Decorating With Feng Shui

Whether decorating your home or office, following the laws of Feng Shui can help to create harmony and success in your life. This Chinese practice, which dates back 4,000 years, translates into "wind and water," and focuses heavily on the elements of nature.

The principles are based on the belief that every space has an invisible energy, called Chi. This Chi is affected by a number of factors, including the placement and types of objects in that space. According to this practice, Chi must move flow steadily through a space (not too quickly or too slowly) in order for positive events to occur in the inhabitant’s life. Therefore, the type and the placement of the art in your home or office would be quite important in harnessing this energy to maximize health, wealth, and anything else you strive to attain. Although, Feng Shui originates from an ancient Asian culture, the practice has become increasingly mainstream.

When hanging art, consult the Bagua Map which Feng Shui practitioners use to analyze a space. You can orient any room or building structure with the Bagua Map by aligning it with the entrance to the room or to the front door. The wall with the entrance should be aligned with the side of the map containing: knowledge and self-cultivation; career; and helpful people and travel. While your most important guide in choosing art for your home or office should be your own personal preferences, consider these suggestions and use them as a source of ideas. Use the Bagua Map to determine favorable places to hang your art.

Wealth & Prosperity
The recommended colors for the wealth area are blues, reds, and purples. Also, choosing a piece of art with flowing water will generate positive Chi and stimulate
life in this area.

Fame & Reputation
To enhance fame and reputation, decorate the area with art that represents light. Here, fire is the element that needs to be emphasized.

Love & Marriage
In the love and marriage corner, you may want to hang a picture of you and your partner during a happy time. You can foster other relationships in your life in this area as well.

Creativity & Children
If you have children, the children and creativity area is a great place to hang favorite framed photos of them. This is also a good area to frame examples of your own artwork and other creative endeavors.

Helpful People & Travel
In your helpful people and travel corner, display photos or keepsakes from a favorite vacation, or artwork that suggests places you’d like to visit. For helpful people, hang photos or artwork related to or by a person you admire.

Career
If you are looking for a new job or a promotion, concentrate on images in your career colors, which are black and other dark tones. Images of water are also
powerful here.

Knowledge & Self-Cultivation
The knowledge and self-cultivation corner should contain images of landscapes, particularly mountains. The mountain is the symbol for knowledge in Feng Shui.

Health & Family
The health and family area is the perfect place to hang pictures of pleasant family events. Also, in order to encourage a healthy existence, hang artwork with vibrant and positive images.

Custom Picture Framing Magazine (February 2000)

Frame Your Needle Art

Handmade needle art often has sentimental value and should be framed for posterity. Think of all the hours this labor of love took the sewer and what pleasure you and they would have if it were preserved, framed, for all to see.

We will take great care of your needle art to ensure against damage. Even if you have an antique piece in brittle, poor condition, we can prepare it and preserve it in a beautiful frame design. Whether your needle art is antique or new, we can design a package that will preserve it and fit in perfectly with your home decor.

"It's a Boy!" cross stitch project courtesy of customer Yvonne Scott

Multiple Possibilities

One of the most popular home decorating trends today is framing multiple black-and white photographs in a single frame. Colour photography, with its vast array of hues, also lends itself to unique, creative matting and framing designs. Creating a framed piece with a photographic theme such as displaying family and vacation memories, is a great way to enhance your decor and add a personal touch to your home.

Black-and-white photography has made a comeback and is one of the latest framing trends, especially for portraits. Children’s portraits are particularly popular. To go hand-in-hand with this, we can offer you mat designs featuring sequences of multiple poses. Together, we can create a visual story that you will always remember and enjoy.

Photographs can be framed using neutral, bright, or matte colors. The colors in the mats can bring out the blue in a child’s eyes, the green trees of nature, and the fiery orange of a sunset. Mat openings can be any size or shape, and interesting combinations can be designed to suit your individual needs. These creative framing designs make interesting focal points suitable for any room in your home.

Bring in your photos—black-and-white or color, traditional or digital—and open your eyes to the multiple possibilities of framing memories.

