We seem to have lost the knack of displaying our pictures on the walls of our homes - gone are the days of sending off actual rolls of film to be developed (sometimes waiting weeks for them to come back!) then selecting the best ones to put in frames for the wall or mantle piece or arranging to have one or two of them enlarged for sending to absent members of the family. You can still get photos blown up and printed onto canvas by specialist printers to make them look like a portrait, which I always thought was a lovely modern take on family ‘heirloom’ pictures.

It’s a shame, as we take millions of pictures on our smartphones, which have such good photo capability now, what with ultra-wide lenses, telephoto or periscope zoom, macro, monochrome and depth sensor, facial recognition, cropping options, colour adjustment options and so on. Yet it is so easy to print from your phone provided you have a good home printer and suitable paper, and there are plenty of online options to get your favourite picture printed to whatever size you want, and with whatever finish you want – matt, glossy, pearl or even canvas.

Apparently there are ‘apps’ you can also use, and even some stores have kiosks where you can just plug your phone and get them while you wait.

But most photos rarely get further than inside your phone, or in your gallery on the tablet or laptop. Yes, they can be shared with others, but I don’t think many actually make it out of the phone, and I wanted to try and encourage people to get their snaps out and get hanging!

There are so many ways you can display pictures, with great impact.

If you do get motivated to make a statement display on a wall of some of your favourites, something unusual can make a fantastic impact - such as a collection of monochrome shots of various sizes - and while many people choose to do so, you don’t have to match all of your picture frames. Some say you should select the proper frame for the picture, whether it matches the rest of your frames or not. In fact, you can go out of your way to mix up the frames because of the variety it adds to the room. The design of the room and your personal tastes will dictate whether you choose to match all of your frames or not. Same with frame sizes - it doesn’t really matter if they aren’t the same size, and a very effective display can feature pictures of all sizes, but sometimes a crucial layout works too, with maybe a set measurement between rows.

Sometimes the furniture you have in the room can lead the way, for instance, if you are decorating your bedroom consider matching your frames with your bedroom set - such as bed frame, bedside table, and dressers – if they are light coloured wood, this could be reflected in your frame choice as well.

I have seen some really novel ways of hanging a collection, one was a piece of driftwood fixed to the wall, and a selection of family pictures or maybe beach scenes could be hung from wires attached to the piece of wood, which is very effective.

Again, framing choices don’t necessarily end with choosing your frame material and colour. Here is where ‘matting’ can play an important part in the design process. Matting adds a decorative touch while drawing the eye toward the artwork and giving it a finished look. A second mat adds even more depth. With the tons of matboard colours available, a nice choice would be to pick out a dominant colour in the picture and use a matboard of that colour sandwiched between a white or cream mat and the actual picture or vice versa.

Even the actual hanging of pictures is easy – no holes always necessary, as there are double-sided tapes of various widths that can be found, and are super easy to use. Just make sure you remove any hooks or protruding hardware from the back of your frame first, to ensure a nice flat surface.

You captured the moments that captured your heart – they are your special memories, why not share them on your walls for all to see? Make a statement without saying a word!


Author

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan