Large or small – let me know what you think!

Posted by: laurelstreet on: December 6, 2009

• In: Decor
• 17 Comments

There is an expression, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Well, I abhor blank walls. Really, after a move, I don’t sleep well until pictures are hung. You all may remember how I futzed over finding ‘just the right thing’ for our dining room wall, the first thing one sees upon entering the house, well I fixed its little red wagon eventually.

But there’s one more. Walking in the house, if you look to the right parlor (if somebody’s got a better word than parlor, please let me know) I’ve got a big blank wall.

The wall descries its blankitude.

Oops. It looks like the rug is crooked too and the Aglaonema (Chinese Evergreen) under the desk have are probably due for replacement. They’ve been there two years now and are looking a bit leggy.  ANYWAY. Blank wall.

The only thing I purchased in Rome were these little reproduction prints by Charpentier. Really nothing more than mementos that add to my ever-growing collection (ahem, pile) of  “things that need to be framed.”

Mats and ready-made frames are in their future.

And then I have this. A bookshelf of little prints and paintings I’ve collected over my past ten years here in New Orleans. In truth, I love the shelf and its various objects. When we moved in I randomly piled a box of framed miscellany onto its shelves and it has stayed unchanged. It grew on me, somehow.

Bookcase.

So I could dismantle the bookcase and re-assemble a gallery wall. We all love this:

It's well-documented in the blogosphere - we all love this.

I’ve certainly got the pieces, but I’m thinking now that the wall could use some OOMPHF (is that how you spell it?). I’ve got a habit of framing lots of small things together. What if I borrowed a page from Lauren’s playbook (in fact, I emailed her a few weeks ago to ask exactly what page of her playbook she used for this amazing oversized print for her wall).

An Albrecht Durer print reproduced at perhaps 20x it's size. Just perfect isn't it? I love the outsized scale! Go Lauren!

So I’m thinking I can do the gallery wall, or I can play with scale as Lauren has so cleverly done on this wall in her dining room. This is one of my favorite images – what if I took it and played it up large?

I love this image. It's from the Rizzoli book "Postmodern" by Paolo Portoghesi. The drawing is by Gerd Neumann: "Study for and imaginary capital, 1980"

Yes, I was nine in 1980. But I was a nine year old postmodernist at heart.

ANYWAY. I’ve spent the balance of my Saturday doing a cost benefit/analysis of various print sizes (and no small amount of Photoshoppery) and framing options and have arrived at an optimal 41″ x 54″ size to fill the blank wall at a very reasonable price with the above image – here’s a schematic (I’ll keep the old Paris map on the table easel as a front layer, most likely):

I know - I overplan a bit, but I want to make sure I'll like it before I spend one or multiple dimes.

I could make this much larger, but my finishing options became non-existant (frame). I think it needs it. Otherwise it could’ve been larger printed on a stretched canvas, unframed. However, my preference is unless it’s an image of an actual oil/acrylic painting, don’t reproduce it on canvas.

UPDATE: Even bigger. If I print it on wall mural fabric and just suggest a frame in the print, I could go even bigger. This may just do the trick:

Even bigger. 56 inches wide. Too big?

So I’m taking votes – gallery wall or something big? Let me know – comments are up top of the post!