Wednesday, October 8, 2014

4 Art Strategies Before Remodelling

Have you ever tried to hang a piece of art on a wall but found a light switch in the way?  Avoid this design faux pas with careful planning prior to remodelling.  You can greatly improve your display options for family photos and artwork with thoughtful decisions about sightlines, lighting and placement of windows, light switches and air vents.

First, consider where your important walls are, and it's not just over the fireplace.  When you consider sightlines you will find great walls for hanging art at the ends of hallways or walls viewed through doorways. Have you ever been in an art gallery or museum where you see a striking piece of art in the distance, at the far end of a gallery or down a corridor?  That is the result of intelligent use of sightlines, and good lighting. 

Walk around your home and look through doorways from one room to another, what is on the opposite wall?  What is at the end of the hallway?  These walls could be an overlooked opportunity for stunning art display.  Once you have determined some significant walls for art display you can plan how to improve the wall spaces and placement of lighting. 

Windows offer interesting choices in remodelling.  A large picture window takes up a whole wall and makes it difficult to display a prominent piece of art. One solution is to install smaller windows on either side of the wall to preserve a large wall space in the center for art display.

Lighting is essential for enjoyable viewing of artwork and is much more easily installed when the walls are torn apart for remodelling.  Adjustable lighting like track lighting and adjustable recessed cans are easy to direct onto to art work and create better illumination than wall washers and ambient lighting.  And don't forget to keep the light switches and air vents out of the way.

-cm
Share/Save/Bookmark