Proudly displaying my boudoir photos without making them too in-your-face

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Carlita asks,

I did these gorgeous boudoir photos as a gift to my wife. Despite my insecurities, I feel confident and awesome about these photos and would love to have one framed and displayed somewhere in our house… but I don’t want to shove my thighs down my guests’ throats!

So I need to know, Homies: where do you display boudoir shots? What do you DO with them!?


Ooh, good question. Offbeat Wed and Offbeat Families have each had their say on boudoir shots — though they don’t cover what to do with the shots once you’ve got ’em, they’re a nice reference for anyone thinking about it.

But Homies, what have you got to say? Where do your nudie shots hang? Bonus points if you can share a photo of your big-ass pinup shot hanging over your bed!

Comments on Proudly displaying my boudoir photos without making them too in-your-face

  1. Um. Wow. I JUST received prints of my boudoir photo shoot that I did over the 4th of July. I plan to hang a poster-size print over our bed, and frame two smaller 5×7’s in our home office. Both places that guests really won’t be spending much time in.

  2. Do you have a master bath? We used to have a great deep red bathroom with boudior shots all over it. All the pics were displayed for us and our best-est friends (because really, who other than a best-best friend is going to be in your private bathroom?)

    Another thing I’ve seen is a wall of framed art of all different sizes (collage-ish) with boudior pics added to the mix alongside landscapes, art shots, everything. The no-bones about it approach is pretty nice. It’s bold, it’s out there, it’s great, and it’s not offensive because there isn’t any pretense.

    • Putting them in a bathroom that is private “couple only” was definitely my recommendation. In the house I had with my fiance we had a little half bath that no one but us EVER used. Something like that seems like the best solution.
      Another recommendation may be to put the full shot in a small picture frame by your lovah’s bed, but then get a zoomed in artsy detail shot to be displayed on the wall. Say, a really interesting curve of your hip or a crop of your shoulder down below a breast. Something that makes the naked anonymous to anyone but you and your lovah, but still something you can put up on your wall zing-bow-pop. Like your dirty little secret where everyone can see it BUT THEY’LL NEVER KNOW ITS YOURS.
      If it’s impossible to get such a print done from the photos taken, how about commissioning a painting of the same?

      • I agree with commissioning a painting. My fiance had one of my boudoir photos painted by Nicole of Nicole Illustration for a birthday present for me. It is AMAZING! It is so lifelike and she is so talented. Check out some of her work at http://nicoleillustration.com/
        It hangs in our bedroom opposite our bed but not on a wall in front of the door. Be careful if you rent. I sometimes wonder what the maintenance men in our complex think. I know they have seen it when repairing our light fixture. I didn’t think to take it down until it was too late. Good thing I look HOT in it. Lol.

          • getting products with a protective coating, like canvases or metal prints would work well in this environment too!

          • I’m afraid that unless you are incredibly deliberate about the way you frame any artwork in the bathroom, the constant and extreme changes in relative humidity are pretty much the worst environment for them. Putting a piece of glass in front of it will more or less protect it from direct condensation, but they will still have all kinds of problems with expansion/contraction of the various layers of paper, photo emulsion, etc., and the real possibility of harboring mold colonies on the back side. If you want your photos to last, keep extra copies in a stable environment, and/or consider the metal print option for your bathroom (not canvas– paintings can’t take it either!).

    • Two of my friends happen to be an awesome couple and professional photographs. I hadn’t been to their house in a long time, and I walked into their living room–and BAM a huge photo framed of a woman and a man strategically placed so that together no one’s naughty parts were showing. The shot was lovely, obviously art, and like I said, just really lovely. It also fit in perfectly with their decor. It doesn’t really matter that it’s a fairly risque picture of the couple because it is art. I say hang it where ever you are comfortable. If that happens to be poster sized in your living room, rock it. If it happens to be a book of the photos on your nightstand, you should be just as confident about that too.

