Frames for art  in the home

Frames for art in the home

9th Dec 2019

How to decide which frame best suits your interior

Wall arts, pictures and other kinds of images should be part of your interior scheme. They make your spaces seem more stylish and more like a home than a room showed in a fashion magazine and is out for sale. In a nutshell: Self-chosen wall arts are some of the elements that help you claim a space as yours.

Since they are that crucial to your room decor, you should take time to think about the frame that will present them. Often underestimated elements within spaces, frames may have astonishing effects on the feeling or mood that a room generates.

One possible criteria to use while choosing a frame is the image that is supposed to go in it. For that, Corporate framing director of A. I. Friedman, Jeffrey Feigenheimer, has shared some insights.

He recommends, for example, to combine frames that stand out with images that seem rather clean. That might be a golden frame with a pattern, for example.

If, on the other hand, one wants to accentuate the main element in the wall art, it might be more recommendable to use a simple frame in the same shade as said element. The frame might also be inspired by the photo or art’s subject. For example, a whitewashed frame might reference the ocean.

Black or white frames ideally go with black and white photos. They may be the perfect fit for a gallery wall, as they match and calm down the variety of colours that could be contained amongst the different art motives. As a general rule, these colours tend to make the opposite tone stand out within the image.

This rather dark picture frame helps accentuate the white background and the coloured elements that you can find in the middle of the image.

Certain darker tones of wooden frames tend to warm up the image and make it seem more like home. Even lighter, more classical tones of wood may have that effect while also making the image stand out more. Wood is a material that fits in almost any room and we recommend it especially for rustic or modern spaces. Photos that go best with them include those that have red, brown and orange in them. Cooler colours are better paired with lighter wood tones. Very often you can also find ornamented wooden frames, in which case, once again, those are better used with unpolluted images.

This wall art goes very well with its unique 2D frame. The moose’s antlers and details on its clothing are follow the same style as frame.

Metal frames can also have various effects. Silver metal frames give the impression of a more modern and trendy style. Usually, they contrast elements in the photos contained in them. Metallic frames in colours other than silver make them and their image the star of the room. If working with a poster, black metal could harmonise with its lettering.

Leaving a white border may make an image be perceived as more casual, calming down the features in an artwork. Your mat may also match the contained image in colour, thus playing it up. You can also experiment with different kinds of texture for your borders. Matte ones on a white wall make the photo seem floaty and sophisticated.

The white border gives the wall art a more casual look than it would normally have, which goes very well with the concept of the thinking bubble.

Finally, shadow boxes may be a very good choice if a certain image, especially a poster is supposed to be a featured element in the room.

While creating a wall that contains a mixture of wall arts, of course, the criteria changes slightly. The frames should match and harmonize with each other. If you already have picture frames stored somewhere in your home, even if you don’t particularly like them, this could also be a great chance to reutilize them. The way to do this would be to match them up with new frames that make them seem like a nice touch. Working with items you already own, helps your design be more sustainable, as you are throwing away less material.

Another possible way of choosing a frame is by taking a close look at the shades and textures present in the room where the wall art is supposed to go up. What is the colour that is present through and through? Or is it a texture? Pick out the element that makes the room cohesive, understandable, and accentuate it more by combining your frame with it. It is also quite important that your it does not match the exact tone of your wallpaper but rather completes. In this way, a bookshelf wallpaper might much rather go with a white frame than an equally floral one.

Wooden frames may also easily be matched with the wood items currently displayed. This may make special sense in an ambience that is supposed to be destined for family life, like a living room.

As a general effect, lighter frames are better combined with simple and casual decoration, while darker ones cause a rather elegant, formal effect.

A frame is one of those objects that could make or break the style of a space. Even though the criteria have been listed separately, you would score extra points, of course, if your chosen wall art frame would meet more than one of them. We hope you can make use of these simple pieces of information and choose frames that match any room!