Create Homey Appeal by Decorating With Photos

By Rosemary Sadez Friedmann
Scripps Howard News Service

Want to make your house homier? No, not homely, homey--you know, warm, inviting, personal. Try displaying family photos for instant environmental appeal.

This may sound like something you've considered doing but kept putting off because it's such a big job to go through all those pictures and sort them out.

One way to get you out of the procrastinating mode is to hang one or two pictures right out of your next roll of film. That will at least get you started and, hopefully, in the right mood. Slowly but surely, you will find locations in your home that could use a little family atmosphere and that might be all you need to tempt you to go into that closet to start digging out a few more family portraits.

Where to begin: First, you need not worry about the picture itself and its compatibility with the rest of the room. If you like the picture, it will be perfect for any room. You create your sense of unity with mats and frames in the colors and styles that fit the decor. The frames do not have to be identical to each other as long as they are compatible to the dicor of the room as well as to each other.

How to arrange on the wall: A single picture must be large enough for the wall on which it will be hung or you will create a desolate look instead of a warm, inviting one. Groupings are usually better, and though all your children' high school graduation pictures matted and framed and hung in a row will make you proud, a few other pictures of different sizes around them will affect a more creative look.

Here's a little arranging advice: Don't hang the pictures too close to each other or you will end up with a cluttered look. Then again, don't hang them too far apart or you'll lose that unified look.

Subject matter: Related subjects usually work best in a group. Let's take the graduate theme again. Place two or three other pictures of the same person at different stages in their life and place those pictures around the graduation picture. Now you've created a picture story.

Hanging: Measure the space you intend to use as a photo wall then spread and tape newspapers on the floor to that same size. Now arrange and rearrange your framed pictures on the newspaper until you are satisfied with the finished look. Trace each picture on the newspaper and mark where the hook will go. Now tape the newspaper to the wall. Use drafting tape so you don't peal the wall off when you remove the tape. Nail the hooks into place according to your markings on the newspaper. Finally remove the paper and hang your pictures. Simple.

Happy hanging.

(Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, a member of the American Society of Interior Designers, is president of Rosemary Sadez Friedmann Inc. in Naples, Fla.)