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Holly Mathis, Guest Post on Decorating with Photos

allison — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:30:38 +0000

DECORATING WITH PHOTOS

Hi! My name is Holly Mathis and I am a decorator living in Texas and big fan of Feather Nest Photography. Allison and I met through a mutual friend, Linsey of LLH Designs in Houston! MY job is to think about creating homes for my clients, many young families, and often the topic of decorating with photos comes up! Clients will ask me “Is it okay to use these photos” or “I know I have too many frames and need to edit” or “I have some great photos but never ordered or framed them”…I always assure them it is okay and we can edit and reframe their treasures to best compliment their home and style. Often when clients ask me about helping them choose art for their homes I will ask if they have considered professional photography. It is a double whammy investment, you are documenting family AND investing in timeless art.

But, decorating with photos is not a NO FAIL topic. . .you can make mistakes..not to offend or throw anyone off BUT there can be too many photos and frames and it can get crazy. It can be a constant nag to a mom feeling like she needs to update photos or cull etc. My advice, BE INTENTIONAL. Plan and order and frame photos and also embrace the photo book, which I know Allison is doing more and more of for coffeetables and keepsakes. Last but not least, have fun!

These are some of my most common questions from clients when decorating with photos:

1. Should all photos be black and white? The answer is yes and no. Decide on a look and go with it. Think about what kind of person you are when it comes to decorating and what appeals to you or bothers you. I like a crazy mix. But if you are more type A or want a fail proof look, stick to all black and white, similar frames and even consider total symmetry.

But the truth is, color can be gorgeous? My kids are blonde and blue eyed but I know their eyes may change and hair darken..i want to catch that peachy cream skin and blondeness the way it is NOW so i have started buying more color prints.

2. To mat or not to mat? We will talk about this another time but i think it always looks good on a collage wall to have one or two closeup dramatic shots or one portrait that is large and NOT matted or throw in a colorful mat..i will show examples on another post soon.

3. Large sizes??? I say go big or go home. Of course i am all talk, sort of…I mean when you are in love with your baby and the photographer is amazing like Allison, its hard not to say “I want a 4×6 of EVERY SINGLE ONE” but try to also THINK BIG..one big statement piece can be amazing, Who cares if your mother-in-law doesnt get it?!

{via Apartment Therapy}

4. Should photos only be in hallways or “private spaces”?..we will talk about this in the future….so crazy!

5. What if i just cant bear to nail that many nails into my walls..your friend is the shelf from Pottery Barn or IKEA..we will talk more in future posts about this topic! And if a shelf is too intimidating to hang, again, consider one or two big pieces..less nails!

6. The Gallery Wall debate…to “mish mash” or grid? Symmetry and sticking with one frame and size can be gorgeous once the intial “hang” is complete (we will talk more about hangin another time) then you know you have 8 x 10 print “holes” and that is what you can update and order and change as you get new photos or want to switch out images..isn’t this room below so elegant..who says photos are only for private or in mature spaces? Not this decorator!

And another great example of simplicity and ease in changing out/updating…

Finally, what i like to call the “mish mash” or collage wall! Also a great way to hide a television, do you see it?

The collage wall often involves mixing in art and other objects and papers with your photos..yet another topic we will cover in my upcoming guest posts. So stay tuned!

If this is all fun to read about but you still need help planning your photos walls and installing them, I am offering a 30% discount to all of Allison’s clients that book with me before Sept 30! I would love to help you feather your nest! email me at ehmathis@gmail.com or visit my blog!

Holly Mathis, www.hollymathisinteriors.com

{all images from my pinterest boards, a great place for inspiration}

Nested: nursery drawer pulls

allison — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:40:58 +0000

I’m getting baby Edward’s newborn blogpost ready & I came across these pictures. Some nursery inspiration!

His dad did this – for the record. I think anytime a male does anything this creative he deserves mad credit for it. Their house is really full of fun, meaningful and interesting stuff. Said interesting stuff may or may not include a coffin.

Anyway – this was really super cute & a great idea. They got old library card drawer pulls and put them on his nursery drawers. Then dad IN CALLIGRAPHY (again – deserving of credit) printed

Snakes

Snails

and

Puppy Dog Tails

really cute.

I can’t remember if this is right or not (feel free to correct me Jason or Diane) – but I think on the other side they even put “sugar & spice & everything nice” because they didn’t know Edward was an Edward until he arrived (which is a whole other epic story).

How to start a collage wall

allison — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:10:07 +0000

via censational girl originally and she has a reeaally good post with a lot of pictures of wall collages here . . . pinned on pinterest most recently. Brilliant idea wherever it came from. For those of you who have major wall art commitment phobias. Several of you come to mind. If you were to do this, you could then forward this picture to me & I could put your actual pictures in their places for you to see before you went and printed & framed them.

