This week in our newsetter we mentioned we were going to post about putting more affordable art pieces together, which we have found is not always an easy task (making them all work together). So here we hope to share a few tricks, links to ideas on how to hang them, alternative ideas for frames etc. We'll start out with these beautiful encaustic miniature beeswax paintings by South Carolina-based artist, Katie Runnels. If you visit her shop, The Constant Gatherer you will find a few of these gems left which, as she shows in the above photo, are adorable as a set. We love how she's hung these in a "gallery style" grouping. What's nice about these too is, no frames are needed, which makes for a nice saving we often forget about when buying art.



We love these polk-dot-themed prints and photographs grouped together by two etsy artists and PHM vendors , Michelle Caplan (prints) and Bueller (photographs). These would look great in black RIBBA frames (there's so many sizes to choose from) and black frames create contrasts and put the focus in the room on your pictures. Or in the extra affordable CLIPS (frame with clips) from Ikea which look great against a colored wall. Perfect for a girl's (teenager) room or a nice hall grouping for people like us who love horses and surfing!



These next three just spoke to each other we thought. Matte Stephens is such a favorite of ours and this print titled, Vivienne on her bike has a light humourous feel to it and connects so well we think with the Learning Curve polaroid collage from Trampoline and Talking in Circles letterpress print from Green Chair Press. These all could be framed in white, light wood or darker frames. But personally we like the idea of white.



Los Angeles-based artist, Andrea Shear has such great colors in her Little Boxes original paintings series which come already included with extended edges of the plaque with hooks, which is such a great feature. Another idea is if you have prints or paintings with similar colors, we love the idea of different colored frames or mattings to compliment them. Ikea has these Fanaholm frames in assorted colors that would work really well for this idea. A link here shows a great example of this.

As far as where pictures should be hung. Really it's entirely up to you of course (whatever makes you happy), but if you are cursed (almost is what it feels like at times) like me (and seek advice), we feel pictures need to be hung (not too high) and not too low - although there are exceptions of course anywhere. If I'm visiting a place where the picture is hung too high or it's crooked or unbalanced I feel cursed, where i, it distracts me to the point sometimes that I loose track of my conversations or there's an urge to walk up and straighten it. So for me in my home, I need that balance and preciseness. Not preciseness where I measure, but precise where they are not too high or two low. I think if you're hanging art above furniture for instance they can be hung somewhat lower if they are larger pieces, perhaps starting even just a few inches up from the furniture itself (4 to 5 inches perhaps) above the furniture line is a good place to start if they are desks, credenzas and dressers. And perhaps a bit higher if it's a couch. If they are smaller then it just depends on how many you are placing together. If you have many and it covers a wide area, then you can start lower. It's just all in balance. Writing this, I'm realizing how crazy I am about all this. So with that said, perhaps I've said enough. Just that pictures really shouldn't be hung above your head (when standing) unless you have a gallery style setting and there are pictures at eye level scattered randomly above and below eye level. I suggest you have fun, invite a friend that enjoys this particular activity as much as you (or even more than you) and make a visit out of it. My family always did that, and I suppose that's where all of this stems, it was fun, we all gave our two cents worth and in the end a beautiful display was created. Anyway, hopefully some of this makes sense and is of some help for those that do seek advice. The best advice is I think to try and hang art so it doesn't look too pre-meditated, yet considered.

For those of you who don't need the advice I welcome your opinions in the comments, as I love new ideas and ways to hang art (especially affordable ways). Other links about alternative ideas for hanging art that we've posted previously for reference are Hanging prints using wooden pant hangers, bull dog clips and check out The Art of the Display posts we've done as well as catch some inspiration from our The Art of the Display flickr group where we found this great display below by Saidos da Concha.