Category: Interior Design

Want to Showcase Your Holiday Cards? Frame Them

Decorating for the holidays is fun, and you can create great amounts of cheer with just a few small touches. For instance, a centerpiece with some pine and a few candles can transform your dining room into a holiday haven. Switching out your current throw pillows for pillows in your favorite holiday colors can create a comfy, festive living room. When decorating your home, it’s important to remember the true meaning of the holiday spirit, and what better way to celebrate that spirit than to celebrate those you love most? By incorporating holiday cards from friends and family into your décor, you can create a space that is both festive and meaningful.

Frame your favorite holiday cards

Many people save holiday cards from loved ones that they’ve lost, or from when they were very young. These cards are often fragile, but you can display them in a way that allows you to enjoy your most cherished holiday greetings while keeping them protected. Simply frame them! Choose a simple, elegant frame that matches the style of your holiday décor.

Create a holiday card wreath

This is a fun project, particularly if you have little ones who want to get in on the holiday decorating. Simply choose a wreath and attach your favorite holiday cards around it. You can keep it traditional with a green wreath or get creative with a more modern metallic wreath.

Create a holiday card shadowbox

A shadowbox is a wonderful way to show off many cards at once—and it will allow you to display other holiday décor, too. Try putting some ornaments in the bottom of a shadowbox and nestling your favorite holiday cards into them (in addition to being pretty, this will prevent you from having to damage the cards by attaching them to the shadowbox with tape or pins).

The team at Frame Warehouse is ready to help you with your holiday décor needs. Check out our online shop or give us a call today!

3 Ways to Hang Art above Your Sofa

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The space above your sofa is, more often than not, the focal point of your living room. To maximize this space, many people hang art above the couch to draw the eye in and create a warm, welcoming environment. When hanging your art, you can get quite creative with how you arrange your photos and art pieces. Below are three different ways to consider laying out your wall hangings.

Hang one large art piece for a stunning, classic look. A large scale painting or print centered over your sofa will make quite the statement. First, it will make the room appear larger, as it will draw the eye up over the couch and toward the ceiling. Additionally, it’ll provide the room with a quiet simplicity that can balance busier artwork. When hanging one large piece, it’s essential to make sure that it’s framed properly so that the frame style complements the look.
Create a collage or gallery wall over your couch. Many people with more eclectic styles love to hang artwork in groups, and you can get extremely creative with how you arrange the individual pieces. From one central painting with other pieces working outward to an off-set focal point, you can experiment with numerous configurations. The key here is to lay these out on the floor before hanging them to make sure you have the perfect arrangement prior to putting any nails in your walls.
Don’t hang your art at all! A simple, modern way to display art over the sofa is to put it on a shelf. The shelf should be positioned high enough so that people won’t hit their heads when sitting down, and once it’s in place you can style it with artwork, photographs, plants, and other décor.

Need frames for your art before you can start hanging it? Give the team at Frame Warehouse a call!

3 Ways to Warm Up Your Waiting Room

Ask anyone who has ever sat in a waiting room at a doctor’s office, in a salon, or at the DMV, and they’ll tell you: waiting rooms can be quite uncomfortable. Whether you own a private practice or have opened a new spa, it’s important that your waiting room is comfortable and reflects your brand. This is, after all, the first impression that your patients or customers will have of your business. The following three tips will help you create a cozier, more welcoming environment.

Hang framed artwork.

Artwork can really warm up a space—even a waiting room—and the right artwork can reinforce your brand. For instance, you might frame and hang vintage technical medical drawings if you have your own medical practice. Or you might frame and hang professional photos of your work if you run a hair salon.

Invest in comfortable seating.

If your patients or customers are willing to wait for their appointment, you should be willing to provide them with comfortable furniture for their wait. Upholstered chairs are wonderful options for waiting rooms, as are couches and loveseats. Try matching the furniture’s fabric to your brand colors to create a warm space that feels welcoming and cohesive with other aspects of your business, such as your signage.

Use scents.

While you certainly don’t want to overpower your waiting room with a strong odor, you can use light scents to create a warm, welcoming space. Try choosing season-specific scents, such as citrus and floral scents in the spring and summer and spice scents in the fall and winter. Warmers that melt scented wax are perfect for waiting rooms, as they heat at a low, safe temperature and don’t have an open flame.

If you’re interested in using frames as part of your updated waiting room, contact the team at Frame Warehouse! We offer commercial framing tailored to your space’s needs.

Temperatures Are Dropping! Keep Your Home Warm with These 3 Decorating Tips

Fall is finally here! The windows are open, a nice crisp breeze is blowing, and it’s time to update your home’s décor for the season. As temperatures continue to drop, you’ll want to make sure your home is warm in every sense of the word. With these three tips, you can create a cozy, comfortable living environment that embraces and celebrates the season.

Add throws to your favorite rooms.

