Properly aligning framed art on the walls of your home may seem a daunting task. Should the pictures line up according to the top or bottom edge? Or the middle? Or should they be hung salon style with the entire wall covered by art? The answers to these questions vary greatly depending on personal preference, room aesthetics, and the size of the art. Use these easy to follow decorating tips to achieve the best look for your space:

Aligning Art by the Top or Bottom Edges

For many folks, aligning art by either the top of bottom edges of the frame is the simplest and easiest method. The sizes of the pieces do not need to be the same and it's easy to interchange one piece for another at a later date.

Best place to use: Align art by the top edges when displaying art beneath a shelf or row of upper windows. Align art by the bottom edges for display just above a large piece of furniture such as a sofa or sideboard.

Aligning Art by the Middle Point

Aligning art by the middle point of the picture is a more complicated approach. However, it is the one most frequently used in museums and galleries. An exact method of measurement can be performed to achieve expert results, or many at-home decorators just "eyeball" it.

Best place to use: Align art by the middle point for display in long hallways or great ballrooms with little furniture.

Salon Style Art Wall

A large mass of art displayed on one wall space is considered the "salon style." Overall, the shape of the group may form a square or rectangle, but this shape is not absolutely necessary. The key to perfecting the salon style is making sure the frames complement each other nicely. Placing an ultra modern industrial style frame next to a French scroll work piece may seem out of place.

Best place to use: Align art in a salon style when the sizes of the art vary widely or are generally small. Use in the main gathering room where a large open wall space exists.

Align Art in a Vertical Orientation

Aligning art in a vertical orientation is the most uncommon of all display methods. However, this style can work well in small spaces. Generally, the width of each piece should be the same or nearly the same for the best look.

Which of the above decorating and aligning tips will you use next?

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Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and with it, the mad dash for the perfect gift for your Valentine. You want to show them how much you love them while also giving them something they can actually use in their day-to-day life. What better gift then, than the gift of art? In this Valentine's Day Post, check out some of the beautiful art prints available from love art to romantic and heart art. A gift that gives all year-long, art is the perfect way to say, "I love you" this Valentine's day. 

Love Art

There are a lot of options for love art, you can go with something as simple as a Chris Paschke print with the oriental symbol for love that has a quiet elegance or if you want to get a Jack Vettriano print "Dance Me to the End of Love", a stunning print of an elegant couple dancing. You can also go a more whimsical route with a cute print by Marla Rae with two beautifully painted owls and words, "Owl Always Love You". 

Romantic Art

If you want to be more romantic and still show your love for your valentine, than a piece of art from this romantic collection is perfect. It is a showcase of more elegant pieces that are still fun. Including David Bromstad's piece, "Pucker Up!" which features a vibrant pair of red lips and a stunning piece by Laurie Cooper of a man kissing his love while wrapped in beautiful green leaves. These pieces are all stand out art that will add a luscious and romantic feel to any room it hangs in.

Heart Art

Nothing says I love you quite like a heart so why not choose a beautiful and vibrant piece from the Heart Art collection to gift to someone you love? There are many pieces to choose from, the "Three of Hearts" by Liz Jardine is a simple, but gorgeous piece of heart art or the piece "Love in 44 Languages" by LA Pop is a wonderful piece for Valentine's Day because it expresses your love perfectly with the 44 ways to say love in a heart shape.  

The choices for art to give on Valentine's day are truly endless. You can choose a piece that expresses your live in an elegant, timeless way or you can go for a more fun and whimsical look. Whatever matches your valentine's personality, art is the perfect gift for your Valentine this year.

If you don’t consider yourself to be a hopeless romantic but still want to decorate your surroundings with seasonal art, take heart. February actually has a lot of different, weird holidays going on that could be used as a basis for a month long art display. To save you and other art lovers’ precious decorating time, we’ve listed our picks for the top five weird holidays in February to celebrate with wall art:

Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month

Did you know that one of the holidays on tap is Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month? It’s about as weird of a national observance as one can get but don’t let that stop you from celebrating it with art. Use artist Paul Edmondson’s Grocery Carts print as a linchpin for the display then surround it with shopping related art. Two wonderful prints to consider are John Jones’ General Store and Scott Coleman’s Oakbowery Store. One print shows the interior of a vintage store and the other shows the exterior of another.

