Have you ever stared at a wall and found it looks naked? I have. In fact, I am looking at my walls right now and have the feeling I’m in desperate need to dress up my walls – brighten up the apartment, give it a sense of style, and bring in a positive vibe. One of my walls in my apartment is colored – well, it’s got a brown-greyish earth tone to it, not necessarily colored as in a bright neon color splashing into the room. I like my apartment cleaned-up (let’s ignore the mess on my home desk and bed for a moment) and as you might remember, I have ever so often complained about my “creative” (*cough* study- *cough*) room looking dreadfully boring and everything but creative. I don’t want fill it with colorful dust-keepers either. Instead, I want it clean, nothing flying around (as it’s current state is all about) and straight forward on a color palette. And, I want frames. Yep, I want those black, simple, skinny frames that we see all over when googling for interior-inspiration. I want them neatly hung up, filled with black and white (duh!) photos, inspirational quotes (still need to decide) and I want it pretty.

So I’ve collected a few inspirational photos (not my own!) I want to share with you and noticed a couple of “rules” that really should be followed if you want it somewhat “stylish” looking and not like a 3-year-olds playroom.

Rule #1 – choose a color

Of course, you can have every frame in a different color, some filled with colorful photos of yourself when you were 2 years old sucking on your very first lollipop, with a photo of your cat next to it, a framed letter you received from your BFF when you first started writing, next to some cut-outs from magazines and a quote about how much you love pancakes. It is fully up to you. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a theme that looks rather like an adult-y and less like a kindergarten get-away, I suggest going for one, maybe two colors. What color frames do you want? All black? Silver? Gold? Maybe the top three in white, mid-row in gold and bottom 3 in black? It’s all up to you, but it will look much better if one can hint a theme rather fast.

I love black frames as shown in the top, first photo.

Rule #2 – do your measurements rights 

Trust me, it will look so much better when the spaces in between each frame are consistent. If you are anything like me – and I tend to go OCD sometimes, a 5 cm space on the left and 10 cm space on the right will annoy the crap out of you in the long-term. Also – use a water venture. If you don’t own one, no problem: the iPhone and its million apps have got you covered (and I’m sure the same goes for androids). You really don’t want to end up with crooked-looking frames all over the wall.

Rule #3 – choose a wall 

This might seem obvious, or not at all. Before you start hammering holes into the wall and hanging up your beloved photos: think. Think thoroughly, look at the wall, look at the whole room. Will the hoped-for composition match the rest of your interior? Is the wall large enough or even too big (you don’t want your photos looking lost, either!)? Where is the window, how does the light shine in, will it influence the mood of the story you want to tell with the frames and photos? These are all little things that might not bother one or the other, but surely something to consider if you don’t want to find yourself in a situation of hating the wall you have chosen because the opposite wall would have looked much better in the end.

Rule #4 – the size of your frames

Obvious to some, not so much to others. It is important however, to think about the sizes of the frames. Do you want them all to be in the same size, do you want different sizes and play around with the format? Speaking of sizes (don’t believe those that say sizes aren’t important ;) ..!) don’t forget about the next rule.

Rule #5 – what do you want to frame?

Jumping back to sizes for a moment: think about the size of the photos, pictures, drawings or quotes that you want to place into your frames. Frames are frames (smart, huh?) and are meant to be filled with creativity – and replaced. If you know yourself and the exact art you want to look at for the next months or years – awesome, go you! I for instance, have changing moods. Knowing myself I will love one quote for a couple of weeks, believe it is the motto of my life and wake up one day and want to throw it out the window. If you want replace the art in your frames frequently (and cost efficiently – think printing out art yourself or taking magazine pages), you should aim for normal-sized frames. A4 or A3 and A2 sized frames can be easily filled. Anything too large might become a hassle.

What to do you think – are there any rules I didn’t catch?

I surely have a goal for the upcoming weeks (in the little free times I have sometimes) – ordering frames (most likely black, obviously), deciding on the art, printing quotes or getting photos printed in a good quality) and deciding on a wall (most likely the one I am staring at now).

With that, I wish you all a cozy evening and an amazing wall to look at. xo