A throw blanket is a wonderful way to add color, texture, and warmth to a room. Additionally, adding a throw is a relatively inexpensive way to update a room—and the different it makes to the look of the space can be staggering. Try adding a throw to the back of the couch, across the side of your favorite chair, or at the foot of your bed.

Make your fireplace the focus of your living room by hanging framed artwork above it.

All too often, the television becomes the central focus of a living room, but during fall and winter you have the opportunity to direct all eyes to your gorgeous fireplace, as your family will spend many an evening gathered around it. Adding a framed piece of artwork to your mantle or hanging it above your fireplace will draw the eye to this part of the room.

Switch out family photos.

So many families get photos taken every year, yet leave the same ones up on their walls. While switching out family photos each year is a wonderful way to update your home’s décor, try using season-specific family photos to provide a warm reminder of the past Halloweens, Thanksgivings, and other holidays.

If you’re ready to update your home’s décor, let the professionals at Frame Warehouse help with your framing needs! Our team looks forward to providing the perfect frames for your artwork and photos.

Can Holiday Décor Be More Stylish than Kitschy?

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The holiday season is upon us! From Halloween to New Year’s Day, the holiday season offers a multitude of opportunities to gather with loved ones and celebrate. Naturally, you’ll want to decorate your home to get your family into the holiday spirit—but the line between tasteful holiday décor and kitschy mess is sometimes difficult to see. Below are a few ways to get your home ready for festivities without compromising your style.

Don’t replace everything in your home with holiday themed substitutes

The first rule of thumb is not to go overboard when decorating your home for the holidays. Staples, such as picture frames, should not be replaced with holiday-specific pieces. Instead, get picture frames that will match your holiday décor without detracting from it. Metallics are perfect for the holidays, as they’re both festive and versatile enough to fit your décor for the entire season. If you have a bolder style, try frames that offer a pop of color.

Keep the color palette simple

You can definitely use holiday-specific colors in your home, such as silver and blue for Hanukkah or red and green for Christmas, but make sure that you’re using a simple, refined color palette. An example of this is to hang family stockings that all match and are all in the same color family, rather than a hodgepodge of stockings that are each a different style and have widely varying hues.

Use natural décor where you can

Decorating during fall and winter is wonderful because you have so many great natural resources to pull from. For example, you can use pine tree clippings and gourds for centerpieces and pinecones to fill decorative bowls. Don’t forget about holiday scents, too. Instead of the heavy, sweet scents of desserts baking, try lighter scents of the season, such as pine or cinnamon.

Do you have any great holiday décor tips? Share with us over on Facebook!

3 Quick Ways to Spruce up Your Living Room

Do you ever have those days when you just aren’t feeling your living room’s décor? Maybe you still like the overall concept, but are just a bit tired of the style? We’ve all been there. Luckily, there are some easy, affordable ways to spruce up your living room without embarking on a complete redecorating project.

Replace your frames. Frames are not replaced nearly as often as they should be, and switching up even two or three frame styles in your living room can have a dramatic effect. If you want a subtle change, opt for new frames in the same color and style as your current ones. If you want to create a little more drama, go for frames in pops of color or metallics.
Get new throw pillows. Sometimes all you need to shake up your living room décor is a couple of new throw pillows. These are wonderful pieces that can be switched out seasonally, so don’t be afraid of season-specific colors and patterns.
Invest in a throw that has texture. Color seems to abound in many living rooms. From family photos to bold, bright color schemes to more subdued hues, living rooms almost always have a color theme. Texture, on the other hand, is often missing. A great way to breathe new life into your current living room décor is with a throw. Crocheted and knitted throws, especially, are made from fibers that bring a beautiful texture to the space.

Interested in learning more about how you can use frames to improve your living room décor? Give Frame Warehouse a call! You can also check out our Facebook page for design inspiration.

Ways to Warm Up Your Bathroom’s Décor

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Bathrooms, as a general rule, contain very white, very stark fixtures: a bathtub, a sink, a toilet. While you can certainly create a degree of warmth by choosing unexpected materials for these fixtures, such as a copper tub or nickel faucets, these upgrades can be extremely expensive. But fear not! You can create a warm, inviting bathroom with these three décor choices.

Create a feature wall using tiles. While this project will require more effort and resources than the other two on this list, it’s worth it. Creating a feature wall with tiles can result in a dramatic statement that is unique to your bathroom. Try choosing warm toned tiles in an array of hues and installing them from floor to ceiling on the far wall from the door. Simple tiles work perfectly, but feel free to explore different tile shapes to get just the right look.
Frame your favorite sayings. Most people get ready for the day in the bathroom, so it can be a wellspring of motivation if you choose to make it one. A great way to inspire yourself to reach your day’s goals is to frame your favorite quote and hang it in the bathroom. Even more fun? Have a few quotes hand lettered and switch them out every few weeks for renewed motivation and focus.
Make a one-of-a-kind shower curtain. While stores offer shower curtains in virtually every pattern and color, it can be a great design move to create your own. Not only is this a fun project, it’ll reflect your personality and brighten up your bathroom in a way that no store-bought curtain can. Experiment with fabric dyes and paints to get a feel for what you like best before designing and making your final curtain.

