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Bridget A. Otto, The Oregonian
November 13, 2003
 Bathed in soft autumn light, Suzanne Gallagher's living room decor shows off her sense of design and balance. A pair of black-and-taupe-striped chairs offset a second pair of antiqued gold chairs upholstered in taupe brocade. Various black and leopard-print pillows pull the colors to a soft-white chair and couch. The mix of furnishings works as colors repeat and blend, and texture changes from clean surface to plush.
But the room has something more. Artwork.
Framed, hung and grouped to play with the room's furnishings, the artwork adds harmony. A group of three distinct art styles cozy up to each other, a touch of red in one repeated in another. Their frames repeat the pewter and pick up the gold from the furnishings in the room. Over the fireplace, the room's largest art piece demands attention for its beauty but does not steal from the room. On either side of the fireplace, two Asian block prints mirror each other in gold-toned bamboo moldings.
Nothing is haphazard, nor is it stilted. Rather, the interior design of Gallagher's room comes together like a well-dressed woman. It works from head to toe. When designing the room, Gallagher didn't stop once she chose a sofa and coordinating chairs and fabric. She continued to the walls, creating the dynamic look and feel she aims for at home and in all her work.
She doesn't call herself the Wall Design Diva for nothing.
"Great wall design is achieved when image, color, style, framing, design and placement combine with the interiors to create a dynamic look and feel. . . . When you go, 'Whoa,' " she says with untarnished delight, "now it's happening."
For Gallagher, it didn't all happen at once, but her background in fashion and a desire to give her home personality led in part to her becoming the Wall Design Diva.
When her youngest child was in high school, the family moved into their coifed neighborhood on Bull Mountain, where leaf blowers roar away disarray and Mount Hood stands guard in the distance. But in decorating her new home 20 years ago, Gallagher ran smack into the reality of how much that would cost.
It was the starting point in her career.
"The first thing I knew I needed to have was art in key places," Gallagher says. "If I couldn't have furniture, I needed something on the wall that was personal and created a sense of style."
She spoke with an interior designer, who gave her a quote to frame a print. "It was over $400," Gallagher says, incredulity fresh in her voice. "I thought, 'Oh, oh, I'm in trouble.' "
 It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. In Gallagher's case, it was the impetus for her career. She signed up with a design resource center out of Atlanta, which gave her access to framing materials at wholesale prices. It wasn't long before she started helping others bring art into their homes and offices.
Today, the vibrant, deceptively youthful fifty something designer runs Designers Art Unlimited through Northwest Framing's commercial division. Gallagher helps others bring panache to their interiors -- and avoid the all-too-common mistakes people make when bringing art into a room.
People buy art because they are drawn to the image, which is not a bad thing, Gallagher says. But the image may not work in their space. And with the endless supply of art these days, there's no reason to fall into that trap. Gallagher, who's heard the refrain, "I would never have chosen that" too many times to count, tries to make her clients see beyond the image to the design of a room.
"I have everything in this room," she says about her living room, ticking off the inventory to prove her point: abstract; Asian block prints she and her husband, Jack, bought in Tokyo; a canvas transfer of Renoir's "Two Girls." Albeit varied, the collection works because of the framing, matting and placement of each piece; all play a part in the overall design of the room.
When an image catches your eye, Gallagher says, stop and ask: Where are we going to place this?
Sometimes, an image can become a surprise anchor in a collection.
When Mary Kay Taylor brought home the menu from a restaurant she and her husband ate at in Rome, she didn't think it would provide the impetus for the grouping of mirrors and art Gallagher designed for Taylor's dining room. She simply liked the menu's cover image of an elderly man hunched over a bowl of pasta.
"I didn't think about it until we started talking about the wall," Taylor says. Gallagher suggested that the grouping didn't have to be all mirrors, and Taylor remembered the menu and a still life painting she and her husband bought in Europe. The two personal pieces became the anchors on the wall, with several different-size mirrors and an architectural sconce filling out the grouping.
