Salon Wall

This master bath renovation has me in a tizzy, making me want to change everything in the house right this very minute.

Decided to swap out some artwork over the sofa (which is M.I.A. at the upholsterer’s right now, getting swathed in a beautiful blue velvet) as an easy update and satisfy my desire for change. Mr. F&F would say “ha ha” right about now, if he was reading this. Nothing is ever easy in this house, he’d say. But this salon wall cost nothing Mr. F&F, I’d say.

Had one large painting that hung over the sofa which I moved above a chinese chest that formerly had a salon wall over it.

Rather than using all the artwork I’d had in that salon wall, I decided upon a theme of figural art, namely women. The work was thematically composed but also united by mostly gold frames. Went around the house, finding art that could work and mixed it up by using sculptural and other three-dimensional pieces for a more interesting presentation.

Southern Living has a great tutorial on how to hang such salon walls.

It’s a little more involved than Mr. F&F’s and my approach which involves measuring BUT a lot of “eyeballing” as well. A salon wall can be anything really and does not need to be thematic. A collection of any meaningful art or family photos or kid’s art will do. I do A LOT of salon walls in my day to day work. It helps bring cohesion to my clients’ collections, makes sense of all those family photos, and generally presents art in a more pleasing manner (than say…one tiny painting every twelve inches on every wall).

BUT there must be balance.

In my living room where I’ve done this current salon wall, the other walls boast large artwork or a pair or a mirror.  One salon wall per room and maybe even a limit on how many rooms (though I’ve seen NYC apartments with gallery or salon walls all over the whole place and they were stunning. Best leave that to professional art hangers).

Here’s how we started earlier today, Father’s Day, I might add. Thank you Mr. F&F. We are kid-less for the first Father’s Day ever and we tackled home projects while watching the US Open.

Everything has meaning. Masked woman was purchased to honor my 40th birthday, the etching above belonged to my mom, carved wood pieces are souvenirs from Bali and woman in red was painted by a dearly departed friend. The 3-D head came from our favorite art show and “Miss Dramatic” supposedly represents me…say what?

And….the final result…minus one “little” piece we’ll search for above the 3-D head to provide more balance…

I think I shall name it “Strong Women Wall.”  I need a little more estrogen in this house anyway and since this is the room we all primarily hang out together, it provides a reminder to those who need it that mom’s in charge. 

Take a walk around your house, assemble a collection and create a salon wall. It will give you many hours of pleasure and bring together art that perhaps you hadn’t thought of assembling together.