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Pictures and photos can be a great accessory to add to your home decor. Funnily enough, they are hotly debated by a lot of interior design specialists and real estate agents. Most interior experts will say that pictures or photos can add true elegance to your home and spice up your interior design. They can add more to an empty room and be used to complement other aspects of the decor. However, a lot of estate agents say that having too many photos in your home can make it harder to sell.
Ignore the estate agents, they don't really have an opinion that matters here! That sounds harsh, but the fact is you can have pictures in your home and just remove them when you sell it. Seems like a pretty easy solution, right? Anyway, let's get back on topic and focus on the main point of today's post: how do you use pictures as part of your interior design? You're about to see the right ways to do this, along with some things you should avoid doing!
Choose the right frame for your interiors
The photos themselves are important, but you also need to think about what frames them. Choosing the right picture frames is essential as this can change the entire look and feel of a room. If you have a very minimalist interior, and you choose bright and vibrant frames with crazy patterns and styles, then it's going to mess everything up. The pictures will stick out like sore thumbs in the minimalist interior!So, your first task is to look at your rooms and decide what type of frames will work best with them. Some are so much better than others, though it is largely a case of choosing frames that are done in the same design style as the room you're in. For example, if you have the minimalist interior mentioned earlier, you need minimalist photo frames.
Select the images wisely
Yes, you actually need to pay close attention to the images inside your photo frames. Again, it's largely a case of pairing the right photos with the right interior. As another example, what if your interior is very Asian-inspired and features a lot of things that are typically found in Japanese homes? Here, it would make a whole lot of sense to get photos or pictures that represent similar things. They could be works of art from that part of the world, or whatever!The key thing to know is that you shouldn't have crazy or stupid photos that don't go with the room. This will cause interior design confusion as it looks like your room can't decide what theme or style to conform to. Instead of looking how you hope, it ends up being rather bad.
Avoid overdoing it
The wrong approach to pictures is to have as many as possible cluttered together in your home. Yes, you admire artwork and want to show off as much as possible. However, it can clog up your home and become a little bit overbearing. Walking into a living room that's covered in photos and pictures will feel like you're in a hoarders house.No, as far as pictures are concerned, less is definitely more. You should only opt for a smattering of photos in each room of your home, and try to keep them spaced out where necessary. As in, if you have three photos in your bedroom, don't clump them all together on the bedside table. Have one on each bedside table, then hang another on the wall, etc.
Don't shy away from family photos
You may have been wondering why estate agents were mentioned in the introduction of this post. It was touched upon that they often say photos are bad for your property value. To be more specific, they don't like family photos as they think it puts buyers off homes. It can feel like a buyer is intruding in a home and make it harder for them to imagine living somewhere if there are family photos everywhere.Don't let this put you off adding some photos of your family to your home. In fact, one of the best ways you can use pictures in interior design is to add a more homely effect to your property. Don't shy away from adding lovely family photos to your home, particularly when paired with beautiful photo frames! Just listen to the previous point and be cautious of overdoing it.
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Use the walls
Hanging photos and pictures on the walls is probably the best way to place things in your home. Sure, you can add a photo to a fireplace, table, bookshelf, and so on. However, using the walls is beneficial as it means you save space around the room.In essence, it helps to make your interiors feel less cramped and crowded. Also, it makes it much easier to clean surfaces as you aren't constantly lifting photos up and cleaning under them!
Consider photo collages
Finally, a great way to use photos in your home is by making a collage. You can buy frames that are designed to be in a collage format, collecting multiple photos together in a cool statement piece.Ironically, this is the only time where having loads of photos close together will work. Despite the fact you could have a dozen or more pictures in your collage, it all kind of counts as being one photo. This is a good way to make a statement by hanging a collage on the wall in your hallway. It also works well in bedrooms and potentially your living room as well.
There you have it, the right - and wrong - ways to use pictures as part of your home decor. A summary of everything would be that you must start by choosing the right images and the right frames to align with your interior design style. Then, it's a case of less is more and learning where to place your pictures for the greatest overall effect.
K Elizabeth xoxox
*Collaborative Post