Recently we were called in to do a ‘whole house’ picture hanging. The clients had moved into their lovely brand-new home and of course, having been together for quite some time had plenty of pictures to put up.
The problem? Why, where to put them of course. It’s not just the thought of putting holes in the walls. Lots of people are scared of putting those holes in the wrong place – which is why they call in a picture hanging service in the first place. (That, and because they disagree – but that’s another whole story.)
Now this situation can be very annoying, and one that sees a kind of paralysis take over.
Everyone has a story of pictures being left on the floor, stuffed in cupboards, or even still in their packing boxes - sometimes for years - after a move. Which is a great shame.
It’s just that things can’t go up as they were. We’re often told: "Oh well, I used to have the misty landscape below the little yellow canvas, and it looked great. But somehow…now it looks terrible!" "Correct", we say, "we can all agree on that: they don’t work together anymore. "So let’s start afresh."
It stands to reason. It’s a different house, so why even expect that everything will just slot in automatically? Maybe you had that watercolour seascape over the sofa in your old house – but hey, now the sofa is under a window and you’ve lost your spot!
You might have the same furniture, but with different room dimensions and configurations, different light, window and door placements, and different outlooks and views - there’s going to be a challenge to keep the status quo.
And consider this. Most people collect their pictures over many years. A framed poster from a blockbuster exhibition, a watercolour from a local art show, a set of photos from a memorable overseas holiday.
Bit by bit, a picture collection grows. And introduced one after another into a home, with months and years between purchases, a tweak here and a small shift there is all it takes to find each a place.
Suddenly, it’s time to pack up and move. And unpacking all those pictures exposes the truth about most people’s collections; they’re eclectic, idiosyncratic and highly personal. And damned hard to sort through and work out what to put where.
Right Hook picture hanging service to the rescue! We get called in, quite simply, because many people find the job of placing their works overwhelming. And when you consider that it’s not uncommon for the average household to have over 50 pictures, no wonder. Don’t think that’s you? Try totting them up! We’re not even counting the family photos by the way – that can easily total 50 in their own right.
How do we manage to do in a few hours what the clients can’t do in months?
Well, confession time. Sometimes even we get overwhelmed, to begin with. But by looking for patterns, themes and common denominators – whether to create harmony, balance or a little bit of excitement – a sense of what works where emerges. And of course, before beginning, we ask some basic questions. Like which are your favourites and which do you want to hide away? We don’t want to place what we think is a fabulous statement piece in a prominent spot if you actually hate it. Just because it was a wedding present from a certain crusty (but lovable) family member doesn’t mean it has to be out there!
At the end of the exercise, we get the satisfaction of putting the pieces of the puzzle together, while you stand back and enjoy the unfolding show.
So why would you hanker for ‘same-old, same-old’? After all, new home, new street, new neighbours - here’s a great chance for a brand new start and a shakeup like this is the best way to see and appreciate your old art afresh. And we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve heard: “Oh, it really feels like home now with my pictures up”.