Cluttercore vs Serene Gallery
Art selection and placement for primary bedroom in New Orleans
Client
Our client has collected works of art over the years which include keepsakes and maps from her childhood in Vermont, photographs of New Orleans, gifts from artist and activist friends and not-so-serious paintings she did for fun. She identifies with cluttercore and definitely isn’t afraid of maximalism, but also emphasized a need for tranquility and rest. Having recently moved into her spacious 1 bedroom home, she felt daunted by remaining things left to set up: a toppling pile of art on the floor she loved dearly but had no idea how to display it all. While she had tried to hang a few pieces on existing nails, she knew it was going to take a lot more effort to make sense of it all and get each piece up.
Expertise
Space Design, Concept, Curation, Framing Art, Art Handling, Hanging Art, Gallery Walls
The Challenge
She had 4 rooms to work with and so much art that she didn’t know what to do with it all. While this is a good problem to have, she didn’t know how to get started or how to select work for each space. Plus she feared the permanence of putting art up without knowing if or how it would work. On top of that, the collection was all in various states: some ready to hang, some in need frames, and others lacking a clear way to display it. She needed a way to decide what goes where and how to get it to a state where everything was ready to display.
The Process
I asked her a series of questions on her lifestyle, favorite parts of the day, rituals and asked her to tell me stories of many of the pieces in her collection to get to know her and to narrow down our focus. We had our breakthrough when I asked about the moods she wanted to feel throughout the house. When we finally agreed that her bedroom was meant to be the more serene space amongst the welcomed clutter, a space where she sips her coffee in the morning and reads her books, we landed on an art direction and a focus for art selection and display. I helped her select any artwork that felt calm and grounding, which helped us realize that there were 2 categories of work — nature and memories of home in Vermont — plus one very important outlier: a painted portrait of James Baldwin, someone who she’s “spent a lot of time with” and has inspired her so much that she’d love to wake up with him around. I left her some homework — to remove anything that didn’t fit her serene bedroom vibe, to rearrange some furniture to create a focal point and balance of scale, and to frame a cherished sunprint. On a second visit, we created a gallery wall to view from her loveseat/library nook and her bed.
The Solution
The beauty of this process is that it was holistic; it was never just about hanging artwork. It was about the mood, the feeling, the purpose of the space, and about who she is and how she wants to live. She ended with a wall full of memories of home, and something to ground in as she starts her day. And the experience made it much easier to determine the art direction in the rest of the house.