BEAUTIFUL ARRANGEMENTS
When it comes to paintings, prints or photographs, I like to hang a lot on a wall. A good approach is to zone the pictures. Floor-to-ceiling black-and-white prints can look very smart in a corridor, for example. Groups of family photographs hung together in a smaller room work well, too, and is preferable to them being scattered on surfaces. I don’t like the idea of closehanging modern paintings, though – you don’t want a room to end up looking like the railings of Hyde Park on a Sunday.
Before hanging, arrange the pictures on the floor. You don’t need to use a tape measure for precise spacing, as the tension will always be a bit different when they are hanging from a wire.
A lot of the look will be down to instinct, but a good guide is to put the strongest image at the top. Don’t hang pictures too high – we call it the Cape Canaveral syndrome, as you end up having to look up and the pictures appear like they are about to take off. In rooms with fewer pictures, try hanging them lower. Finally, remember that not everything has to be in a frame. A colleague recently had a set of prints taken out of their frames and varnished onto the wall with overlapping edges.
It is important to have variations of media in a room, and books can provide a background of colour, warmth and texture. If they are deep-set, bookshelves can display more than books. Think about using the extra space to show off other objects – this is a good, contemporary alternative to a vitrine or standard display case. Piles of books elsewhere, on coffee tables or landings, for example, can introduce interest and character.
When I first started selling antiques in the late Nineties, tables were often laden with things. Today, that’s changed; cluttered surfaces are out and a more pared-back approach is in. Venetian paperweights look very pretty arranged on the diagonal, for example, or I also like a round table with a lamp and a small collection of favourite pieces.