In a similar post I blogged in April, I talked about displaying portraits in your home. I've been working on a follow-up post for awhile now to talk about the different sizes of wall portraits. As I stated in that original post, I used to be a little leery of large wall portraits. And then I purchased some of my own family, and I am IN LOVE with them! There really is nothing like having beautiful portraits of your own family hanging on your wall--much better than the mass produced pieces from home decor' stores.
Sometimes it's hard to visualize how large an image you would need for the space you want to display it. In these examples, I used my standard-sized loveseat (54 inches wide).
Here is an example of a 30X45 canvas. Looks amazing doesn't it? Lots of impact, and why wouldn't you smile if you walked in to your own home and saw an image of your family like this?
Here is another beautiful example of using a collage of gallery wrapped canvases to create a wall display in your home. For these, we take the space available, find images you love and find sizes to fit that space. The fun thing about designing a wall gallery like this is you don't have to do it alone-I help with all of those decisions and you can see how it's going to look in your own home!
Now this is the 20X30 we have hanging in our living room. And I admit, I do wish I had purchased a larger size. But I still absolutely love this canvas. Now maybe you're thinking, what?? 20X30! I can't do that. I don't think I couldn't go bigger than 16X20.
Well, this is a 16X24. What do you think? For me, it's just not big enough by itself for this space. It would make a great anchor for a collage of additional images of the girls though.
Again, here is an example of a print that is just too small, but may seem "big" to you right now. It's an 11X14. This is the smallest size for a wall print. And again, if you want to display in a large space over a table, sofa, bed, etc., it is too small by itself.
Finally, just for fun, here is an 8X10 image above the sofa. As great as the image is, it just doesn't have the WOW! factor that a large print would have. This size is actually a Gift Print, and is designed to sit on a desk or shelf.
I hope this post has been helpful in showing you different print sizes and how they might look in a large space. My mission as a portrait photographer is to provide you with timeless, storytelling images that you are thrilled to display as wall art and in heirloom quality albums. There is no better ART than that of your family, and I love to help my clients design their wall galleries that they smile at every time they seem them. I'd like to leave you with other thought in regards to wall portraits and ART of your family. Our home decor styles and tastes may change over time. What we love today may be what we cringe at in ten years. However, the portraits we have of our families will appreciate in value. We won't be getting back the time when our kids are little or when our parents are alive and healthy. The images of life we have captured right now are going to be the windows to the past that will mean even more to us later on.
I promise you this; your family will never go out of style.
For more examples of wall portraits, check out these posts by Amy Ro. She did a great job explaining more about wall portrait sizes and displaying large photographic art.