Then you have no excuse.

go ahead . . . try it out!

allison — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 03:22:44 +0000

I was feeling the need for some fall sprucing . . . so I went shopping for new decor for the dollhouse on my website. If you’ve never visited the actual Feather Nest website & galleries, then this may look unfamiliar to you. What you’re seeing above is one of my favorite parts of my website – the dollhouse. Within the house you’ll find some of my favorite design places on the web. It is a functioning version – so you should be able to click around & explore above. I got a little carried away and completely redesigned the house to work more closely to what I originally envisioned over a year ago. I also updated all the image galleries for the first time in over a year (ridiculous). A very, very special thank you to Holly Mathis of Holly Mathis Interiors, most of all for moral support this week, and secondly for letting me use one of her flawlessly decorated rooms for the nursery. She has some killer skills when it comes to mixing patterns, colors & textiles and creates timeless, yet freshly designed interiors. I love looking through her portfolio for ideas and her blog is full of inspiration for any kind of project.

So, click around the rooms above & let me know what you think! More places & ideas coming soon – hopefully! You can go directly to the Feather Nest website here if the embedded version above isn’t working for you. If you are reading in a reader – it’s probably not working either. Just know it’s really cool & you’re missing out!

And, to those of you that have allowed me to come & take pictures of your home & how you’ve decorated it with our images . . . I am so sorry I haven’t blogged those sessions yet!! Some of those are from a year ago! I don’t know where the time goes & it will get blogged! It’s been a wonderfully overwhelming year!

I just want to say (to any photographer blog stalkers;o)) ShowIt allows me to change my website any way I can imagine whenever I feel like it & if that is something you are looking for – you must check them out!

your life in a book.

allison — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:24:40 +0000

I have a lot of favorite things about these albums. These are hands down, the best album available on the market. The list is forever long of the things I love about them.

I’ll stick with my top two so as not to bore more than necessary. . .

1) I love, love, lovity, love the lay flat spreads. BECAUSE, it gives your book endless ‘display potential’ . Bored with that page? Just turn to the next! The images stretches across 2 pages. And, you really almost can’t see the page break at all.

2) These bad boys are thick, strong, sturdy & better made than any other album I’ve ever seen. Their worth is obvious when you hold one.

I fall in love with every album I make. So much time goes into their design & choosing the perfect images to tell the story.

This family totally gets it. They cherish the small things & know they’ll need images to remember every single thing about their little guy. All the routines; the sink baths, the clever games that carry us through the cranky hours, the smushed potatoes in a jar for convenience and reliance on a hand or two to walk just fast enough.

Well, they’re all fleeting.

And, I can promise you, you won’t be able to remember all of those moments once you’re on the other side. The other side that involves a lot of new memories toting the kid that replaced your baby to soccer games. You’d have never seen the love in those hurried moments. Later, when the moments have passed it’s obvious . . . but then they’re gone.

Now, they have a book with their story. . .

to enjoy . . .

forever.

one moment per page.

priceless.

(they said you could see it too – they get all the credit for the text on this one!) (if you’re reading this from a reader or your iPhone - you’ll have to come to the blog to view the book below)

Get Adobe Flash Player

FlippingBook WordPress Gallery

whatcha’ gonna’ do with all those cards?

allison — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:37:38 +0000

I love, love, love running to the mailbox every night to see whose Christmas cards are in my box. And, I have to tell you honestly. . . if there isn’t a picture on your card it’s kind of a bummer (for me at least). I display our cards every year & last year I swore I was going to find a better way to display cards this year, because they just get messy so fast. We love getting them, looking at them & the girls sit and go through them just about every day. So, here’s what I came up with this year. . .

So, I had to tear Pressly’s room apart & bring her make-shift-antique-mantle-of-a-headboard downstairs. I did bolt it into the wall for safety’s sake. I did all of this before my husband got home from work oh so intentionally – very sneaky sis. He would have sent me to some kind of rehab for fickle decorators if he’d heard that hammer & nails again. To bad there isn’t real-life photoshopping for my swiss cheese walls. He just can’t for the life of himself understand why I can’t just hang ‘em on the fridge or something. I try to tell him it’s like his desire to sit and watch a bunch of boys throw around a football for several hours. At least I don’t get mad & scream at my projects. In fact, they make me happy for days & weeks afterward. What’s there not to understand?

If you’re here & don’t see your card below . . . it just wasn’t up when I took this picture! It’s there now. I used some from last year to fill up the space until our mailbox filled up this week!

What’s that??! REally? You don’t have an old mantel sitting around to display your cards on?? Well, why not? Sounds like your problem to me;o)

Just kidding . . .

here are some more ideas for you . . .

click on the picture or the link – lots of good ideas at apartment therapy dot com!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/creative-clutterfree-ideas-for-displaying-christmas-card–102979