  3. my bedroom looks like an art gallery,(a spaztastic overcrowded art gallery) so in all the art covering the walls there are some of these shots thrown in. Its actually kind of funny because all the photos and art are all different sizes so sometimes when you go looking for the boudoir shots its like playing find the nudie!

    • Gorgeous shot! Love it. I hope through some of the comments on here you get a good idea. Maybe a wall in the bedroom not visible from the hall, a master bath, or even the closet?

      • I love hanging pictures in the closet. If you have a proper door, the back of that’s an awesome place for pictures, but if you have accordion doors or something, the back of the closet is good, too. It’s a pleasant little surprise every time you go searching through your clothes. As long as you’re not putting it there because you feel like you need to hide it, because that might not be so pleasant.

        Also, that’s a fabulous picture, and I think it’d be fine in any semi-private area. Even a hallway or library area! I’ve found that pictures like that are less shocking to your friends when you arrange them with a few other pictures, so that it becomes an art wall instead of a hey-look-how-sexy-this-wall-is wall. It just doesn’t stand out as much.

    • Dude! That shot is adorable & PG rated. I would put it anywhere it makes you smile. Seriously, it’s breakfast nook worthy (I’m picturing it in an awesome bright & chrome theme kitchen). So much personality!

    • Every time my husband (also AF) gets deployed a few weeks before I get boudoir photos taken. I save a few of my favorites to get printed on canvases and I hang them in the bedroom as a welcome home present.

      The rest I put in a google drive folder and give him access to one or two a week.

  4. Boudoir shots belong in a room where not everybody passes. Thus excluding bathroom, hallway, living room and kitchen. I once was a guest at a house where pictures of the wife were *everywhere* (and they were not even good pictures), and I felt it was inappropriate. I wouldn’t want to mock the Jehova’s witnesses while sitting under a picture of my own backside. ^^

    • Well, it is possible to tastefully display pictures of you or your lover(s) in places that are visible to guests… It is your house, after all. I love the one suggestion of picking a photo to zoom in on an intimate detail that seems anonymous- although it did make me think of the Love Bites episode where a gay couple had one set of their parents visit and the mom recognized the birthmark on the penis painting displayed in the living room 🙂

  5. I have a giant 16×24 in my bathroom of my boudoir shoot. My bathroom is a private bathroom, so no one really except me and my hubby (and the occassional BFF) go in there. It’s the place I feel most vulnerable about my body, so it was the perfect place for me to put it. Maybe if you have big cellings you could put it above your clothes, in your closet so it’s private but every time you go to get dressed it’s a little reminder that you are hot and gorgeous!

  6. I wish I could display my boudoir pictures. Unfortunately, my husband flipped out when I got him pics for Xmas last year. So they got locked in the safe. Never to be seen.

    Though a friend of mine suggested hanging the pictures with a veil that would either drape and frame the pics, or if people came over, you could use the veil to cover the pictures.

    • I’m so sorry to hear he did that! I’m sure you look gorgeous though. Hang one for yourself anyway, maybe in the bathroom or something?

      It’s good to reinforce that you’re a sexy and wonderful person.

    • ah yeah… my ex-fiance did the same thing when i had a friend do some (gorgeous) sexy pics of me. we broke up not too long after… he was mad that i “allowed” a friend to see me nearly naked. hmm… i’m definitely going to do the same for my new fiance!

  7. I have a photo I took of my legs in fishnets and it hangs on my boyfriend’s side of our bedroom in a frame. I’ll upload a picture of it later to flickr. 😉 I don’t know if I would do a full body/face boudoir photo (not of me anyway) because I don’t know where I would get it printed without dying of embarrassment that the printer would see it.

    Granted, this is coming from a person who has a vintage Red Hot Chili Peppers poster hanging at the bottom of the stairs where they are wearing socks. 😉

  8. mine are in a book, which lives on our bookshelf. it has a tasteful black and white cover shot (topless but from behind, so you see panties and back and head and arms) that isn’t obviously me. i had it as a “displayed” book for a while, until 1) the mister got uncomfortable with his old roommate visiting and 2) we ran out of bookshelf space and couldn’t “display” books anymore (and now keep them filed spine-out, to maximize space).

    we don’t have any prints, but if we did i’d put them in bedroom above the mister’s dresser, which isn’t visible from the door.

