Use family photos to brighten a space in your house

Family photos give a wonderful, personal touch to a home, evoking fond memories of childhood, special vacations and favorite people. A photo display can be attractive and effective when you are selective and creative about which photos to use and where they are placed.

I love to see photo galleries in hallways. All of your favorites are in a place you walk through everyday. Having matching frames, such as all black or all metal, gives a pulled together look. Always try your arrangement on the floor first. Start with the photo you'd like in the center and work outward.

Multi-opening frames are great for telling a story with your photos. In one house I visited, the homeowner had photographed the feet, hands and face of her newborn baby. The arrangement of the three black-and-white photos in a simple black frame with white mats was strikingly beautiful.

Display ledges also work very well for collections of photos. An advantage of the ledges is that your collection can be changed easily as you acquire new photos. It looks nice to tuck in a few accessories with the photographs, if the theme is appropriate. If you have a lot of travel photos, for example, display them on the ledges with a few souvenirs from the trip.

I often see loose snapshots stuck to refrigerators with magnets. The refrigerator is a great central place in the home, and it makes sense to have photos there. Too often, though, the look is cluttered and disorganized. To neaten things up, purchase a magnetic photo collage frame, available at most craft stores. Select your favorites, arrange in the frame, and stick it to the fridge.

My own new refrigerator is stainless steel-- no magnets will stick to it! To solve this problem, I put a few photos of my kids, in magnetic frames, on my washer and dryer instead. Laundry rooms are great for brightening up with photos. Seeing pictures of your kids as babies will bring a smile to your face as you do laundry.

A table or desktop can become a great photo display area. Have a piece of glass cut to fit the tabletop and arrange your loose snapshots underneath. This can be a great conversation piece in a family room or den, especially if you use old, antique photos.

Photos can also be displayed on specially designed serving trays, coasters, paperweights, pencil cups, even pillows and tote bags. One of my favorite sources for display items is the Exposures catalog. See them online at www.exposuresonline.com.

In these days of digital photos, it may be easy for you to delete the unattractive shots. Many of us, however, probably have an assortment of unflattering pictures that, for some reason, we can't bring ourselves to throw away. Years ago, as a joke, I created a photo album filled with all of these comical, unwanted photos and gave it to my parents for Christmas. We laughed a lot that day, and many times since then, looking at this funny album. 

This article first appeared in Alameda Newspaper Group papers on Sept. 17, 2005.

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All articles copyright 2003-2008 Anna Jacoby.