Want more framing and design tips? Follow Frame Warehouse on Facebook!

What Do Your Frames Say About Your Style?

Everyone wants their living space to reflect their personality, and there’s no better way to achieve this than injecting your home with your style. Style is an interesting thing, as it’s a combination of aesthetics and attitude that help define who you are. Creating a living space that’s a reflection of your personal style is extremely fun, but it’s only successful if you understand what your style is and why. Frames—though they seem quite simple in nature—are actually great ways to test your style preferences and create the aesthetic you’re looking for.

Metal Frames

Metal frames are sleek and sophisticated. Because metal frames come in a variety of designs, from highly ornate to incredibly simple, you can make a long list of statements with them. Ornate metal frames can put a modern twist on classic design. On the other end of the spectrum, minimal metal frames can offer stark contrast to the art they hold, making the subject of a painting or photo the star of the show.

Wooden Frames

Like simple metal frames, plain wooden frames lead all eyes to the subject of the art behind the glass. But, unlike metal frames, wooden frames that are simple in form but rich in grain can create warmth and a rustic vibe.

Neutral Color Frames

Using neutral color frames allows you to create a consistent aesthetic throughout your living space. While “neutral” definitely doesn’t mean “boring,” neutral colors are often used to create a more laid-back, relaxed vibe.

Brightly Colored Frames

The opposite of neutral color frames are brightly colored frames, which can create an energetic, vibrant living space that is meant to attract attention.

Want to learn more about frames and how you can use them to create the perfect living space? Follow Frame Warehouse on Facebook!

Creating a Comfy Boutique Hotel Atmosphere

Boutique hotels are the preferred accommodations of many travelers for a long list of reasons—one of which is the rejuvenating atmosphere that they often provide. While boutique hotels across the country have certainly taken different approaches to their interior design, they all consistently pay close attention to detail to make sure that each and every guest is comfortable. Below are a few ways that you can achieve this in your own boutique hotel.

Give each room a sense of history.

Every boutique hotel has a story to tell, and telling this story through photographs and art is a wonderful way to create interest and warmth in your hotel rooms. By framing photographs and art pieces that are relevant to your property, city, and even family, you can share this story with your guests.

Include a fresh element in every room.

Nearly all guests love to arrive to their hotel room to a bouquet of fresh flowers—particularly if these flowers are from a local florist and are grown nearby. It’s a good idea to ask about any allergies before adding flowers to guests’ rooms, but the extra touch and attention will go a long way to creating the perfect boutique hotel atmosphere.

If flowers aren’t possible, try placing potted plants on the balcony or leaving the windows open for a fresh breeze when the weather is nice.

Forgo the typical hotel bedding.

Hotel bedding is, for the most part, quite comfortable; however, guests expect more than a white duvet from a boutique hotel. Handmade quilts, locally made blankets, and other unique bedding that’s special to your city will impress your guests and create an atmosphere that no other hotel can achieve.

If you own or manage a boutique hotel and are interested in frames for your property, call the team at Frame Warehouse! We’ll be happy to help you choose frames that create the look you’re going for.

3 Ways to Use Frames in Your Bed and Breakfast

The appeal of a bed and breakfast is that it offers travelers a more personalized experience than a standard hotel. When your guests book a room at your B&B, they anticipate interacting with you and their fellow travelers. With a bit of attention to detail and some surprising uses for frames, you can create an atmosphere that will promote interaction and that your guests will miss long after they’ve checked out of their rooms.

Celebrate your guests by framing their photos. People choose to stay at a B&B because they want to feel a connection to a new city and its people. What better way to do that than to integrate them into your B&B’s story by framing their portraits and hanging them throughout the property? You can start with a gallery wall and expand into other areas of the B&B as your guest list continues to grow, or, if you prefer not to have too many portraits hanging, you can continually switch them out to keep the gallery wall interesting.
Create dry erase boards out of frames. This fun project will encourage interaction between guests and the staff at your bed and breakfast. Frame pieces of paper that match your décor and attach a dry erase marker to each frame with a piece of twine. Guests can then write on the glass with the dry erase marker. In common spaces, encourage guests to write greetings to one another. In bedrooms, these boards can be used to leave welcome messages to new guests who are checking in.
Frame important guest information. Wi-Fi passwords, breakfast hours, important phone numbers, room service menus—these and other key pieces of information can be framed and placed around the hotel for quick and easy reference.

If you own a bed and breakfast and want more information on how Frame Warehouse can help you create the perfect atmosphere for your guests, give our team a call! You can also follow us on Facebook.