Stretching it

I'm very inclined towards elongated frames and pictures, (although the two don't necessarily need to go together).

In the second picture, above, from the country house of the late Bill Blass, the hugely elongated print above the door, (which fits so wonderfully to the room's size), and which creates the effect of a frieze, is repeated briefly in the two longer pictures either side of the doors, one a print and the other white reliefs.

In a dining room I decorated for our New Town flat in Edinburgh, I doubled the size of the frame, exaggerating the length of the picture, so that it fitted well above the pine Adam-style chimneypiece. Obviously in my room there was not the need to create the illusion of a wider room, (as it was a basic square), but in the Blass room the effect of the picture above the door does just that, and even when it is competing with some delightful pieces of furniture.