Don’t you love an art wall? Me too. The more mixed up the better. And yet the mix must be harmonious and balanced. You know it when you see it. The stately and ordered are beautiful, of course, but the higgeldy-piggeldy and personal are such fun–like giant bulletin boards of mementos and private amusements. This is not one of those, alas, but somewhere in-between.

These pictured below were mostly cluttering up bookcases, and I was glad to get them out of there. So I could clutter up a wall. A buncha of unframed pieces, however, stumped me. You flea-market aficionadas out there know them well, yes? I cannot resist them, and they usually cost $35, so what’s not to love. Often with art walls, the total is greater than the sum of its parts. Unless the parts are, like, Picassos or something.

 That said I wouldn’t hesitate to mix a Picasso with a Joeblowso.

So what to do with those little unframed numbers? Plate hangers! Yes! Look:

Use pliers to bend the hanger out slightly for easier hanging, and to bend the prongs out slightly to avoid scratching the painting.

They work for verticals and horizontals.

Cool, right? And just for fun, here are a few more art walls

They don’t all have to be paintings of course. I am slightly with botanicals.

And just to go out with a bang, have you seen the fabulous At Home with John Richardson, from Rizzoli, by John Richardson with introduction by James Reginato? Richardson was Picasso’s (speaking of) biographer among other things. It’s great. Here, a big-boy art wall from Richardson’s Manhattan residence.

If you’d like  more tips on how to approach an art wall, or hang unframed art, here are a few good posts, including some clever ideas on what to do with children’s art: 

From Architectural Digest

From Apartment Therapy

From The Every Girl

Okay bye! xo Frances