Decorating with Black and White Photographs

One of the most popular colors used in decorating today is black. Its classic style can be used to complement any style decor ranging from traditional, contemporary, and country — to French, rustic, and Old World. There's simply no shade on the color wheel with more power to draw the eye and provide a dramatic touch to a room. I think it's safe to say that designers and decorators all agree that "every room needs a touch of black to sharpen everything else."

One simple and rather inexpensive way to introduce black into a room is by using black and white photographs. I think they provide an uncluttered look (as in "less is more"), and add a warm, personal touch to a room, too.

I am considering using several of my photographs in the house we're going to build, and have converted some of my favorites to black and white just to get an idea of how they would look framed (I accomplished this by using my Photoshop Elements program).

If you prefer more color, another option would be to frame color or sepia-tone photographs in black frames with white mats. The following pictures show the above photos in their original colors:

I actually have those two sepia photos framed and hanging in my house now:

At this point, I'm still in my "wishy washy" mode as far as making a decision whether to go with black and white photos or color, but I do know that I want to use black frames with white mats. Of course, I could always use both color and black and white pictures throughout the house, depending on the decor of the rooms. There's nothing like having several options to confuse you, is there!

I'd love your input — which do you prefer?

Decorating with Photographs

I've taken literally thousands of pictures of a variety of subjects ...

From flowers to cows to family photos ... to hummingbirds, butterflies, trees, tree roots, old houses and buildings, zoo animals, and ... well, you probably "get the picture."

However, of all the photos I've taken, I've never really found any that I liked well enough to have framed to use in my house ... until recently. Today, I thought I'd share a few that I've had framed and display in our breakfast area and master bathroom.

Let's start in the bath. In keeping with a "garden theme," here are the pictures I chose to have framed:

And here is how I used them in the bathroom (you can click on the photos to enlarge them, if you'd like).

The most recent photo I've used is one of a church bell I took on a photo shoot in Raymond, Mississippi ...

I love this picture and I think I found a perfect place for it in my recently redecorated breakfast area.

I hope it's not too much. What do you think?