COURTNEY BALLARD ART + DESIGN

Hot trend alert! Salon-style frame display...and it's love at first sight. From fine art to family photos, filling a space with framed treasures is both powerful and charming all at once. The origins of The Salon,  named after a room at the Louvre where it was held, the Salon Carré, or square room, dates back to the late 1600's. The Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture) in Paris began mounting semi-public exhibitions of the work of recent graduates, where they would hang all the paintings in one room, close together, from floor to ceiling. The Salon was so popular, and so important to artists and their supporters, that it endured until the late-19th century, when the Academy was challenged by renegade Impressionists...crazy scoundrels...forcing the government to withdraw support. Until it's closing, The Salon was recognized for its wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling collections of paintings. Smaller paintings were hung lower, the largest were highest, and the canvases were angled toward the floor for easier viewing. Not sure I'll go the floor-to-ceiling route, but finding the perfect spot to hang a little collection of my own sounds like a plan. Click here to get a few picture hanging pointers...have fun!

{via Apartment Therapy}