Gallagher likes the sentimental value that items such as the menu add.
"It reminds you of the things you have done," she says.
Sara Luccock and her husband, Andrew, purchase art while traveling for that very reason.
"We tend to like to buy our things when we're on vacation," Luccock says, "so we can have a memory." In fact, it was the intricate fabric fans they bought in England that led them to Gallagher.
Two of the fans were made in Rajasthan in northern India, where the Luccocks had traveled, and the other three were from Thailand, which Andrew had visited. Originally, the couple had the fans grouped in one large frame. Nine years and a cross-country move later, the frame began to fall apart. An interior designer introduced the Luccocks to Gallagher, who saved the day -- and the fans. Not only had the previous framer not stitched the fans in place as promised, but nonprotective glass also was used and the fans faded terribly.
"Suzanne had some major work to do," Luccock says. And work she did. Gallagher painstakingly removed the fans and framed each separately. She positioned the grouping of five in the entryway for all to see.
"We haven't even re-covered chairs yet," Luccock says, motioning to her living room, where she hopes to continue improvements. "But because they were our fans, we just had to do that."
The right image, frame and placement. Paying attention pays off. After all, Gallagher points out, there's more square footage of wall space in your home than anything else. Take some time with it, and don't think you have to drop a bundle of money. "Life's a long race," she says. "Work with what you can."
Bridget A. Otto: 503-221-8527; bridgetotto@news.oregonian.com
 Selecting and hanging art seems easy enough, but time and again Suzanne Gallagher finds the basic principles overlooked.
Height: The age-old husband/wife debate -- or is it the tall/short debate? -- is how high to hang art. Gallagher's rule of thumb is not so much about height as it is about connection. Art hung too high isn't connected to the room and looks like it has inhaled helium, she says. It leads the eye up. To what? The ceiling? Hanging art lower connects it to the furnishings or architectural flourishes, such as a plate rail. And, if the majority of time spent in any room is spent sitting down, hang the art for optimum viewing at that level.
Grouping: When grouping artwork, think about variety, repetitive colors and balance. For balance and flexibility, try two of a kind. Two identical mirrors may serve you better than one big one, Gallagher says. The pair may move somewhere else in the house in time, whereas one large mirror won't prove as variable.
Pairs: Gallagher likes the look, especially when offset by informal balance elsewhere in the room. In other words, variety is key. Pairing everything in the room gets as boring as a grouping made up of the same-sized, similar images. The eye glazes over, she says. Make a statement with one larger item in the grouping.
Image: It's not unusual to be attracted to a specific type of art. Some folks prefer the soft appeal of flowers painted in watercolors. Others like the spareness of some modern art. Still others prefer photography. The trick is to match what appeals to your eye with the room in which it will hang. When an image catches your eye, stop and ask: Does it work in your space? Is it the right coloring and style?
Frame/mat: When matting and framing an image, talk with the framer about the colors and style of the room where it will hang. Take along a photo of the room. This will provide some guidelines for the framer when selecting mat color and frame design. Don't forget to talk about protective glass to guard against fading from ultraviolet light. In addition, a smaller image can have added impact with wide matting and a larger frame.
Placement: Whether hanging one piece of art or a grouping, stand back and take in the wall. Note the connections to furniture and the room's architectural elements. For instance, a single piece of art shouldn't hang more than a hand's width above the back of the sofa. When grouping art, place the weight at the bottom. If grouping in a square or rectangle, use an imaginary grid. You should be able to draw both a horizontal and vertical line through the grouping. Before hanging the grouping, trace each piece onto butcher paper, cut the pieces out and position them on the wall to see what the grouping will look like. Mirrors: Watch the reflection. If the mirror reflects nothing but a long scape of boring ceiling, try tilting the top down.
Options: From poster catalogs to Web sites such as www.art.com to galleries to discount stores, artwork is widely available. Most folks are unaware of the endless options for choosing art, Gallagher says.
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