Framing the frame

Southern Living, Feb 2003

Highlight walls by placing art in recessed spaces and accenting it with trim molding.

Long walls, especially in major rooms, call for special attention; leaving them blank is simply blah. Savvy homeowners Karen and Dru Adams thought about that in advance when building their Richmond home. "We knew we needed something interesting on this particular wall, so we had the recessed spaces built first," says Karen. The wall is especially prominent because it faces into the living room and leads to the kitchen. "We didn't have anything to put in the recesses until I found the two paintings while on a business trip in Texas," she continues. The Adamses went one step further and had the niches framed with bright white molding. "We used the white molding to offset the beige wall color, which makes the paintings stand out even more," adds Karen.

If you're not blessed with recessed spaces, you can still give your artwork or prints some extra pizzazz just by adding the molding (available at home-- improvement stores). Paint it any color you like as long it complements both the art and existing wall color. It's a clever, eye-catching idea that's also easy. What more can you ask for?