Healing Images
Recent studies have shown that having wall art at home or work etc can actually reduce stress levels. Note to my boss: Spreadsheets pinned on a wall are not considered wall art and may be causing me undue stress and anxiety!!
While in hospitals it has been shown that having wall art can decrease the need for pain medication and lower blood pressure. In fact last year 2015 our youngest daughter D2 had her painting chosen as part of Operation Art.
Operation Art involves school students from Kindergarten to Year 10 in all NSW schools creating artworks for children in hospital.
So with all these benefits in mind for this weekend it was decided to get rid of some of our blank walls by hanging some of our pictures up.
For various reasons since moving from Ireland we had not gotten around to it, this included waiting until the house was renovated, which room they would go in and some also needed framing.
While we did look at the cost of buying picture frames online, eventually we settled on the local framer as its good to support local businesses.
Not being a huge fan of banging picture hooks in the wall I had a look at some of the picture framing solutions that are available but then having decided that its not an art gallery I want, I chose the easy option of buying those damage free picture hanging strips.
Whether you rent or own a property, you will probably want to put some art on the walls to spice up your space. I reckon that these Command damage-free picture hanging solutions are the go – as they are easily removable and do not leave any marks on the wall. Also if you are like me and you tend to move paintings, artwork and photos around all the time then you tend to end up with lots of holes in your walls. Which is not ideal.
If you are looking at buying them just make sure that you buy the correct size and weight to suit your wall hanging. So for me, I chose the strips to hold 5.4kg, I did tend to err on the side of caution though. I positioned the strips as per the instructions – 4 x sets of strips on each frame.
They were so easy to put on the wall. You just need to remove the little plastic sticker back and then push the frame on. Thats it…done. There is a slight satisfaction of sitting back and admiring your newly hung artwork.
Now while I am no expert at showing you how to hang pictures, experience has taught me that if you do have a painting, print or photograph that you would like to display then there are a few things to consider before hanging art.
A good picture should be hung at eye level. Although this may vary from room to room. Paintings hung in a room where people would normally be standing, such as a hallway, should be hung higher than those in the dining room where people will be seated. Also never hang a work of art where it will be exposed to direct sunlight. The harsh Australian sunlight will cause the pigments to fade quickly.
You can reduce the echo in a room by hanging canvas prints…
So now that we no longer have bare walls my blood pressure has reduced and I am now living stress-free without the need for pain medication – well unless the odd beer or glass of wine counts.
Buts that’s another story…
