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Recently a friend of mine posed an interesting decorationg question. While she was hanging yet another family picture, her husband made a comment about their family room turning into a photo gallery. Is it possible, she asked, to have too many pictures on display?

I’m not sure it’s possible to have too many pictures, especially when they’re of your family, friends and loved ones, BUT it is possible for your collection of pictures to look messy and cluttered and seem like too much. When it comes to pictures, especially large groupings, the key to making everything look good is to unify your collection.

Unifying a collection can be very easy. You can have all of the pictures in the same, simple frame. If you want a bit more variety, frames in different shapes and sizes will still look unified if they are all the same color. Even frames that are different colors and styles can look unified if they have at least one shared quality, such as using only white matting.

When you are grouping smaller collections of pictures, you still want a common, unifying element, but you can play around a little bit more. One popular way to group small collections of frames is to hang 2-3 small shelves for the photos to sit on. The shelves are the unifying element, so the frames can be any shape, size or color you want. You could also group a small number of frames that come from the same color palette, such as using different shades of blue. The frames will still compliment each other because they have they unifying element of the color palette.

As I told my friend, don’t be afraid to hang those photos, even if you do have a whole wall full already. As long as the collection has a unifying element or theme to pull them together, they’ll look sleek and elegant.

Happy decorating, Amy