Decorating Guides
Edit Your Photo Collection and Display It Best — a Designer's Advice
Learn why formal shots may make better album fodder, unexpected display spaces are sometimes spot-on and much more
A couple of weeks ago, I was standing with my client, staring at the blank wall adjacent to her entry. The room itself was already complete, but we had not yet figured out the wall space. We were playing with the idea of hanging one really large black and white candid photo of her children, plus a few smaller shots to the side.
They were arranged against the wall, and we were trying to visualize the placement when her husband came home and let us know he didn’t like our idea. This is a guy who absolutely adores his children. He’s also really laid back, but he had a strong reaction to the kids’ picture in that room. “I don’t like to go to people’s homes and be hit in the face with their kids right away,” he explained. “It feels pretentious to me to have giant framed photos of your kids everywhere. I’d like some spaces that aren’t filled with kids in my home.”
We compromised and ended up hanging a single, albeit artsy, black and white photo of the kids on that wall that felt neither pretentious or staged.
They were arranged against the wall, and we were trying to visualize the placement when her husband came home and let us know he didn’t like our idea. This is a guy who absolutely adores his children. He’s also really laid back, but he had a strong reaction to the kids’ picture in that room. “I don’t like to go to people’s homes and be hit in the face with their kids right away,” he explained. “It feels pretentious to me to have giant framed photos of your kids everywhere. I’d like some spaces that aren’t filled with kids in my home.”
We compromised and ended up hanging a single, albeit artsy, black and white photo of the kids on that wall that felt neither pretentious or staged.
I work with a lot of families, and one of the constant issues I encounter is a deluge of family photos. Sometimes they occupy every surface of a room, sometimes it’s every wall, and sometimes it’s both.
I consider those extreme cases, and in those instances, I suggest that the clients choose the photos they feel best represent their loved ones and that are the most special. A yearly school photo or annual Christmas pic rarely makes the client's cut. Group photos of family members no one really remembers or knows the names of also tend to go. The prom photos and team sports shots get cut fairly regularly as well.
You’d be surprised how many people frame photos because they think they ought to instead of really liking them or feeling they add to the home. That picture of Grandma holding your son where she looks especially tired and he seems terrified? Yeah, that shouldn’t be on the mantel.
Find the Hidden Gems
The same goes for wedding photos. Newlyweds tend to coat their homes with photos of their big day. Five years later those photos are still on display. Every single wedding photo isn't the most beautiful or meaningful of the bunch. Pick two and add those to the mix. I had a couple who had framed and displayed very formal, serious wedding photos of themselves in their family room. After meeting them once, it was clear those were the wrong photos for the room. I asked to see the album. The photos that best represented who they were, were hidden in the massive wedding book. We switched the overly stoic images for ones of them laughing and dancing with their friends, holding hands and posing jokingly and caught in a candid moment. Those were the images that filled the space with joy.
The staircase gallery shown here is a great example of a curated collection of meaningful photographs that each make an impact due to their large-scale format and minimalist frames. Having fewer but larger photos invites you to stop and admire them, as opposed to being overwhelmed by their multitude.
I consider those extreme cases, and in those instances, I suggest that the clients choose the photos they feel best represent their loved ones and that are the most special. A yearly school photo or annual Christmas pic rarely makes the client's cut. Group photos of family members no one really remembers or knows the names of also tend to go. The prom photos and team sports shots get cut fairly regularly as well.
You’d be surprised how many people frame photos because they think they ought to instead of really liking them or feeling they add to the home. That picture of Grandma holding your son where she looks especially tired and he seems terrified? Yeah, that shouldn’t be on the mantel.
Find the Hidden Gems
The same goes for wedding photos. Newlyweds tend to coat their homes with photos of their big day. Five years later those photos are still on display. Every single wedding photo isn't the most beautiful or meaningful of the bunch. Pick two and add those to the mix. I had a couple who had framed and displayed very formal, serious wedding photos of themselves in their family room. After meeting them once, it was clear those were the wrong photos for the room. I asked to see the album. The photos that best represented who they were, were hidden in the massive wedding book. We switched the overly stoic images for ones of them laughing and dancing with their friends, holding hands and posing jokingly and caught in a candid moment. Those were the images that filled the space with joy.
The staircase gallery shown here is a great example of a curated collection of meaningful photographs that each make an impact due to their large-scale format and minimalist frames. Having fewer but larger photos invites you to stop and admire them, as opposed to being overwhelmed by their multitude.
How to Hang Your Photos
Finding a format that works best for you depends largely on the style you’ve settled on for your space. If you lean toward a traditional aesthetic, you may be more comfortable with a freer-form grouping of similar frames in different sizes. If you’re a dedicated modernist, you would most likely gravitate toward a formal grid with matched frames and photo sizes. As an eclectic, you might like the idea of mixing family photos with your art.
