This Not-A-Gallery-Wall has a Wild, Wild Theme

We get lots of requests to design and install gallery wall layouts in Asheville, and we love doing it!

But sometimes when we're arranging the pictures, we discover that a "gallery" style collage like this...

...isn't always the ideal format for the art or the room.

Today I'll talk about a wonderful example of this, with art that had some really captivating stories behind it.

One of our clients was moving her art collection into a small condo and downsizing after 80 years of "living large" in big homes in Texas. She came from an old Western family with deep roots in the past, and she had a lot of special memorabilia to place. She decided to hang the family memorabilia in her guest bedroom, since her kin would be visiting soon, and she knew they would like to see and enjoy these artifacts.

Her initial thought was to have us plan a gallery wall around three large pieces. One of them was this shadow box which held her great-grandfather's stirrups and gun belt. He had taken part in cattle drives from Texas to Montana as a young boy, and his childhood portrait was included in the display, along with the letters he sent to his mother while he was traveling.

The cattle drives would actually end up near the place where Lonesome Dove​ was set, so it's easy to imagine the adventures he experienced.

She also had a painting of one of the family's homes which had sadly burned down thirty years ago...

...and another historic family home that she had recently sold.

These were all fairly large pieces, and I decided to place them on the wall before we added anything else around them.

Now, let me show you these in the context of the whole wall to give you a sense of scale:

I called the homeowner in to see, and we agreed that these three pieces were so visually (and sentimentally) important that adding other items above and below them would only detract from their effect.

Then Arthur and I looked at the small pieces she had been planning to use, and we realized that since they were so small, there were many other places we could hang them. That's the great thing about the little pieces that you collect over the years: they can light up any corner.

I really loved these, and I wish we'd taken a better photo! The one on the left was painted by the homeowner's uncle and shows two little children playing. It's actually at the end of her hallway, so it draws you down the hall to look at it.

Just through the bedroom doorway was a faded photo of one of those cattle drives, and around the corner was a picture of her father in his youth, wearing a very dashing moustache.

And then there was this one, which got its own wall next to the window:

This glamourous woman was the homeowner's great-grandmother, and she married a Texas cattle baron. They had one of the first automobiles in the state, and she did most of the driving. And whenever someone came up behind them on the road, the baron would tell her to drive faster... "We can't let anyone be faster than us!"

​When you have art that you really love, it's important to place it so that it can be truly appreciated. Sometimes that's in a long gallery wall going up the stairs, where the pieces can "talk" to each other...

...but other times it makes more sense to let a piece speak for itself.

If you're not sure where to hang your art, please get in touch. Our installation service includes curation, so you can relax and let us do the work.

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