Your decorating problems ~ solved!

I often receive photos of design challenges from readers. I love it when you come to me to solve those dilemmas.

Typically the photos and questions have to do with how to properly accessorize or set up a photo wall. These are two things that we see done well in magazines, movies, books and in retail show rooms, but they are often hard to recreate. These are the final layers of design that make a room sing, that personalize a space and that make a house feel like your HOME.

I love to help people uncover possible solutions to those pesky design challenges, so I’ll share two reader design questions here, with photos to show you how I worked things out! Ready? Let’s go!

This first photo shows a typical family photo wall over a staircase. The question is “is it right?” Of course that is subjective, but since you asked, I’ll give my 10 cents!

My initial thoughts were “wow, a lot of work was put into this hanging.” My first advice when hanging any photo is can you see it comfortably from the main viewing area (standing in a hall or sitting in a living room, or in this case, walking up the stairs). I’m not sure how well anyone can really see the top photos on this wall. They are just too high for viewing. I want to SEE my photos – up close so I can really look at them.

My second piece of advice is to ground you photo groupings or art. That means the photos need to be in close proximity to something in the room – over a buffet, behind a chair, following the lines of a staircase. This grouping seems to be floating on the wall because it’s so high over the stairs at the lower left side. Do you see that? There’s a gap and I want to fill it.

I took a spin at adjusting the photos to show them in a more pleasing arrangement. I removed some of the top pictures and placed them in that gap, following the angle of the stairs. A few of the top pictures shown could probably be moved down, as they still seem a bit high. What do you think of the new wall?

The next question from a reader was about accessorizing a dresser. The items shown on this dresser don’t have enough variation in scale to create an interesting arrangement. I also like to either use all of the same color or vary the colors and textures to add interest. Here’s the challenged dresser, as it came to me. Below I added some accessories in a pleasing arrangement, adding height and varying shapes and textures.

And after a little tweaking.

So there you have it, my solutions to your design dilemmas! What do you think of the solutions?

Happy decorating!