THE MAKING OF OUR PINK-POWERED GALLERY WALL
The chance to feature Art.com in our Spring Collection was more than just a dream. Their catalog includes millions of pieces and their frame shop is second-to-none. Sifting through thousands of pieces of pink art was only the beginning. Using their ArtView™ mobile app to visualize how our selections would look in our unique space (a historic firehouse…have you visited yet?) made the process truly painless.
We selected approximately 40 pieces of art for our Showroom. Our founder, Lindsay, wanted us to cover our largest blank wall with framed pieces. Since we have approximately 17’ ceilings, this was no small feat. Our selections ended up being large-scaled, required a 15’ ladder and required 2-days to install!
Fortunately, you can replicate our process at home by using the same process that we did. Read on for the how-to…
Curation: There are 2 editorial approaches when selecting art. You can go for the “tight” edit – meaning similar style (ie: watercolor, pen and ink drawings), color (warms, cools, monotones), or medium (ie: framed textiles, old comics, on metal, on wood, etc). Or go for a more “interesting” edit – where the style/color/medium is more varied. In our case, we kept the color scheme to pink and let the style and medium vary. For smaller spaces or people who prefer less visual “messiness” keeping things more alike than different is perhaps the safer path.
Whereabouts: We started with a single large wall in mind. We planned to pull a dining table into the scene, which is accented with a beautiful chandelier made by local-luminary Robert Long Lighting. We wanted all of the work to be appropriate near the entrance to the showroom, but were otherwise unconstrained. Should you be curating around a kitchen or a unique area of your home, consider other parameters like amount of light or the mood you hope to evoke.
Size: We needed oversize pieces to claim the generous real estate of our giant wall. Most homes with 9-12’ ceilings will require a mix of pieces from 11x14” to 30x40.” A good gallery wall would have at least 6-7 items. Ours had 17-20 pieces each. The smallest pieces were 8x10” and looked truly tiny next to the oversize framed prints. Using a variety of sizes provides more optionality to make interesting style statements since the smaller pieces are easier to “float” alongside the bigger artistic anchors.
Frames: Believe it when we say that Art.com has the most impressive framing options on the market. We loved double and triple mounting certain key pieces. We used hot pink frames. Some pieces were printed on wood or metal. A few were done on canvas. We also loved the float mount option on some of the pieces so that the art casts a slight shadow against it’s mat. So sophisticated! The magic was in the variance of framing selections. Depending on desired aesthetic, you can use the frame to help unify (i.e. all same color, width, or style) or set apart.
Hardware: With your pieces in hand, ensure that you have appropriate wall mounts for your art. Art.com sends all of their framed pieces wired for the wall, including hooks and nails. For any other pieces, take a trip to the neighborhood hardware store to pick up the correctly rated mounting supplies.
Spacing: Try laying out your work on the floor. Move pieces around until you are satisfied with the arrangement. It’s helpful to lay out a tape measure or two to ensure that your floor layouts will fit nicely on your desired wall area! With gallery walls, a bit of wabi-sabi can be very charming. We aligned our pieces to the bottom of our ornate crown molding and worked downwards. I think you’ll agree that the result is fun and fab!
Shop our selection of pink art here. Today (April 12, 2018) only, get 40% off Select Framed Art.