Meaningful Affordable Art and How I Framed It

First published January 11, 2018

What to do, what to do, when you finish your home remodel and desperately want to hang art on your freshly painted blank walls, but you have spent all your funds on the actual remodel. That's exactly where I was this fall when we wrapped up our own Ladera Heights remodel. None of the art in my price range was something I wanted to look at every day. Enter Denise Crew Print Shop and Simply Framed. These two businesses run by working moms saved the day.

Large scale art photography is very good way to fill wall spaces if you want to go a step above art prints but can't justify the cost of an original painting. Most of my clients go that route for the visual impact it provides and the clean modern look. Even so, it can still get pretty pricey if you want to go beyond popular images you see everywhere.

Denise won me over with her bubbly warmth and beautiful photography. Based on the photo you choose to buy, a different corresponding charity benefits from a portion of the sale. It empowers the shopper to donate to their preferred cause in the act of buying a print. What a neat idea.  I was very happy with the selection of natural images and the pricing. It was really hard to choose but I started with 3 prints, and I know I can always add more to my collection as she releases new images and ties those into causes close to our hearts. Art with meaning.

When it came to printing and framing Denise's photography, we teamed up with Simply Framed. I had been noticing their clever packaging and quality frames on orders from other artists for my client installs. Prints from Max Wanger, Eventide Collective, and Banquette Workshop were all showing up with Simply Framed. Quite the endorsement.

What I really liked was that I didn't have to sort through dozens of frame styles that weren't for me and get overwhelmed before giving up. They have curated their frames to exactly the clean, gallery like styles I would want with Framebuilder. Just my taste and a nice compliment to the actual art. I found the pricing comparable if not a little less than my local frame shop and the process a no brainer.

I chose Big Magic in 30x40 with the gallery wide frame in natural for my kitchen where I believe art is key. I saved a big space there instead of upper cabinets for the right piece, and luckily I found it. The natural wood frame goes perfectly with the white oak cabinets. Its all quite sublime.

For my workspace I chose Buckingham Rd. in 30x30 size to energize and inspire me. It captures the Cali vibe of my own work so very well. In the natural gallery wide frame again because wood is good.

In our dining room, the dramatically abstracted Tahoe Blue in 24x36 size with the gallery deep white frame. For all of these photography prints, we used the print and frame option where you upload your own image. High resolution of the image is super important to me (pixelated prints are such a bummer, especially if you are going to the trouble of framing them) and the printing quality Simply Framed offers is superb. The frames are well constructed. I can't rave enough.

I'm really happy I found these two companies. Interior design lifesavors. Both have genuinely nice people behind them that want to help and offer fantastic service. When I'm not using Simply Framed to print art photography, I'm using them to mail in art and get a custom framed pieces shipped back to me, with hanging hardware no less. They are just the best. Seriously.