LIVE to cover the walls.............and clutter

[emm74]

too much of anything looks cluttered IMO.

In terms of decorating, I tend to prefer a few larger statement items. For photos or mementos, I would create one area to showcase them but not have them all over. You can google "photo wall ideas" or something like that to get some various ideas. But overall, I am on the "less is more" bench.

[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by CatwomanofV

Does this wall look cluttered?

Cat

Not quite cluttered but not my definition of living to cover the walls, either. Essentially, it looks like the expanded version of Robin Williams apartment in "One Hour Photo" where basically, the snap shot was taken no farther.

That is something I have to be aware of. Somewhere around are 2-3 boxes of about 400 shots of my photography, perhaps in the early digital days. The HEB photo lab back then was doing a super cheap print deal and I believe my plan at the time was for these to go into photo albums but that plan never came around if that was the plan. So those photos sit out there somewhere, assuming they made the move out of the apartments. They had disappeared from sight years earlier so I am guessing I had boxed them up earlier. The apartments were too much stuff, too little space.

I do have many small frame shots where a few are of family but most of are post cards (ballet, fantasy, & warrior women) and those are displayed in the small spaces where no other size will fit.

The water color did go up in the top corner of the great room and I find that it works. I find myself staring into like that of The Fisherman in the Night Gallery pilot movie.....I just don't get into as much.

A little point on that painting. The entry point to the work is in the lower corner and its vanishing point is the opposite diagonal upper corner so one is in a natural path view from almost all points of the room. I didn't plan it that way but it worked out that way.

As it is, my 24X36 frames will start off in the high corners of walls. It gives a point for them to be oriented correctly, balanced, and it starts the wall moving from bigger to smaller. Another item on that menu is that my super enlargements, 41 X 31-practically life size, need to be closer to the floor to be effectively displayed.

It is also a time to consider decommissioning some prints such as the original source of Disney's Magic Kingdom Castle, a Dali like painting of the Last Supper, sea life pictures I had in my office in the Navy, perhaps even "Nastassja and the Serpent"..........but maybe not that, especially after I found this: Nastassja Kinski snake print to go on sale - Telegraph

I hardly think mine is worth that much but better to keep it in its frame than rolled up in a tube. There is another item, however, in that the print, as old as it is, still fits into the mood I am setting up in my home. The other prints mentioned were ones that served their purpose at the time but have far fallen out of use. It just depends for I have lots of pics that go back to the 80s or so, from the Hildebrants to "Girl with a Chain", but they still fit in the current mood.

As far as the archivist pictures? Well, some I did ask for since I grew up looking at them, but they may end up going up in the loft stairwell (not an easy task since it is stairs with high walls)......after many of them are reframed. Glass is nice to look at but boy, does it break! The current thought in framing is no glass, just plastic.

Some of the archivist pictures but many are probably fated to be boxed again until the next heir comes across them and has to decide. Funny enough as it is, but that's what a brother did to me on a visit.....gave me all these pictures of Mom's wedding. Si-gh!

Originally Posted by emm74

too much of anything looks cluttered IMO.

In terms of decorating, I tend to prefer a few larger statement items. For photos or mementos, I would create one area to showcase them but not have them all over. You can google "photo wall ideas" or something like that to get some various ideas. But overall, I am on the "less is more" bench.

Now there's a question I should have asked before. How many of us are photographers?

A and B

A: Back in the late 80s, the crew at a photo developing shop were looking at the pics of my apartment and asked me about the pictures I had on my walls. Were they my own work? Unfortunately, they were not but that was my starting motivation to change that. 80-90% of the stuff in the 8X10 or so box frames (& all of the 41X31s) is my own work.

B: Being the one behind the camera, there are very few shots of me.

All things considered, can that effect how we see the wall?

EDIT: Did some looking at the photo wall ideas and, we-ll..........

Most of them seem done by people who were the subject and then not "professionally". A few (as compared to my OODLES (where a day at a festival can easily produce 600-1200 pics taken)) pictures to have as keepsakes.

Those who are putting up many, many shots seem to be doing it "One Hour Photo" style (just the 3X5 or so snapshot). As previously stated, not my bag.

Then there is the mural approach with a lot of shots without frames. It's an interesting way to go about it but it is a method that I did in college and just after but slowly left behind. I stopped just pinning and taping pictures up and put them all in frames.

Now I am not criticizing those approaches nor saying, "That's not me!" (or at least not that much) but am noting that the different ways we put up pictures could influence us to whether or not clutter is seen.

[CatwomanofV]

That pic that I posted, believe it or not, is my mother. Her entire living room was like that. Every pic that was given to her went up on the wall and nothing came down. She had 6 kids & 8 grandkids so you can guess over time, her walls became like that. It was definitely overwhelming. (BYW: there are a couple pics of me on that wall but you can't see them too well in that pic.)

We did close out her house when she went into a nursing home and all of those pics were divided up among the family.