  9. I say go for the bedroom, in a place viewable with the door open. That way, if you’re feeling cheeky, keep the door open. If not, close it. Done and done.

    I have a photo of a nude woman from the back (not me). I put it on the wall space right beyond the door frame. When more conservative guests come over, I close the door. When I’m having a party with my peers, I leave it open.

  10. Id say splash a few dollars on a generic art nude- one thats as risque as yours (but not you) and put it in a candidate spot for a few weeks, see how you feel. If youre comfortable having someone else nude on your wall in that spot, why not you?

  11. i love this. we have a bunch of great marilyn mpnroe prints in big frames. maybe you could hang a pinup collage of vintage (or not vintage) prints of different girls and throw a couple of you in the mix, that way its there with the other beauties but not so obvious to poeple that its you?? in the bedroom?

  12. I had a friend in my early 20s who had a boudoir photo of herself in her bedroom. It was beautiful!

    I have no boudoir photos but i do have a nude oil painting hanging in our living room (focal point!! that I am occasionally asked whether it is of me or not — it’s not, but does look a little similar to my younger self.

    I also have a full torso belly cast my mil made when I was 32 weeks pregnant. It’s currently in our living room, but we’re moving this weekend and it will probably get put into our bedroom again, or possibly my studio/ office, depending. I don’t like the painting and the torso competing. They each deserve to be a focal point! (Now if only I could get my MIL to make me a copy of the full torso sculpture she did of me for a class she took when I was 24! She keeps it next to her front door.)

    I’m all for naked art everywhere!

  13. I do pinup modeling sometimes and I have a pinup style photo of myself hanging proudly behind our Tiki Bar at home. I sometimes wonder if some guests are weirded out by it, though, like HI LOOOK AT MEEEEE. I myself feel there is not much difference between that or boudoir and the semi-nude pregnancy shots I often see in other people’s homes, though.

    If I had a master bath I would hang it there, otherwise I like the idea of the bedroom or even inside the closet door, for totally nekkid shots. You can leave the closet door open or closed, depending.

  14. This post is so appropriate as I am currently dating a photographer and have been thinking lately about having him take boudoir photos. I don’t think I’d be comfortable having them anywhere but the bedroom if there were any nudity, but fully-clothed pinup-style shots would certainly be welcome anywhere!

  15. I’ve been thinking about this for months! My boyfriend and I are a few years off from getting out own house but I’ve already told him I want pictures of me hanging about. Aside from the beauty and sexiness of having pictures hanging around for your partner, I want them specifically because I am plus size (US size 24). Part of me kind of WANTS my guests to see them, like a “See! Every size is beautiful :)” statement.

    So what I might do is take close up shots of individual parts of my body and hang them as a series in the guest/main floor bath and then have more intimate shots in our private bath.

    I will say that in a general sense, I would only put these kind of photos in bathrooms simply because I find that to be the most appropriate place. The bedroom is a maybe, depending on the picture.

  16. The thing is…no matter where you put private things, you will eventually have super snoopy guests who will find it. And snoops are also gossips. So…if you want to hang it, hang it proudly wherever YOU feel it’s appropriate.

    Except maybe have a same-size, non-nekkid photo for when your partner’s conservative great-aunt says she’s coming over. Just in case.

  17. We have our couples boudoir in a little photo album that usually sits underneath our engagement photo album under the coffee table. If we have guests that we wouldn’t mind looking at em, they are visible. Otherwise, we tuck it under more!

  18. I vote hang them in your bathroom, especially if you have a bathroom reserved for family and close friends. Most guests use my downstairs bathroom but my best friends often use the one upstairs (as do my husband and I) so I’d stick the pic there.

  19. Print out your favourite photos onto sheets of transfer paper and iron them onto a white cotton pillow case – sweet dreams! (and flip the cushions/pillows over when the MIL visits)

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