I pulled up to Amara’s home here in Bend with a car full of frames and a plan we had been talking about for over a year. We did the motherhood sessions with her and her girls last summer, and once she finally moved into her new home, she had me out to design, hang, and dream up what comes next, including a custom 40×60 for her gorgeous staircase. We are pacing ourselves.
I am not guessing or hoping it will work. Before a single nail goes in, I have already shown her exactly what it will look like, every frame, every wall, true to scale. That is how I work. By the time I arrive, we both already know it is going to be beautiful. And we are excited.
What I did not anticipate was the girls’ faces when they saw the hallway wall finished.
A home that already had a story
Amara’s home is European in style. Rich wood doors, marble on the staircase, a chandelier that belongs in another century. She loves gold. Her fixtures are all gold, so naturally every frame we chose together is a shade of gold or champagne that goes with the room. Venetian gold in the bathrooms. Valencia gold in the hallway. A Geneva gold frame with canvas and brush strokes planned for the staircase.
It looks like it was always supposed to be there.
That is what the design process is for. Not every client wants gold. Not every home calls for it. My job is to figure out what your home is asking for and help you say yes to it.
The part that got me
Amara has two daughters. Each girl has her own bathroom, and in each one, on the wall she sees every morning when she wakes up and every night before bed, there is a portrait of her with her mama.
Amaia’s bathroom has three. A 16×20 in the center flanked by two 11x14s, all black and white, all Venetian gold. Avianna’s has one, a 16×20, just the two of them. Simple and perfect.
I stood in that bathroom for a moment and thought about what it means for a little girl to grow up with that image on her wall. Not in a folder. Not on a phone. Right there, every day. This is what loved looks like.
That is my why. Right there on a bathroom wall.
Gallery wall ideas that grow with your family
The hallway is what I call a growing gallery wall. Right now it holds seven portraits across two 20x30s and four 11x14s in Valencia gold frames, a mix of sizes that creates movement without feeling cluttered. There is space built into the design for more, because next year there will be a new session, and the year after that. The wall will keep telling the story as the girls grow.
I love a growing gallery wall for exactly this reason. It requires thinking ahead. Where will the next portrait go? How will it feel in three years when there are ten frames instead of seven? We plan for that from the beginning so nothing ever feels random or finished too soon.
The staircase
At the top of the staircase, next to a chandelier that honestly deserves its own Instagram account, there will be a 40×60 canvas with brush strokes in a Geneva gold frame.
It is not hung yet. That session is still coming. I have already ordered a hand painted backdrop and we have picked out the dresses for it, but the wall is already designed and waiting. She knows exactly what it will look like when it arrives.
That is one of my favorite things about this work. The home is never really finished. It just keeps becoming more of itself.
What I want you to take from this
I did not show up at Amara’s home with a box of frames and a hope. I showed up with a complete design, scaled to her actual walls, chosen for her specific home and her specific style and the story her family tells.
That is what I do for every client. It does not matter if your home is European or modern or somewhere in between. It does not matter if you love gold or prefer black frames. What matters is that when I leave, the portraits look like they belong there.
Because they do. They always did. You just need a guide to show you where.
Interested in seeing what your portraits could look like in your home before you commit to anything? That is exactly what the design process is for.
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