Reader request - leaning art
Fri, 21 Jan 2011This week's reader request comes from Jessica: My husband and I have a ton of art. Not any fancy-pants stuff, but a lot of small and medium sized things, mostly framed, that we've picked up on our way through life. My problem is this: We have more than I want to hang at any given time, but I don't want to just store the extras and forget about them. I really love the look of art leaned against walls, on shelves, etc. but I can't convince him that it would look good without examples. Could you help me find inspiration photos of art, beautifully displayed, leaning against walls or on shelves? I love "leaning" art - it's a great versatile solution for people like me who get visually bored very quickly and saves your walls (especially handy for renters!), plus I love the casual feel it gives. So here are some photos of art not hung on walls in the traditional, expected fashion.
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| rue magazine | Richard Powers |
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| Lonny | Sköna hem |
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| New York Social Diary | Ron Marvin |
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| AT Casa | Lucas Allen |
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| AT Casa | Marie Claire Italy |
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| design*sponge | Jacob Termansen |
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| design*sponge | Rinat Lavi |
design*sponge
Glenn Gissler
Living Etc.
Shaver/Melahn
Todd Yoggy
Sköna hem
Lonny
Phoebe Howard
Lonny 
Traditional Home
Or if you happen to have a spare, unused staircase...
Pieter Estersohn
Reader Comments (21)
I love Helmut Newtons Photo art. Mostly "nude"; I know so its quite different but some motifs are more dressed. I saw them in a danish interior design magazine, oversized on a wall and it was bold but gorgeous!
LOVE THIS POST! exceptional!
Wow - thanks for the huge variety of inspiration pics. Lots of good ideas here for displaying art. And lots of good suggestions for what to group. Leaning art is starting to grow on me because sometimes I can't commit to keeping a piece in a certain place. I might try this out.
~Tanya
gorgeous!
i love picture ledges for this reason -- easy to change things up without putting new holes in the wall.
great post! xoxo
I love the look of leaning art as well! Right now I'm in the process of finding frames for most of my artwork (my own), which is extremely challenging. While I love the look of minimal frames, they look better with photographs (imo), but I don't want an ostentatious frame either. Art work is such a great thing to have in a home, but displaying it is very challenging, haha!
I like to layer art with other objects to create interest. I also layer art pieces but I don't understand why someone would layer one piece of art on top of another so that you can't see the image(s) that are behind. I consider the practice rather insulting to the artist. Of course I may be biased on this topic because I'm a visual artist as well as an interior decorator.
Wow, amazing selection! Lovely & Inspiring!
i love love love photos and pictures!!!
I plan on making a wall in my house using the Skona Hem pic as inspiration!! Beauty!
Another great inspirational post, Thanks a lot!
Thank you!! These are so helpful! What a great collection!
Love the second image, from Donna Karans home isn't it. Such a great style!!
great post. glad you included so many pics from Vicente Wolf's homes. his art collection is amazing...
Hubba hubba! Truly brilliant post.
Reader request: I would love to see inspirational pictures of spaces where functions are cleverly and practically hidden behind sliding doors. And these places can be anything: kitchen, working area, utility room etc.
Me and my husband-to-be are living in a 80's house and our goal is to renovate it into a huge big space, almost like a loft. Aim is to make it look as simplistic as possible and I've fell in love with the idea of sliding doors (where all the mess can be hidden when feeling lazy or having surprise visitors).
Thank you!
Amazing. I love the collections of frames, photos and art and how each room displays the pieces uniquely. thanks for sharing! I needed a little inspiration for my home!
Wonderful examples of ways to use ''leaning art ." Imagine having an entire staircase for this ! The chair examples could be the most readily availabe if shelves and bookcases are not an option. Great ideas. fantastic photos. Easels could also be a good solution".
I will be back for more .
Thanks for this beautiful post, both inspiring and instructional! I love the artworks piled on desks and I adore the frames on the chairs also
Gorgeous! Be warned though - I used to have a huge picture on top of my bookcase. I knocked it off and it nearly landed on and scratched my rather expensive Apple cinema display! But then - silly me - I knocked it off again!
Now I only keep unframed pictures above my desk - cardboard is a lot lighter than a metal frame!
I'd do everything here if I could! Thanks for all the great ideas.
I have a large framed piece of art that looks nice leaning on the fireplace mantel, but I am nervous about it falling. What could I do to assure it wouldn't slide?