Tough one to design

[Pam]

I have a customers' family crest and name history to frame, one frame, double opening.

The customer and I spent about an hour trying different looks (she really wanted a colored mat, not white, not cream). The hard part is that there are no colors in these two items that match. yuck. One is grass green, lemon yellow and black/white. The other is a combination of muted colors on beige.

We finally decided on a double black mat. (oak frame)
I put it together today and it looks really boring.

Any tricks that anyone would care to share about these items that don't match?
I was thinking about running a little gold french line around it....

[Leslie S.]

Pam,
I wish I had some totally brilliant idea, but I don't. The gold line sounds good, and I've used this before to tie unrelated things together with success. I really hate it when confronted with two or more items that look terrible together, but the customer expects you to somehow make them look great in the same frame. This is hard enough, but sometimes tongue.gif possible, til they trot out the other requirements...got to be a gold frame, no neutral mats, and hangs over a purple sofa! ;) AARRGGGG. This is kin to the lady who brings in a predominately yellow-hued artwork, who "likes this soooo much, but I've just painted my bedroom mauve and can you mat this in this (ratty) wonderful frame and make it look good?" Like my mom always says, There is NO accounting for taste.

[BUDDY]

Pam i know this probably won't solve your problem but have you considered the Brite -core mats by crescent? There are a series of mats that have black face papers and Green,yellow .red ,blue cores maybe some combination will help.After all you did say ya'll settleed on black mats.Maybe you can pick out some shape in the Crest or Blazen that could be accentuated byt he color core.Or maybe you could get really ambitious and hand cut the Inital of the surname in the top mat with a v-groove going to the initial.Just a stab without seeing it.The Oak frame sounds a little drab maybe you could try the LJ 244 series they have color faces and black sides with a gold bead on the outer edge ,some even have two colorson the face.
Hope this sparks some ideas.
BUDDY

[pigeon]

Maybe you could try using a different color for the under mat on each, and possibly a fillet in the mat if conservation is not an issue.

[Kit]

I know it's Minnesota and, believe me, I feel your pain. But can't you talk her out of the oak??? (I haven't sold nearly so much of that stuff since I took all the samples off the wall and hid them.)

I like the idea of a wide gold fillet surrounding each document. It would give the piece some visual unity.

Kit

[Lois Bauby]

I have absolutely NO business replying here, but that never stopped me before. This is a look I am very fond of...show about 1/2 inch of mat then a faux fillet, something that works with the colors in the art, and then another mat, showing about 3/4 inch of the faux fillet and top mat about 3 or 3/12 inches. The depth helps the piece be not boring, I think.

:eek:

[Pam]

Wow, thanks for all those ideas. (fyi...fillets were rejected early on in the design process)

I really like the idea of carving in the initial but it's a bit beyond my skill set at this point. practice, practice, practice.

[framah]

How about coloring the bevel of each mat a color to match. Top one yellow, inner one green. It would be small enough so the colors would look like they match.

[rosetl]

This sounds silly, but just might help (since she nixed the fillet idea) -- Take a look at putting the brighter inner mat with the subdued picture and the subdued color inner mat with the bright crest. Who knows, could create some balance.