The Right Backdrop for Art Is Bold. Or Maybe It’s Neutral?

All seem to achieve their goal but for the bold pink and the muted painting walls. The bold pink is overwhelming all other elements. The muted paintings are too much of a hodge-podge for which the paint color can't compensate.

I think the article should have been titled: "How to make the entire room look like the frame for your art." And it can be fun if that is the look you are going for. Some friends of ours had some very dour inherited paintings and they managed to make them sing. So their designer took the predominant background color in each otherwise remarkably unprepossessing work, thank you Prince Charles for that turn of phrase, and put it on the wall. And lo and behold, those inherited paintings were very well presented. As stated elsewhere, this is a museum trick. Just visit a museum and look for the background of the showcased painting and you have found the reason for the unusual orange, or plum or celadon on the wall. This is nothing more than the choice you have at the picture framers. The design people, as here, want the feeling of the work of art to continue and so the frame is addressing the painting. And the decor people, they all want the frame to address the room. So it is a design issue whether you want the frame to disappear. Here, by showcasing these works of art; in a way you are making the room disappear. And that is some cases may be a good thing. Like when there are no honest proportions or when there is no light and air and space. Well, you can paint it out and make the show about the art.

The Farrow and Ball's Preference Red wall looks a bit thin and could use another coat?

I found the article enlightening, even though the reasoning of the cited color-matching professionals is fairly vague (like descriptions of the taste and aroma of wine). But I was shocked to see on the Benjamin Moore's web site so many new brands of paints and not a word about the old ones. My house is all in Benjamin Moore, Linen White inside and Manor Brown outside, both of which are no longer on the list of products.

loved the top photo...until i noticed the modern, cheap-looking cabinetry holding the good stuff up. there is a point where true style and trend makes for mush, and this is it.

As an interior designer with his own ideas about wall color and art, I found this article very interesting and informative of other perspectives. The one image that struck me as least effective was the bedroom featuring Farrow and Ball's Off-Black, where the whiteness of the bedding and drapery are so matched to the backdrop of the art, and the central graphic of the art so similar in scale to the lampshade, that the art becomes an object no more important or unique in the photo than the items that so closely emulate its tones and scale.

Such handsome, vivid colors are a relief from the sterility of the pandemic "everything white" that has evolved from a decorating trend to unfortunate myopia. Thank you!

Useful advice and illustrations...but what I want to know is where to get that floral lampshade!

The gold frame pops. Not the art, and definitely not the green background of the painting: it *clashes* with the wall. Should have used beige, same as the face in the painting.

I cannot stress enough, keep it neutral and let the work sing.

The reasoning and emphasis are obliviously Luddite – though there’s a significant basis for that sort of thinking, when curating collections… How about spending $5-10K on state-of-the-art LED lighting designed specifically to showcase any one $5-10M objet d'art in question… Or even a fraction of that on a $50-100K work... Don’t want to pit one artistic tribe against another – but B’ways got Central Park East beat by about two decades on this one… Even midtown retailers figured out how to leverage this indigenous talent a while ago… PS Paradoxically, the most dinosaurus of museums do get this right for the true gems in their collections...

It seems to me that the darker color should be above the chair rail and paneling.

Having a picture of your rug on your bedroom wall...

Just feel bad for all those that come after that have to paint it all out.

Shouldn't this have a disclaimer as advertising for Farrow & Ball? Seriously?

I love the deep wall colours - all of 'em - but I'd go mad if they were in my apartment. I crave LIGHT! So I keep colours cool to max out what comes in. I also have LOADS of artwork and I LIKE having it where I can see it. Walls in the room that gets least light - work room/library/dining room - are what I'd call Muddy Green Limpopo....a super foil for some pieces....and it absorbs the large furniture shapes (something else to think about) and is superbly serene. But that's me. As for frames - some of the older pieces are in their original roccocco gilded frames....the contrast between them and the modern is fab. It's Boxing Day morning. I've my coffee, my cat and am reading only the "inoffensive" articles today.

Interesting, but there are some lacuna. For example, no mention is made of the "work" of a matte. In some of the examples shown, the contrast is between the wall color and the matte, more than the work of it surrounded by the matte. One consultant said something about the frame receding, but in the very first photo, it seems to me that what makes the painting "pop" is the contrast between the saturated wall color and the shiny gold frame. And the whole idea of a painting or print surrounded by a "frame," speaks to the whole idea of a looking at a work which is focused on a slice of something: a portrait of w person, with or without background; a single flower; a vase of flowers; one building; a small graphic design; a slice of landscape. The frame helps convey that. A framed picture makes a very different statement than, say, a wall mural. So making the frame disappear in the color of the wall seems to me to obscure what a picture is doing, since the frame helps establish the viewer's focus. One photo shows an unframed landscape against a pale mauve background. While unframed paintings can work, this particular combination doesn't, in my opinion. It seems to me that either a landscape should have a frame to create a focus as described above, or if hung without a frame, should be set on a wall colored in such a way that one can visually "walk" from the landscape into the surrounding wall.

I believe that it was the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum (or Reina Sofia?) where most of the walls were painted such saturated colors that I couldn't enjoy the fantastic collection there. I also don't like frames and borders that, to me, compete and almost render trivial the art which they should be supporting.

The right paint color or wallpaper will make all the furniture, art and fabrics used in a room, much better. Sometimes it's a neutral, sometimes a stronger, saturated color. Unfortunately, today's home owner has never developed his "eye" as most furniture is "floated" due to all the open-concept houses. Furniture is never up against a wall, there is little room for any art, and the TV takes precedence over everything. A room with 4 walls and furniture, both upholstered and case goods, up against the wall will quickly show what color enhances it all.

What if, as a collector, one moves different artworks frequently?

It seems to me that if you want to see an artwork the way it was meant to be seen -- the way it was seen by the artist and by the first people to see it in public -- then you should use the same color the artist and gallery use in their spaces, the color the artist keyed the work to. For contemporary work, that's almost invariably white.

Having worked in museums for more than 30 years, I can say with certainty that rich, saturated colors always make the art look better. ALWAYS. There is no such thing as neutral. You might as well just go for it.

i enjoyed this article very much and the photos. After all the duscussiin of not distracting frim the painting, I found th last photo rather odd. Those numbers on the furniture are a terrible choice for that over-small-for-the-wall painting. All fun to see and think on.

I love the Farrow and Ball web site. I love the photos of their customer’s rooms to help visualize how the colors look in real homes versus staged photos by professionals. I also love the offer of other colors that would work well with the color you have chosen. That really is a huge help. I have to say, though, I have used Farrow and Ball paints and really can not tell the difference between it and more moderately priced paint.