Fabulous Florida Strawberry Month

Fabulous Florida Strawberry Month is also slated to take place. So it might be fun to hang up an array of strawberry art alongside of prints that give a nod to the Sunshine State. Why not hang Ruane Manning’s print, Christine’s South Beach Café in the center to represent one of the state’s popular foodie destinations. Then surround it with Charlene Audrey’s Island Nectar Series, Ray Pelley’s Strawberry Delight and David Carter Brown’s Sweet & Juicy Strawberries prints. Great places to set up the display include the kitchen, hallway, sun room and dining room.

National Hot Breakfast Month

While you are at it, you might want to create a display in recognition of National Hot Breakfast Month too. Artist Katherine Lovell has created a series of word art prints that talk about breakfast and Pierre Bonnard has completed a series titled, The Breakfast Room. They’d be a great place to start. Afterward, you could fill out the wall with prints of breakfast items like hot tea, toast, coffee, pancakes and waffles.

Children and Pets Dental Health Month

February also happens to be National Pet Dental Month and National Children’s Dental Health Month. Consequently, it would undoubtedly be entertaining to decorate the bathrooms with dental art. Artists Luke Stockdale and Drako Fontaine both have prints that focus on the importance of brushing one’s teeth. Either one could serve as the centerpiece for the display. The surrounding prints could consist of Jim Dratfield’s Smile and the World Smiles with You, Anne Parsons’ Fairy and some movie posters. The ones that come to our minds are for the films Dentist on the Job, Dentist in the Chair and The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth.

Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month

Finally, we wanted to toss in Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month. Artist Lisa Hilliker has a great print titled, Small-Some Bunny to Love. It would be perfect for the center of an Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month display. The rest of the presentation could contain rabbit art by artists like Richard Murray, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, Will Bullas and John Woodhouse Audubon. To take a closer look at them and additional art ideal for recognizing February’s weird holidays, please contact us.

In today’s installment of decorating tips we wanted to talk briefly about the art of conservation framing and how it may protect your favorite, Fulcrum Gallery prints from harm. It is typically a six-part process that starts with selecting art prints that have been created using the highest grade paper possible and goes on from there. Some art lovers may opt to end the process quickly by laminating their prints whereas others may want to continue by choosing museum quality, custom framing materials and techniques. At this time, we’d like to focus on the latter.

If you are hoping to have your print preserved using conservation framing techniques, it’s important to first realize that everything included in the framing package has a role to play. Therefore, it does not pay to only do things half way. In other words, once you make a commitment to a certain level of art conservation, its best to adhere to that level of quality all the way through. Otherwise, you’ll be jeopardizing the integrity of the entire framing package.

The purpose of conservation framing, as you've probably guessed, is to protect the print from moisture, dust, chemicals, insects, temperature change and other atmospheric pollutants. So every piece of framing material must be chosen with that in mind. That said, you’ll typically need the following, acid-free, buffered items for a museum quality job:

- Hinging and Mounting Materials (e.g. Japanese Tissues and Mounting Corners)

- Fade/Bleed Resistant Window Mats

- Frame Backing Paper

- pH-Neutral Tapes or Adhesives

- Frame Backing Board

- UV Filter Glazing

- High Quality Frame

The UV filter glazing is generally placed into the frame first. The window mat is then placed against the UV filter glazing, followed by the print. That way the print does not make direct contact with the glass. Next comes the hinging and mounting materials, which are designed to keep the print from moving around in the mat window. Once the print has been mounted into position, a back mat is added. The frame backing paper comes afterward. It is affixed to the frame using pH-neutral tapes or adhesives. Some framers also opt to finish things off with a few staples to further keep the backing paper in place. Either way, the overriding goal is to make sure that the frame package is air-tight and protected from full UV light exposure.