Photos from your last holiday, your children’s drawings, an old painting found at a flea market – pictures give a personal touch to a living room and radiate liveliness. But how can you skilfully stage your favourite motifs? With the right mounting system, it’s truly easy!
Stunning! Professional Tips for Displaying Pictures
Technologies
Pictures give a room a certain flair. There are many ways to arrange and hang them artistically. We’ve put together the best options for you.
This layout is considered a classic picture arrangement.
Elegant and straight
If you like a classic and tidy look, the ‘Row Display’ is your perfect solution. Several pictures are simply placed next to each other on the wall at the same height. “It looks truly classy when related motifs, for example, a series of photos or pictures, are hung next to each other in identical frames,” explains production designer Sebastian Krawinkel.
"You can create a great effect when the colour scheme of the motifs and the material of the frames are reflected in the furniture of the room."
Sebastian Krawinkel
Production Designer
Sebastian Krawinkel
equips international film sets (“Around the World in 80 Days”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “Vier gegen die Bank”)
One after the other
Mounting pictures in a grid requires plenty of patience and precision! Just like a checkerboard pattern, all motifs have the same format. Very important: The distance between the pictures must be identical on all sides. The ideal distance is approx. five centimetres. A tip from interior expert Sebastian Krawinkel: “You can create a great effect when the colour scheme of the motifs and the material of the frames are reflected in the furniture of the room.”
Grid layout - Best suited to pictures in the same format, with the same frame and similar picture motifs.
145 to 160 centimetres
above the floor – That’s where the centre of a picture should be placed. This is a rule of thumb for museums when displaying works of art.
Source: Kunsthalle Hamburg
Inside the Lines - Different images are arranged in an imaginary frame, for example an oval.
Framed
For pictures of different sizes, you can best use an imaginary frame. The advantage of the layout “Inside the Lines”: There are neither uniform distances nor predetermined viewing axes. The motifs are arranged in a defined shape. It could be a circle, an oval, a square or a heart. It’s best to mark the side edges of the form in advance with masking tape. You then hang up the largest picture and place the remaining works of art around it in a mix of portrait and landscape formats.
The Petersburg Display is also called Salon Display. Motifs are placed side by side and cover almost an entire wall.
Many pictures – one grand piece of art
Countless pictures side by side – from floor to ceiling: The St. Petersburg Hermitage, one of the most famous museums in the world, launched this trend. The St. Petersburg Display once exhibited the wealth of the nobility. Today you don’t need an expensive collection of paintings to be extraordinary. A colourful mix of pictures is all you need! To make the overall work of art look harmonious, simply repeat certain frame shapes, similar colour combinations or common content.
On the wall!
Photo frame or canvas: With the height-adjustable adhesive nails from tesa, small and large works of art can be mounted to the wall in just a few simple steps. This way, creative interior artists can fashion new imagery on the wall at any time.
Fixing without hammer and nail
Adhesive nails are a reliable solution for fixing things to the wall – without having to take out the toolbox.
Tips & Tricks
For a successful display, make paper stencils of the pictures beforehand and attach them to the wall with tesa adhesive tape in order to determine their exact positions.
Existing lines within the room help you arrange your pictures. For example, the top edge of a door or window frame, but also the position of light switches. Thus, the pictures should be placed in one line.
To the human eye, a combination of three or another odd number of images looks more harmonious.
A picture arrangement becomes more expressive if you pick out one colour of the motif and paint the wall behind the artwork accordingly – the darker the colour, the better.