The photo shown here illustrates how to achieve an ordered but still bohemian style. The floor-to-ceiling arrangement is a fresh take on a standard display, yet it employs a basic grid system for spacing and hanging each piece that keeps it from being chaotic.
Finding a format that works best for you depends largely on the style you’ve settled on for your space. If you lean toward a traditional aesthetic, you may be more comfortable with a freer-form grouping of similar frames in different sizes. If you’re a dedicated modernist, you would most likely gravitate toward a formal grid with matched frames and photo sizes. As an eclectic, you might like the idea of mixing family photos with your art.
The photo shown here illustrates how to achieve an ordered but still bohemian style. The floor-to-ceiling arrangement is a fresh take on a standard display, yet it employs a basic grid system for spacing and hanging each piece that keeps it from being chaotic.
A dining room is an unconventional place for hanging family photos, but in this room the tightly structured grid, along with the style and size of the photos and frames, makes a stunning visual statement.
One of the easiest ways to unify a photo display is through the photo size and style. I often convert my clients' photos to black and white images and use frames that are similar in style and material to remove some of the visual clutter. Black and white translates so well because it marries modern photos to those of our ancestors seamlessly. In this photo baby pictures of the grandparents are displayed alongside current photos of the family.
Beach-Themed Picture Frames, Robin's Egg Blue, by Dirt Road Decor
Choosing complementary frame styles will instantly make your photo displays more cohesive. For rooms with a lot of color and texture, thin silver frames are a great choice for highlighting the photos and not detracting from other elements in the space. A more neutral space will become more interesting with bolder frames in thick gallery-style black or through a single color scheme like this vibrant robin’s egg blue.
A balanced display doesn't require frames to be the same size and style if they’re connected through color, tone or texture, as shown in this staircase gallery.
You can also utilize unexpected spaces to display your photos. This black and white framed collection hung vertically on a small wall makes fantastic use of the space and makes a stunning graphic statement.
Which Photos to Frame?
It can be difficult to decide what makes it on display and what’s better suited for a photo album. These decisions are personal, but if you do want to whittle down your photos to those that are most meaningful, this advice can help:
More: A Gallery Wall for Every Personality
It can be difficult to decide what makes it on display and what’s better suited for a photo album. These decisions are personal, but if you do want to whittle down your photos to those that are most meaningful, this advice can help:
- Consider proximity. Are the photos of a family member you see every day? Avoid “memorializing” someone who is very much alive by choosing only photos that are extremely special, such as a candid shot of your kids napping together or one of your daughter tying her first pair of pointe shoes.
- Keep the number of photos to a minimum for each family member. Babies are amazing. Our children are supercute, and everything they do is newsworthy (to us), but it’s not truly necessary to display 47 photos of your baby on the coffee table. One beautifully shot image of a baby's first smile is much more impactful. Masses of pictures of the same family member (e.g., your child), tend to create a shrine to that individual within the walls of your home. The same goes for wedding photos. As mentioned, choose two or at maximum three that show personality, not formality.
- Decide which photos are private versus public. Some photos are better left in the master bedroom. Topless pregnancy photos might be a bit distracting when displayed over the family room fireplace. Intimate moments such as a husband and wife gazing into each other's eyes might not be best on the living room bookcase. Think of it this way: If it includes romance, nudity, soft filters or lingerie, it’s probably a private photo.
- Choose where and how you will display your photos and stick with that plan. Keep in mind size and scale! For a staircase gallery, decide which size photos can be grouped most easily and allow for future additions. If you are working with a tight grid system, know that it’s probably best for you to switch out images with existing ones instead of trying to expand the grid (unless you have the wall space to do so). If you are mixing sizes and styles of frames, ensure that your foundational layout allows for the addition of different-size frames without making the arrangement seem out of control (a more free-form grid system works best for this).
- Edit. As your photo collection grows, you should be able to decide which ones stay and which ones go into an album. When you’ve outgrown the space you set for the display, don’t claim another wall before giving thought to whether everything you want to frame really works.
More: A Gallery Wall for Every Personality
As with all aspects of design, there is no right or wrong way; there are only suggestions, style tips and advice. You take from it what works for you and discard the rest.
I confess that I am firmly in the less-is-more category when it comes to photos and where and how they should be displayed.
How to Manage a Growing Collection
Collections of framed family photos typically happen over time. You buy a few cute frames here and there; someone gives you an extra-sparkly one as a present; your kids make one out of Popsicle sticks; your relatives send you random framed photos etc. Adding to the challenge is the fact that very few of the photos are ever the same size, format or even from the same time period ... visual chaos quickly ensues. A shelf full of mismatched frames can look as much like clutter as actual clutter does. Unifying the frames and photos creates design harmony and a sense of order that makes a huge difference in the way a room feels.
In this room the family photos are in different-colored frames, and the photos are different sizes, but they are artfully unified by their uniquely loose grid-like placement as well as the shape and style of the frames.