Focal Points Are Vital In A Well Designed Room

Sometimes it’s the ‘biggest’ feature in the room. Oftentimes it’s a fireplace, a picture window or a built-in bookcase. It wants to be special, it wants to be dramatic. If it is played up, this focal point helps to make your room more inviting, offering a more comfortable place to rest. Since this one design item can do so much, play it up! DECORATING IDEAS AND PROJECTS TIPS
Determining Your Focal Point: HOW TO CHOOSE COLOR
A focal point should be something interesting to look at, something colorful or texturally and visually appealing. You can create a focal point for the room, by focusing on artwork, floral arrangements, paint color, or shelving. It should be the 'first thing' you see when entering a room. If possible, build your furniture arrangement around it.
Play Up Your Focal Point:
You can create a focal point wall by painting one wall a different color from the rest and accessorizing with a wall arrangement, artwork, or display shelves. Use lighting to enhance your focal point. For example, use a picture light, track light, or wall washer fixture on a painting or wall display. If you've identified a mantle or shelf as the focal point, use plants and accessories to decorate them.
Use contrasting color to make the focal point stand out. For example, use a light wall color behind a dark wood focal piece.
A Neat Niche:
What could have been an awkward niche has become a focal point by filling it with interesting pieces. A mural is seen here, but you might also use a painting or a collection of prints. The Asian-style dresser is topped with a few simple accessories and a pair of lamps, while recessed lighting is focused to brighten the mural.

Lady's Master Bedroom Designer: Chris Garrett / Garrett Paschen Ltd, Evanston, IL From the 2003 Lake Forest Showcase House and Gardens Photo ©2003, Glenna Morton, About Interior Decorating

How To Hang Art & Display Objects On Shelves.

Grouping items and displaying artwork well is a skill, but it is one that can be learned through practice, and a bit of guidance. The following tips can serve as a guide to get you practicing creating artwork displays.There is no right or wrong! Have fun!

On building a gallery of artwork and objects using shelves: Odd numbers of frames (i.e., three, five or seven frames) create the most pleasing effect in a display. Place central pieces at eye level or slightly above on the wall, then expand your display outward from there.
To add interest and character to a collection of similar art pieces, use frames in a variety of colors, textures and shapes. Interspersing the display with mirrors helps break up repetition, and creates the illusion of amplified natural light.
Hang several shelves to create a gallery of artwork and objects. Place framed or un-framed artwork on the shelves to lean against the wall, and . . .

Add eye-pleasing items (found river rocks,sculptural

vases, or vintage children's toys, for example) that

play off the shapes, colors and textures of the artwork.

Use wall ledges as a framework for an ever-evolving mix framed artwork. Aside from protecting your walls from misplaced holes, ledges also provide the freedom to layer artwork so that one frame slightly overlaps the other. This technique puts the focus on the display as a whole, rather than on any individual piece.

(A quick note as I look at this picture is that it has balance. If we draw a verticle line down the middle, both sides are visually equally balanced. A easy check to see if the picture is in fact balanced, is flip the picture around. If it is balanced, it will be balanced either way. Again, practice it. Imagine as you go about your day, as you pass pictures and artwork, look for balance, flip the pictures (in your mind, not really!)

Decorating With Pictures

Hung against knotty pine,

this collection of pictures (in a

small guest bathroom) makes

for a beautiful retreat.

All my life my way of thinking has been hugely affected by the things around me, especially in the display of picture collections. From uniquely framed poster art to musuem-quality still lifes, I have always absorbed an awareness of beautiful things, and particularly pictures.
Fabrics, imported china, rugs and all decorator items are fascinating and essential to our interiors. But to me, it is pictures that are the soul of the house. Artwork on display says a great deal about the character of the owner. A collection of pictures brings extraordinary sense of originality and uniqueness.
People are often nervous when starting a picture collection that it make a statement. If you are a bit reticent, consider the following ideas: Open your eyes. Look around you. Study picture collections of local museums, art galleries, antique shops, etc. As you browse the homes of top decorators and art collectors displayed in pages of design magazines, notice the artwork of a particular room. What sort of pictures do they collect? Is there a particular theme (such as nautical). Is it a mix of different media and different subject matter, such as in the photos above.
You will start to develop confidence in building your collection of pictures based on your personal tastes. Flirt with the concept of 'what would happen if ....' you made small changes to the vignette shown in a photo. What might occur if the framing were altered. Consider what might happen if a particular large piece were moved. Does that picture’s placement need to be there to ‘hold’ the grouping together. Don't worry about the aesthetic dictates of others. Pictures for your home collection should appeal to you.

~ Patricia Loya ~