Baby Sophie framing project courtesy of customer Janet Gant

Vacation Memories

Photos and souvenirs capture the moments you enjoyed while on a vacation. And while they may be one-dimensional, photos have the power to take you back to that special time and place. Once they’re framed, you’ll see them everyday and the people and places you visited will bring a smile to your face each time you look at them.

Some good "subjects" to have framed are your travelling companions or friends you made while travelling, notable landmarks, or simply a beautiful scenic shot. For example, photos of famous New York landmarks make great wall decor once they are matted and framed. (Left Photo: Flat Iron Building and Chrysler Building)

You can also use the negatives to enlarge a particularly good shot to a substantial size—one that can occupy a prominent place on your wall. However, not all vacation memories are necessarily photos. How about uniquely shaped rocks that you gathered while hiking? These heart shaped rocks make a great conversation piece when they are grouped together and displayed for everyone to enjoy. We’ll help you choose a great way to display them to create a fitting keepsake.

In addition to creating a dynamite way to display your memories, we also have the technical expertise to frame your items in a way that will preserve them for many years to come. There are certain issues to address including protection from fading and other environmental hazards, as well as preventing potentially harmful chemical reactions when working with metal, wood, or plastic mementos. So bring your vacation photos and souvenirs to us and we’ll make them part of your everyday life.

Heart Shaped framing project designed by customer Janet Gant

Don’t Forget the Graduate

Graduation is a special time to celebrate achievements and look forward to the future. Give your graduate’s academic degree the importance it deserves in a custom frame. Not only will the proper frame help preserve this precious document for the future, it will create a beautiful presentation to enjoy now.

Custom framing can go well beyond the traditional “slim black frame” so many diplomas are relegated to. Designs can range from rich and tradition to simple and contemporary. Why not create a design that highlights school colors or incorporates tokens of other school activities, like sports or theatre? A high school or college diploma is just the first of many important documents a young adult will receive in his or her life.

What better way to introduce them to the importance of preserving and celebrating achievements in life than by creating a custom frame design just for them? They’ll thank you now for your generous gift, and in the future for the lesson you taught them.

Framing Needle Art

Needle art is no less a work of art than a painted canvas; the stitcher simply picked up a needle and thread instead of a brush and paint. Handmade needlework often has sentimental value and should be framed for posterity. Think of all the hours invested by the stitcher and what pleasure you would have if it were preserved and framed for all to see.

Perhaps you have some doilies or handkerchiefs from your great-grandmother lying around the attic. Or maybe you have toiled over hanging a cross stitch project in the living room for all to admire. Is there a sampler with a saying that you would like to hang in the hallway?

Whether your needle art is antique or new, let us show you our ideas for creating a custom design that will preserve your beautiful needle art and fit in perfectly with your home décor.

Springtime Celebrations – Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day & Father’s Day

With springtime in full swing, events celebrating the people in our lives are just around the corner. Among these, Mother’s Day (May 10) and Father’s Day (June 21) give us a chance to show these special people just how much they mean to us.

If you’re shopping for the person who "has everything," we can help you to present them with a unique gift. By framing something near and dear to them, you can be sure they’ll love it and love to display it. Whether it is a piece of artwork you know they want, some collectibles, photos of their family or personal items that they’ve been looking to display, we will work with you to create the look they’ll love. For example, a simple art card by Sue Coleman is transformed into a beautiful Mother’s Day gift. Don’t forget to celebrate grandparents, who would be proud to display their grandchildren’s custom-framed artwork.

We’re also prepared for the busy wedding season, and can frame photographs, invitations, photos, and any other mementos you want to save. Whether it’s your wedding or you’re looking for the perfect gift for the happy couple, framing those memories is a great way to recall the special day again and again.

And, if you know a special person who’ll become a graduate this spring, a custom framed piece of artwork is a great way for them to spruce up their new surroundings. Or if you’re not sure exactly what they’d like, giving a gift certificate for art and framing is also a great idea. We frame diplomas too! Tell us the school colors and we’ll design a wonderful, personal piece.

Whatever the special springtime event in your life, come to us. Together, we’ll choose the colors and textures that look best with your items. We carry a wide variety of frame mouldings, matboards, and quality preservation materials. Show us what you want to frame, tell us how you envision it, and we’ll get to work!