Moving Into A New Home In The Ramble

Lots of Asheville locals call on us hang large art in a stairwell (it's one of our most popular services) so we've seen lots of beautiful stairwells in our day. But I think the one we're going to show you today was one of the nicest, simply because of the generously-sized window that filled the entire outer wall.

However, there is a drawback to big, beautiful staircases like this... what kind of art can you choose that's big enough to hang there? And once you find the right piece of art, how do you get it hung 15 feet in the air?

Fortunately, the couple that was moving into this beautiful home already had a pair of large paintings in mind. These were originals by Marco Reichert, a Berlin artist who is represented here in Asheville by Bender Gallery.

I always think of myself as a traditionalist when it comes to art, but I have to admit that Reichert's work grew on me while we were hanging his pieces. The artist creates robots which do a part of the painting for him, so you get these great mechanical lines which look fantastic in a contemporary setting like this one. 

I also liked what I call the "face-but-not-a-face" effect. Humans are so naturally wired to see faces that it's hard to create a head shape like this one and not automatically suggest a face. And you can read a face here if you want; but it's not the first thing that strikes you. This adds a little mystery to the viewing experience.

So, they had found the perfect pieces for their space. Now we just had to hang them way above the stairs.

We started with our stairwell ladders, which adjust so that they can stand level even when one side has to be set further down the stairs than the other. However, this particular location, it wasn't enough to have the right ladders because (as we soon realized) it's impossible to get the ladders in the right configuration to hang pieces of this size.

Fortunately, we also carry expandable scaffold boards that fit into the ladders.

Placing these paintings was interesting, because at first we assumed that we would hang them both at the same height. But when we held them up for the clients, they discovered that it was more interesting to hang them at different heights so that you could relate to them better as you climbed the stairs.

The homeowners had a really appealing art collection. I really liked this Vestaboard sign, which can be set up to deliver a new quote every day. That's really fun because it makes a big ruckus as it flips through all of the letters.

When we got there, it was set to a quote from one of my favorite authors.

They also had a mesmerizing abstract by Daniel Nevins in their dining room. The wood slats on the wall really set off the swirling shapes in the painting.

We hung several other pieces in this new home as well, and I didn't catch them all with my camera. But I did snap a few quick photos of this salvaged sign. We spaced the letters a little further apart than we would normally do, because we were covering a pair of unused outlets.

​But I think it turned out "A-Okay" so to speak!

If you've got a piece of art that would look great if it were hung high up on a great big wall... we can make it happen. Give us a ring to get started.

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