Who's good at hanging pictures? And design?

seeker

Sun, Aug 28 2022, 12:12 pm

Trying to make my home look a little more like home. (We moved about half a year ago and have been busy...)

1. We have a large number of paintings my kids made. Somewhat childish but still nice. Maybe about 20 all together? Didn't count. Some are horizontal, most are vertical. A mix of 8x10 and 9x12 inches in size.
Three options I can think of:
We have stairs going up to the main living floor, wall on one side and open/railing on the other. Can put on the wall side as you go up.
We have a hallway from the kitchen/dining area to the bedrooms. Could put going down that hall.
Basement - can put along wall going down the stairs, or on the wall of the playroom. Maybe more apropos for childish art but at the same time I'm not sure I want my kids to feel like their things are tucked away.
So first of all, votes on where to put them. Secondly, for each of the first two options, what would be the right height to hang them and please send ideas of how to arrange given the assortment of sizes/layouts. Would like to leave space to add to the collection.

2. Dining room currently has a large blank wall. Layout of room is like this: A little narrow, so we have a long (not superlong) narrow table. At the head of the table we have furniture. The other end of the table is just open into the living room. Along one side of the table is a short wall because of door to kitchen and opening to living room; that wall has a large mirror and is complete. Then along the other side of the table is a big empty stretch. There's one small window all the way to one side because the people who built the house were idiots. On the living room end we have bookshelves. But in the dining room part of the room it's too narrow for anything so there's a long blank space.

So far what I have to put there is about 5 pictures of gedolim who are meaningful to us (I think they're like 8x10 or so). Need advice on how to arrange and how high.

Besides that... I don't know! The wall needs something, but also I hate a cluttered look. Maybe I'll buy a large painting to have a focal piece? But then what happens on each side of it? It's a long stretch of wall... how to relieve the emptiness without cluttering it?

3. We also have a space above the couch but that doesn't worry me as much because you really don't notice it. The layout of the space is just that you don't really look in that direction much. But, just saying.

ra_mom

Sun, Aug 28 2022, 1:12 pm

I'd put the kids paintings in matching inexpensive frames and make a nice lineup in the playroom. Don't crowd a beautiful room with so many things up on the wall. Kids art is a great way to set up a kids space.

For the dining room blank wall choose 1 large painting and center that. Even though you have large expanses of wall on either side, leave them blank to keep that great uncluttered look. 1 piece makes a big difference and looks beautiful.

For the gedolim pictures, can they all go into matching frames and set up on top of sefarim shelves or similar?

seeker

Sun, Aug 28 2022, 1:17 pm

I wouldn't crowd a beautiful room with kids paintings - that's why I'm thinking hallway or stairway. Basement is still in the running though.

Dining room advice noted.

Gedolim pics - they were formerly in the dining room, but we added a buffet/breakfront type of piece so they don't fit in their former spot anymore (at the head of the table.) Our sefarim shelves go to the ceiling. I guess it would look weird to have the long wall shared between these and a painting? I liked having them in the dining room but I just don't know how.