Hubby likes to paint. He also has 4 kids and we are expecting Grandkid #10 in Sept. As an amateur photographer, I have to be VERY careful not to make my living room look like my mother's.



Cat

[emm74]

Professional photographers curate their photos. They may shoot 600 shots but then they cull them down to the ones that are really great and really capture a moment. You can also use an album if you want prints of more but the fact that they exist doesn't mean they need to be on display on a wall.

[chiluvr1228]

Originally Posted by Robino1

Too much on the walls feels cluttered, too little and it feels cold and temporary.

Trying to find the balance is what decorating is all about.

I've taken to putting personal photos of the kids, grandkids etc... in bedrooms. All the grandkids are in the bedroom that is designated for the kids. Twin beds and one wall has all the grands in different stage of growing. It really looks cool.

My parents, siblings and kids are displayed in my office. Kids and spouses are in my bedroom.

Artwork is in all the other rooms.

Same with me - other than a few small, framed photos, my large family portraits are not in the main part of my house.

[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by CatwomanofV

...... It was definitely overwhelming......

We-ll, that is the word a lover used to describe entrance to my 1 BR apartment back in 1994. All things considered, though, they were the low price ones in a college town, so it wasn't quite the view one expected upon walking into such. That lover was also the one who gave me the big framed Talbot of two dolphins.

Originally Posted by CatwomanofV

....... Her entire living room was like that. Every pic that was given to her went up on the wall and nothing came down. She had 6 kids & 8 grandkids so you can guess over time, her walls became like that...

In my family, at least with the brothers or at least one, they send me figurines and sculptures, usually of unicorns. I guess the mailing is just easier ALTHOUGH I have been given some kind of art in a scroll; it never went up on the wall, though. The other brother usually sends me wine.

Put up more 24X36 today: animal, ballet, animal, ballet. In that case, they were all horizontals and they just fit in that location but I am thinking of changing them. Instead of having a solid wall of 24X36 horizontals, have one up in the corner, then maybe have a vertical 24X36 below that (or two at diagonal corners) (or just one of my MEGA prints) so to break up the wall space so other size frames fit in.

I am fixing to put the Hildebrandts up this evening. As with the above, not a solid display of side to side but in the corners of the wall so other size frames can fit in the space in between.

As I go through my collections, though, I am seeing more and more ones that should not be going up. The Hildebrandt of Unicorn, Pegasus, Tiger, and I think one other, yes, but not just some sword swinging, scantly clad woman with their name on it. An old framed watercolor of the USS Constitution, well it has had 25 years on the walls, so it is time for retirement. Smaller but still a big frame of a Frazetta maybe facing retirement as is a large Boris, but both are still debatable.

What makes something debatable? What does one see when they look into it and with those I might see things to stir the creative writing juices like Ray Bradbury's Workshop......though if that place was actually like it was shown on TV, then there is probably no doubt to .....Clutter.

Which brings up the question to how does one view their house? I talk about the ranch as my Fortress of Solitude and indeed, once I am out here, it is very hard for me to budge until I have to. Does how we view our home, such as by its remoteness or surroundings, influence how we see our walls?

One thing about those who lightly cover the walls with pictures could be that when it comes time to move, they are not hit with the blow of seeing the place they built up being so nude. In every home where I have covered the walls, I've been faced that fear, felt that impact.

Finally, putting up pictures while unpacking, one might feel the fear of "there isn't enough room!" but the still oodles of boxes are probably blocking spaces.

Originally Posted by emm74

Professional photographers curate their photos. They may shoot 600 shots but then they cull them down to the ones that are really great and really capture a moment. You can also use an album if you want prints of more but the fact that they exist doesn't mean they need to be on display on a wall.

I think the digital age has probably pretty much done away with albums at least in my case. Those 2-3 boxes I mentioned earlier were probably 35mm holdover behavior. I was thinking of putting them all in albums, I think, but never got around to it and now wouldn't even think of it.

It is, however, an interesting point. In the 70's movie "Zeppelin", Elke Sommer gives Michael York a family album to look at while she finishes dressing and at one time, I thought that way for the same kind of situation (whether or not, given my solitary life, that situation would actually occur).

Now, assuming when the house is unpacked, I would let them view my wall mounted art work.

Now, on a slightly different point, when I display my work on Facebook, I display all of it except the most blurred or off focused or blocked shot. Even if a shot is not perfect, it may have been the only shot a participant was caught it, so I show them all. Those I enlarge and print, however, are held to a higher standard because there is more money involved.

That does, however, bring up a consideration. As previously mentioned, I started displaying my work in the late 80s or there about. I have noticed over time of how my work has improved such as always using a flash. It may be time to retire some of my lesser quality work, especially if I am not pulling a feeling from the image.

[turf3]

It is your house. Put up as much stuff on the walls as you want to.

Look up some pictures of the Roosevelt family home at Hyde Park. Pictures everywhere. Some with Eleanor Roosevelt's cabin at Val-Kill. I think it gives more of a classy, lived-in look than having everything just all perfectly matchy-matchy and positioned just-so.