DISPLAYS Picture-perfect arrangements will create homey atmosphere

Family photographs can be displayed to gives homes a warm, personal look.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Want to make your house more homey?
No, not homely, homey. You know, warm, inviting, personal. Try displaying family photos for instant environmental appeal.
This may sound like something you've considered doing but kept putting off because it's such a big job to go through all those pictures and sort them out.
One way to get you out of the procrastinating mode is to hang one or two pictures right out of your next roll of film. That will at least get you started and, hopefully, put you in the right mood. Slowly but surely, you will find locations in your home that could use a little family atmosphere. That might be all you need to get you to go into that closet to start digging out a few more family portraits.
Personal satisfaction
First, you need not worry about the picture itself and its compatibility with the rest of the room. If you like the picture, it will be perfect for any room. You create your sense of unity with mats and frames in the colors and styles that fit the decor.
The frames do not have to be identical to each other as long as they are compatible to the decor of the room as well as to each other.
For example, if your home is decorated in a traditional style, you might opt for wood frames with intricate carvings. The color of the woods should be similar but not necessarily identical.
Mixing brown-wood frames with black-wood frames could be interesting. You could introduce a few gold-tone frames if the style is appropriate to the overall traditional decor.
An ultra-contemporary decor would do well with plain frames in metal colors such as silver, gold or even black. Here again, mixing is OK as long as they look good together.
A single picture must be large enough for the wall on which it will be hung or you will create a desolate look instead of a warm, inviting one. Groupings are usually better, and though all your children's high-school graduation pictures matted and framed and hung in a row will make you proud, a few other pictures of different sizes around them will affect a more creative look.
Keep their distance
Don't hang the pictures too close to each other or you will end up with a cluttered look. Then again, don't hang them too far apart or you will lose that unified look. Arrange the pictures so they are at a comfortable distance from each other.
The size of the wall will determine the spacing somewhat, but if the wall is very big, you must remember to keep the pictures in good proximity to each other. A large wall would look good with the pictures about 3 to 4 inches from each other if you have a good number of pictures. If just a few pictures are to be used, then you could spread them apart, with about 6 inches between photos.
Related subjects usually work best in a group. Let's take the graduate again. Now place two or three other pictures of the same person at different stages in his or her life and place those pictures around the graduation picture. Now you've created a picture story.
For a newsletter containing more information on this subject, order "Decorating With Photos." Send $3 plus a long, self-addressed stamped envelope to L & amp;M Publications, PMB 229, P.O. Box 413005, Naples, Fla. 34103-3005. Be sure to mention the title.