This beautiful photograph walked through our door with the need for a fantastic framing job.

We all love the seasons of Montana and the views are the best.

Do you know from where this photo of the Missoula Valley

was taken?

The vibrant Lupines blooming in the foreground with the beautiful view of the Missoula Valley at sunset is the perfect photo to reflect the epic summer nights in Missoula.

There is so much vibrant purple in this photo that there was no need to add any more, so designer, Heather Cox took to some softer grey tones for the matting. She chose a double mat, the bottom mat is called "Luna" it is a soft grey with a touch of purple (but not too much). The top mat is a paper texture grey called "Fiori Grotto," these two mats together bring a calm to this piece by drawing your eye to the far off distance of the photograph, then back toward the lupines. The matting on this piece really helps to draws out the tiny details in the mountains.

Before the addition of custom matting and framing, at first look, all you would see are the beautiful lupines, now with the matting you look beyond the lupines, while taking in the whole photo, giving the feeling as if you were standing there in that spot yourself.

Our goal with framing is to add to the art piece, in this case a photograph, to make it stand out on its own. The matting is generally about 3 inches, this allows breathing room to help the photo not feel cramped.

With the matting chosen, we move on to the frame. To really finish this design off, Heather needed something that was grounding, something that would tie all the components together. She chose a silver frame with a darker tone and a smooth to touch texture, but also this frame had some reflective purples in it which mimicked the metallic feel of the extremely glossy photograph. The purple is very understated; however, it was the final piece that bought the whole design together.

The final outcome had a great balance of colors allowing the vibrant tones totake the front stage, while still letting the beautiful tones from the sunset shine through.