Create a Family Art Gallery for Your Children's Special Creations

Every week, your kids bring home artwork that they proudly deposit on the kitchen table. As much as you love them, you wonder what you're going to do with all those art projects.

If you keep everything, you’ll be renting a storage locker in a couple of years. If you throw it all away (how could you?), your child will threaten you with years of therapy.

A great option is to start a family art gallery. It’s the perfect way to display budding masterpieces and an easy do-it-yourself project.

First, take a good look at what comes home: amidst the crayon scribbles and construction paper cut-outs, look for diamonds in the rough. Since children look at the world with an untrained eye, they don’t worry about creating a perfect work. Masters like Picasso, Chagall and Pollock spent years creating and perfecting freeform styles that your child has not yet lost to adulthood--now's the time to honor their untouched talent.

Now that you've got the works, set aside a hallway or stairwell in your home to make them shine: 

Step One:  Setting the Mood 

• Paint the walls a subtle, contemporary hue that will compliment many colors.
• Add a flexible halogen track lighting system to the ceiling so you can angle individual lights to highlight your masterpieces.

Step Two: Preparing your Artwork

• Pick out those works that remind you of something from SFMOMA and set them aside for framing.
• Simple frames can be bought in all shapes and sizes at any arts and craft store--try Aaron Brothers or Michaels in Colma, or FLAX in San Francisco. Wait for a sale to really get a deal.  Any color frame will do, but black does a great job at unifying many styles of art into a cohesive display.
•  For a splash of extra color, buy frames a size larger than needed and place a sheet of colored art paper behind the artwork before framing it. Countless choices of background paper, from simple to exotic, can be found for a few dollars at any arts and crafts store. 

Step Three:  Arranging your Art on the Wall

• Lay your newly framed artwork on the floor so you can balance out sizes and colors.  It’s important to make sure that each piece compliments its neighbor.
•  Hang larger pieces on the wall first; fill in with smaller works once you’re happy with the layout.  Be forewarned, adjustments are inevitable and accepting advice from your little artists is always recommended.

Now you have a priceless art gallery.  Your children are proud when “an important piece” comes home from school and is hung on the wall.  It’s also easier for them to deal with other school projects going into the circular file.  Starting your gallery when the kids are still small enables the display to grow and mature with them. Friends are impressed with the creativity that flows from your house.  And you get to view and remember your children’s wonder years for many grey hairs to come.