How to Choose Picture Frames to Complement Your Home's Decorating Style

Have you ever seen a frame that either looked wrong for the picture or wrong for the surrounding decor? Although there are no ironclad rules for selecting frames, some general tips follow.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Picture Frames

1. Remember that frames loosely fall into three categories: traditional (often wood frames with some embellishment such as ornate carving, Oriental accents, appliqué curlicues, or canvas or linen inserts), modern (metal or ultraplain wood, perhaps only a sliver of it showing as you face the picture) and transitional (minimal ornamentation with a moderate amount of frame showing on its face).

2. Choose versatility with a plain transitional wood picture frame, either stained or painted, perhaps with a simple stripe of contrasting paint color or metallic. These frames work in nearly every decor and suit most styles of art; they also can usually move from room to room easily.

3. Use old-style, ornate gold frames in traditional, often formal environments with decorating styles such as 17th- and 18th-century styles, as well as with Victorian and English country decor; they can also be used in eclectic-style rooms. These frames generally work best with art executed in representational (nonabstract) styles.

4. Give yourself more latitude if your decorating style is eclectic. Frames and artwork can mix it up a bit, but you'll achieve a more harmonious atmosphere if there are other furnishings in the room - perhaps a coffee table or chair - that also reflect the style of the frame and picture.

5. Consider hanging large abstract canvases without frames. This is a handsome look in modern decor.

6. Use the same or similar frames (and mats) to unite a grouping. Black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings of varied subjects blend nicely when all are edged with, say, black metal or walnut-stained picture frames; color family portraits may gain the same sense of unity with, for example, whitewashed wood frames, pewter frames or brass frames.

7. Ask for help from personnel at stores where frames are sold, especially custom frame shops. They usually have great advice for selecting a great frame and mat for a picture.

Tips & Warnings

• Be careful not to let a frame overwhelm a picture; this most often happens when a wide frame is placed around a small or delicately executed work of art. Also, frames can jar the decor if they're too large for the wall space or if they're too fancy to be hung over, say, a casual easy chair.
• When hanging artwork above a piece of furniture, place it in close enough proximity - usually just a few inches above the furniture - so that the eye takes in the objects as a single unit.
• Don't let a dominant-colored mat make the artwork play second fiddle. Neutral mats are usually best.

on 11/22/2005 Add pizzazz to a print without the added cost of extra mats. Use a small wooden insert called a fillet. It goes around the art, inside the mat opening. Makes the entire project look 110 times better.