features and furnishings such as archways or mantels. It’s a good idea to have someone hold the frame and you look at it from standing and seated positions. It’s a common practice to hang frames too high. This makes the frame look as if it’s floating around without any relevance to the room and the objects in it. Here it’s not a bad idea to hang low, so that it can relate more closely to architectural details or furniture in the room.
Of course, if you still have doubts, the Chrisman Framing people are happy to help you out. Take help of the experts and make your home look more beautiful with beautifully framed photos and artworks.