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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that hanging family photos/portraits on the wall is incredibly naff.

314 replies

squoosh · 08/05/2012 11:11

Photos should be in frames and placed on a table or mantelpiece. I especially hate when said photos are blown up to A3 size or bigger, ick! The only time I allow the 'no photos on wall rule' to be relaxed is on the wall leading up a stairs, for some reason this is less offensive.

Art on your wall people not studio portraits of your cherubs!

(Sits down and awaits the hate)

OP posts:
Thingiebob · 09/05/2012 01:21

Do you know, I never knew that family pics on walls were considered 'naff' until I read it a few weeks ago on Mumsnet.

Yet another 'rule' I didn't know existed.

I have a gallery wall full of pictures of family along my hallway. I think it looks great and I love looking it, so does my family.

I don't give a shit what you have on your walls.

Starwisher · 09/05/2012 02:18

Yabu

I used to never have photographs up until I realised how, if done correctly, beautiful photographs add soul to a home

I love to see family photos, but I have 3 rules

Only in elegant frames
Only black and white
No school photographs

iscream · 09/05/2012 02:26

I like them dh doesn't.

MrsLetch · 09/05/2012 02:29

I agree with starwisher. I love looking at photos, both mine and in other people's houses. I find it makes a house a home, and gives the house a soul.

A house with no photos, is just so ... clinical, soulless. Sorry, I just don't like it and I prefer to be naff with my photos instead.

(That said, I haven't got a mantle piece to use, but other than that, I have pictures pretty much crammed in everywhere - walls and surfaces. But they're there for me, so I don't really care what anyone else thinks Grin). I think though the problem is now exacerbated by the fact that people know I like photo frames and so always buy them for me!)

Empusa · 09/05/2012 02:37

I assume the OP would hate that we also have photos of our past pets on the walls? Grin

Bearing in mind DH used to be a photographer and I've got a photography qualification I can't think of anything I'd rather have on the walls.

Empusa · 09/05/2012 02:37

"I think though the problem is now exacerbated by the fact that people know I like photo frames and so always buy them for me!"

It'd be rude not to use them really Grin

SodoffBaldrick · 09/05/2012 02:47

I am a crashing snob, I must confess... Hmm It's demanding work, but somebody has to do it.

A house with no photos on the walls is not clinical and souless ... unless it is a clinical and soulless house. Of course. I've seen plenty of lovely, beautiful, warm, cosy, tasteful, stylish, inviting, interesting homes without photos on the walls. Photos on walls is not the only criteria that banishes soulless-ness. Odd that anyone would think it is.

As for the Mona Lisa, well, it may be a 16thC studio portrait, but it's just that - a portrait! Not a photograph. Confused Are we seriously saying it's the modern-day equivalent?! Surely not. I bet Venture whoever the hell they are would love to be considered the modern-day equivalent, artiste-wise of Leonardo... Grin Besides, didn't squoosh say in her very OP that art on walls is fine?

ATEOTD, who cares?! Amusing to watch people shrieking 'why do you care??' at the OP, when they seem to care so much what she thinks. Wink If hanging photos makes you happy, do it.

Starwisher · 09/05/2012 03:03

How could anyone have a problem with something like this:

www.thewhitecompany.com/at-home/photo-frames/fine-wooden-wall-frames/

To me its understated and elegant and little touches like this make a home, not just a house (cheesy I know. Ill get my coat...)

Starwisher · 09/05/2012 03:05

Oh and If anyone does have frames like the one in link above and your finding them far too crass for your own abode, I will kindly take them of your hands for you Grin

Jnice · 09/05/2012 03:13

Haha, the OP sounds like my mil who has pictures of random strangers in her living room (tudors mostly) and puts photos of her loved ones on the toilet walls.

KeyWestK · 09/05/2012 03:29

Wait, MIL has a painting of DH and SIlL when they were children on her wall..not staged, they were playing in the garden...is that naff??

Art but of family?.

SconeInSixtySeconds · 09/05/2012 04:38
CheshireDing · 09/05/2012 04:56

We have a picture of the dog on the wall, Venture-stylish and a picture of DH and I (which everyone wrote comments around the mounting on our wedding day) in the downstairs toilet.

There is clearly no hope for us.

I am very minimalist but love seeing peoples pictures hung in their homes it gives that lovely extra personal touch to the house without invading on the space.

SilveryMoon · 09/05/2012 05:33

I do agree it's quite naff. I'd never have a photo of myself in my house, just wrong imo, save them for albums.
I do however have quite a large living room and have 3 photo's of my ds's on one wall and 3 on the opposite, and 3 small photo's of them up in my bedroom, but that's it. It looks ok IMO and they don't have frames, they are in the clip frames.
A friend of mine has a whole wall in her lounge covered in photo's with big black chunky frames and she thinks it's fab, she boasts about it too which makes it worse. Yuk

CheerfulYank · 09/05/2012 05:33

Sigh. I sort of agree. But hate that I do.

I think they're nice in other people's homes but I don't want them in mine. I do love photos of my family but only in frames on the bookcase or side table. I am going to do pics going up the stairs, though.

CheerfulYank · 09/05/2012 05:35

Though I do have a bit of "twiggy shit" around.

Bubbaluv · 09/05/2012 05:36

I don't like those cheesy studio shots anywhere anyhow, but I don't mind an artfully designed photo wall like some of these
fullertonphoto.com/blog/we-love-photo-collage-walls/

Bubbaluv · 09/05/2012 05:38

Actually those aren't the best examples, but I have seen it done very nicely so that it doesn't look naff.

CheerfulYank · 09/05/2012 05:43

These are okay, but then again Pottery Barn can do no wrong in my eyes. :)

nooka · 09/05/2012 06:10

The only people I know who have photos on display in the way that the OP describes (in prop up type frames on sideboards and mantle pieces) is my FIL, and his house is full of nick nacks and potpourri. Which obviously is what he and his partner like, and good for them. However it is not in any way particularly tasteful.

My parents only have family photos (and certificates too) in the downstairs loo, and otherwise we might as well not exist! I think that is going too far in the opposite direction.

I like photographs. We have mainly collage type collections and some nice landscapes of places we've thought beautiful. I really don't like the 'artful' walls all with matching frames, to me those are really naff. But then it's fun that every person's home is different, and it gives you somethign to look at if you get bored visiting Grin

lifechanger · 09/05/2012 06:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DaydreamDolly · 09/05/2012 06:13

YABU. I think trying not to be naff, is naff.

SodoffBaldrick · 09/05/2012 06:16

I'm with you CY, I don't like admitting it's naff, but (I think) it is. As I say, it hasn't stopped me hanging a set of photos of PFB in the kitchen.

And it's not living your life by some sort of joy-less set of rules - that is way too much like hard work. Rather it's just an innate sense of it not being quite right. :-/ Grin

FedUpOfDuckEggBlue · 09/05/2012 07:32

I'd rather see family pictures, albeit not Venture style imo, on the wall than big prints or canvases from Ikea or TK Maxx that were only picked because they go with the colour scheme.

usualsuspect · 09/05/2012 07:39

Do people still use the word 'naff ' ? I've not heard that word for years