No outdoor living space is completely successful until it is integrated with the surrounding landscape. Just as there are principles for designing interior spaces, there are also guidelines for exterior ones. If you are choosing a site for a gazebo or a patio, it is one of the most important landscape design decisions you’ll make. If the structure already exists, you can enhance it by assessing and changing the landscape. For instance, you may want to plan a garden around a gazebo, planting shrubs and flowers to highlight the beauty of the site. Or you may want to treat the gazebo as a secluded retreat. Achieving either goal takes careful planning of the site and surrounding plantings.

Evaluate the site. The landscape design should provide a framework for your outdoor living space. The views, lines, property configuration, and traffic patterns need to work together. Spend some time getting acquainted with your site and noting any special features. What are the site’s assets? Are there beautiful views? Are there natural features, such as trees or streams? Consider the size and shape of your lot, the style of the house itself, as well as your own lifestyle needs and preferences.

Balance the elements. This is the process of arranging various site elements so that they are resolved and balanced. A visually heavy or large object can be balanced by a visually lighter or smaller object on the site if the smaller object is darker in color value, is unusually or irregularly shaped, has a contrasting texture, or is more elaborately detailed. All of these strategies will help to draw attention to the smaller object and thereby visually balance it with the larger object. For example, let’s say you have a large clump of pine trees on one side of your yard. To visually balance the trees you might plant smaller, more colorful ornamental trees on the other side of the yard, or you might use a man-made object such as a gazebo.

Create a cohesive design. Harmony can be achieved by selecting and using elements that share a common trait or characteristic. By using elements that are similar in size, shape, color, material, texture, or detail, you can create a cohesive feeling and relation among the various elements on the site. An example this might be using a shape, such as a square. Imagine having a square concrete patio scored in a square (or diamond) pattern with a square table covered in a checkered tablecloth. The results can be extremely pleasing and harmonious.

How to hang art can be baffling to most so here are some steps to help you hang your art if you are finding yourself in that baffled situation. The first step to hanging your art is figuring out where you want to put it. What room or space are you going to decorate? You want to consider scale, color, and the number of pieces or art you are hanging on a particular wall.

The next step is to select your art. Find something that goes with the location you’ve picked out. You have two choices here you can go with your own custom look or you can choose something you like that’s already laid out for you. Don’t think you have to just do artwork either you can use other decor such as mirrors, plaques, sconces, shelves, wall planters, architectural plaques, or wallies. You can even to more then just one which is highly recommended. You don’t want to just throw some framed art work in the middle of your living room wall and call it good you can add sconces to it for some additional flavor or a shelf to bring out the artwork better.

Framed art sets the mood and style of a room. Smaller pictures can be used anywhere and work great as fillers on bookcases, hallways, or a tabletop. Mirrors are another form of wall decor and a source of motion. Mirrors can stand alone or be clustered together in different shapes and sizes. Using the same mirror in multiples will create a dramatic effect. Mirrors also can bring in sunlight to a room in the daytime and reflect candlelight at nighttime which in turn can create a little romance.

Sconces and shelves add a whole new set of decorating options to your print or mirror. Once you start to add these you start decorating in three dimensions! Planters and shelves will add depth to any flat surfaces of pictures and mirrors. It is great to add these when you decorate a wall with no furniture nearby.

Another thing you will need to think about when picking out your art is colors. To heat things up you will want warm, red-based colors, they can make a room seem more cozy and intimate. These colors can stimulate passion, energy, and appetites. For this color I would try abstract art in tangerine, floral art splashed with some red or landscape art in some yellow. If instead you want to cool things down go with some blue-based colors they tend to lend rooms an air of serenity and calmness. They can even give the illusion of expanded space so these colors are great for smaller rooms.

Now you want to hang the artwork you’ve picked out. Contrary to popular belief, hanging artwork isn’t just pounding a nail in the wall and making sure things are level. Hanging prints in a vertical line suggest formality and adds some feeling of height in a room on the other hand prints hung in a horizontal line tend to have a calming effect and can give a narrow room the illusion of some width. Prints have a greater impact if those with dark mats are hung on light walls and prints with lighter mats are hung on dark walls. When hanging a print on a papered wall you will want to cut a “V” slit in the wallpaper and lift it up to insert the nail. You can always glue the paper back in place if you ever want to remove the print. You will want to keep your prints from becoming crooked by placing self-adhesive rubber discs on the back of each corner. This helps tremendously with slipping and sliding.

Remember your home is an expression of who you are, and your walls are your gallery. You will want them to reflect your memories, your interests, and your personality. I love to fill my walls with the faces I love.

If your looking for “rhythm” to add to your room? Creating a certain rhythm depends on the shape, size, and spacing of the objects. When all of the objects are the same size and equally placed, then the rhythm is more placid. If larger objects are placed by tall, vertical rectangles, then the rhythm would be staccato, setting an emphatic tone.

You want to also find “balance” which is deeply important. If you don’t have a balanced arrangement then the arrangement may look top-heavy, bottom-heavy, or as if its side was falling off. You want a symmetrical arrangement where each half of the arrangement mirrors the image of the other half.

If you’re looking for a display with “impact” then you want to start with your largest frames being in the center, as the focal point. From there you want to surround the larger frames with smaller frames giving a balanced grouping. You can add visual interest by hanging frames at varying heights.

If you want to create a visual drama you can hang your frames following and upward angle like a staircase. Use larger frames as an anchor, and then complement them with some smaller frames. Make sure spacing between the frames is equal to create a balanced look.

You want to hang your art at eye level where it can be easily seen, which means it can be either at standing or sitting level your choice. In general, you want the artwork to be hung so that the center point of the picture or grouping is at about eye level for the average person.

Never just hammer a nail into a wall, choose the appropriate hanging device based on the composition of your walls and the weight of your art. Always hang your art on two hooks and two wall hangers for more level, even support. For heavier pieces use D hooks. Place the hooks, lay your frame face down and pull the hanging wire in the back toward the top of the frame in two spots the same distance from the top. Remember the further apart they are the closer the art will be to the wall. Measure the distance between these two spots, as well as the distance between one of them and the top of the frame. Transfer these dimensions to the wall starting with your center mark first. Install the wall hangers at the two hanging spots you have chosen. Begin hanging with the center piece, using it as a reference point for all the others you may have.

I hope this information has been helpful!