While a stairwell is often a blank space to walk through the addition of art will make it more of a moment and less of a forgotten transition between floors, but it can be daunting. So Aaron’s here with some suggestions for hanging that art.
Hey, Aaron.
Hey, yes, it can be daunting, but honestly planning lots of art ladder, hammer and nail.
If you can handle those you can get it done. So this space we’revactually in my stairwell right now, it’s a double height stairwell. We’ve re-hung this space because we after 10 years we had had a renovation, we had repainted and it was time to review everything that was up there.
So we took our time to look at everything, check our tastes, see if the pieces still meant something to us, because your eyeball really needs to reflect your personal style. It has to be a reflection of you and where you’ve been in life.
So ours is a mix of artists. We love vintage pieces and also pieces from our travels too and from london, tokyo, even all over the place that’s lovely and you know what it looks fantastic Erin. We’re evolving, so, of course our art will evolve as well.
It makes perfect sense now. Where did you start? I would think that the type of staircase you have is kind of important. So planning is definitely key and you really have to consider your personal style and also how eclectic you want to do so we actually came up with three different plans: elevations, to show you different options of how it could work for you.
So the first look, one is classic and very, very simple: it really is. It can work with either traditional or contemporary, and the trick here is that you’re using large single frames that ascend up the staircase they’re all the same size and they’re all hung at the same height. It really is just about as idiot-proof as you can get.
Okay what’s the right height for the art in this scenario so the art really should be centered on your face, so pretty much, the center of that piece should be kind of where your head is so the issue that I always have with art in people’s homes is often it’s too small and too high. So height is definitely a big issue and also size is an issue too.
You need to think bigger. Diddly pieces of art do not make a statement, I agree, 100% and we still get viewers on city line showing us their spaces and the arts too high, and it’s too tiny. Unless you’re going to have a million of them, it’s, not going to work.
So what is the next plan you have for us Erin? So look number two is traditional, but eclectic, and this is actually inspired by victorian style. So in the victorian era, they hang a lot of art in their homes on top of beautifully brightly, colored painted walls or wallpapers.
So what we’ve done here is we’ve taken a double height space and to make it easier from a planning perspective, our planning, is actually mirrored from top to bottom, so it’s exactly the same, Except it’s flipped around now.
The other trick that you can use here too, to make life easier. Is you reference the architecture in this space too? So you’ve actually used the height of the the window that’s in that image, to really define where the art goes.
So it doesn’t start to spread around look number three is modern and eclectic, so it kind of steps it up even more so we have even more art happening. Lots more shapes, lots, more finishes and lots more pieces in here too, you could hang plates in here as well.
So the planning here, really it works because we are referencing the architecture again and if you look, we have that breathing room. So the art finishes at the end of the staircase there and then you’ve got an empty wall.
I like the idea of keeping it all together, so it’s more contained, so it doesn’t kind of spread throughout the house in just little bits and pieces, it’s much better to make a big, bold statement where you can.
Okay, now Erin, if you have a landing between staircases, would you continue the art there or maybe just have the art there and not all the way up the stairs?
I think that definitely you would – and you should and for major inspiration.
We should check out Brian Gluckstein’s fantastic stairwell that he did in the princess margaret house and I’m doing this sweeping motion because he brought the art right up the stairwell around a curved landing and then up again and the reason it works so well is because it’s kept so simple and so beautiful all in black and white, all in the same kind of frames.
So your eye just kind of sweeps across it very seamlessly, and it really is a wonderful design moment in a space and very very well thought out, but so simple at the same time. So behind you, you’ve got this beautiful, eclectic, look and it’s, you know, sort of like a gallery wall and for me and for so many viewers we look at that and we think oh, my gosh, that is so daunting. So do you have any practical tips for us on creating a wall like that.
Sure I think the first practical tip is don’t worry, just start hanging pieces really, honestly that’s the best way to start with a large piece in the center and then kind of spiral around that you’re always going to have just about enough room to make everything work from a simplicity perspective, really keeping all the frames the same color is a great kind of beginner’s way to make it all work again.
We talked about the idea of black and white as well. You could keep everything in the same color palette, all in the same frame and it will look immaculate but more fun. More eclectic, more playful and then more sense of your personality.
Really it’s as you learn as you grow so you don’t do that thing, Aaron, where you lay it all out on the ground or you cut out like craft paper and the same size as the art and stick it up there first and then maybe do some pencil marks around the frames.
Like you, I don’t do any of that stuff, uh. no, so we freehand it. So basically there’s two of us. It’s myself and my husband David. One of us is like holding a piece up, the other one is standing back and saying yes, no, maybe, then all we use is a little piece of tape at the top in the middle, approximately measure down approximately and then knock a nail in and hang It up, of course, if you want to be more planful and thoughtful about it, the the paper trick is actually fantastic and a very smart way to do it so just cutting out pieces of paper in the same shape as your art and kind of taping those up on the wall and then you can even mark where the nails are going to go as well.
That is completely easy and a very smart thing to do, but I guess I like to live a little dangerously. What can i tell you? Well, this is the same man who, like freehand, painted your wall in your bedroom did you not so yeah, you’re, a risk taker and it looks phenomenal every time.
One last question for you: when it comes to the wall art, Aaron, for pieces that are bigger, do you do one hook in the middle or do you try and do two on either side so that it’s, not rocking?
I like one good hook or one screw and screw plug in the middle, to hang a larger piece, but then they always do tend to slip and move around.
So i actually like to use rubber bumpers on the back of the frame, it just kind of works from a friction perspective and makes the pieces sit kind of more firmly against the wall, so they don’t start to slide around really good Aaron.