Decorate Your Space with Picture Frames

Make your wall or shelf space your personal space by adding personal touches that are unique and “very you”. Indeed, adding decorative elements to your home need not involve buying an expensive piece of artwork. You can get up close and personal by displaying individual and family photos that also serve to add a distinctive flair to the room.

Here are some important considerations when choosing picture frames as decorative pieces for your home:

• Decide on the overall look of the room. Picture frames can serve to complement or even put together the room’s overall theme. You can go with a color scheme (where frames used come with shades of a particular color) or with a certain style that goes with the furniture. Here are some styles you can consider:
  1. Bright and airy look. This can involve the use of bright colors on a neutral background. Thus, you can use bright-colored frames on a wall painted with a neutral color. If your wall is already painted with a bright color, then you can go with white or light colored picture frames.
  2. Shabby chic. This is another version of the bright and airy look, but the theme revolves mostly around pastels as well as a well-worn but still pretty look. Vintage picture frames that are distressed are a good fit for this look. You can distress a ready-made frame by painting a colored frame with white and then sanding down specific areas in the frame.
  3. Country or rustic style. This features the use of wood furniture and exposed stone or wood beams. You can make use of cherry or pine colored frames.
  4. Traditional or classic style. This involves baroque, rococo or traditional ornate furniture and is about quiet elegance and luxury. You can make use of oval antique frames that are gilt in gold or silver. You can add matching convex glass more a more antique look to your photos.
  5. Modern style. This is usually sleek, shiny and minimalist. The best frames that fit this style would be rectangular or square picture frames in black or chrome. Silver picture frames with simple lines will also work.
  6. Eclectic look. This includes mixing and matching different styles and textures. Admittedly, few can pull off this kind of look but if you are confident that you are one of the few, feel free to use this style to decorate your home. You can make use of picture frames in different shapes and designs.
• Exercise your own sense of style when making your picture frame choices. The styles mentioned above are only guidelines. But ultimately, you are the artistic director and designer and you should feel confident in letting your choices reflect you and your family’s overall style and personality.
• Have a themed wall or display. You can also consider a display that involves a certain theme, such as your family vacation pictures or the “academic wall” which features graduation photos and framed certificates or medals. You can also try a “walk along memory lane” display, with old, childhood family photos giving visitors a glimpse of your family’s history.
• Showcase your passion. Personalizing the room’s look not just only involves your pictures. You can also highlight collections or pictures of things you are passionate about. For instance, your kitchen wall can display a collection of frames that hold antique cooking implements, hand-written family recipes or pictures of the family cooking. Your den can highlight framed pictures of your fishing trips or your coin collection. If you are a sports enthusiast, make use of jersey display cases and shadow box frames to display your budding collection of well-loved sports memorabilia.