Playroom Wall Bliss, courtesy of Simply Framed
For Mother's Day I received 2 ice cream scoops and 14+ original mixed media artworks done by my two favorite girls. I LOVE THEM ALL, and stay tuned for reviews of each ice cream scoop. But importantly, what should I do with the art? I'm a fan of editing school year highlights into a nice compact Stockholm box, but I want to see the "Mama I Love You" gifts every day of my life, in an organized and stylized fashion (is that wrong?). Accordingly, here are a few ways I approve of displaying kids art. Note that those digitized kid art books are not on my list because they annoy me. I like seeing the actual Elsa sticker that my kid hand taped to the doily, not a reproduction of it. (NOTE: This is why professional prints are generally less cool, desirable and expensive than unique artworks).
1. Food52's Print Hanging Frame is versatile and attractive. It can easily be hung individually or part of a series or gallery wall, and kid art can be switched out with maximum 30 seconds of effort.
2. Nice looking clipboards, hung in a structured way together on a wall. Bonus points for black clipboards on a white wall, or light-colored clipboards on a dark wall. Note that you may need an art installer to make everything straight since that's a key part of this spiel. Also, not totally ugly nails go a long way.
3. Store-bought frames work well for kid art, but they key is to get some that aren't garbage*. I've recently been using these Crate & Barrel frames and am a big fan. They're also extremely easy to open and close. Pro tip: if you get a few, put the art in the mat window on some, and let art fill the whole frame on others. The variety looks polished.
4. Picture ledge displays can a functional and dimensional wall element to hold kids art, along with family photos, prints, and small objects that go with the theme. People who are better at keeping plants alive than I am even put succulents and air plants on shelves, and when living, those look great.
*One general way to make your kids' art look terrible is to put it into cheap frames that look cheap. These are frames that have horribly reflective plexi on them that prevents you from actually seeing the art, or they are just coming apart at the corners. Getting these would give you zero headway into accomplishing your goal of creating a good looking display.
And today's final shoutout is to SimplyFramed for their awesome Instagram post today with a whole playroom wall of alphabet art that inspired this post. #GOALS for sure.
