How to choose art for your home
Every home will benefit from having some form of artwork displayed and paintings are especially good at adding character and personality. I find it frustrating when I see cheap posters or canvases, that one can buy in DIY stores, hung in people’s homes. These products do not really give a hint to the owner’s personality and are more often than not simply bought to fill a space. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. It is entirely possible to buy original artwork without breaking the bank and create a bespoke look in any or every room of your house. And the best bit, artworks are decor that you can move around, take with you when you move and they may even increase in value over time. So how do you choose the right artwork for your home? Here I offer my suggestions on what to think about for various rooms in your home. If I convince you that you need art in your life then consider visiting my website and taking a look at my very affordable paintings (and they are growing in value all the time!).
The Kitchen
The kitchen is often forgotten as a place to display artwork.
I’m going to start with the kitchen. Why? Because it seems to be the least favoured room in the house when it comes to artwork. At most, one might see a large vase and some flowers but these do not last long and I can imagine that there are many days when there are no flowers at all. But artwork, well that remains and can brighten up any kitchen, even the smallest.
There seems to be a trend these days with building developers to design houses that are not designed for cooking in. The kitchens seem to be an afterthought and are often very small. I’m beginning to believe that the developers have shares with Deliveroo or Just Eat and are encouraging home buyers to simply order takeaway dinners. The trend also seems to be towards very clean-looking kitchens with bare bright walls and similarly muted cabinets. Where has the colour and character gone? Well, all is not lost and abstract art can save the day.
Admittedly, abstract art might not be everyone’s cup of tea - it certainly wasn’t mine originally. In fact, once upon a time, my wife took me to the Tate Modern in London to look at abstract art and I lasted five minutes before walking straight out and headed for the natural history museum. Well, you know where you are with rock! But I digress. The point is that abstract are comes in many forms and there is almost certainly going to be something that would work for you and brighten up even the smallest space in your kitchen. And your choice of painting will tell a lot about you as an individual so your kitchen becomes more interesting. Back in the days when we could visit each other’s homes and have parties, wasn’t the epicentre always the kitchen? Now you’ll have a talking point if the conversation runs dry!
If you have limited space look for abstract paintings on stretched or box canvas (also known as gallery canvas). These do not need frames and can be hung just as they are so they are no-fuss solutions and look great.
The Bedroom
Bedrooms look great with calming landscapes or muted abstracts.
Bedrooms are supposed to be where you go to relax before eventually drifting off to sleep, so it makes sense to choose paintings that have a calming or soothing appearance. This is not the room for those loud and dynamic abstracts! If you have space, a large landscape-format painting hung above the headboard looks great as does placing artwork on the wall directly opposite the bed. Of course, with anything hung at the end of the bed you need to choose wisely - you are going to be seeing it every morning!
Seascape paintings can look great in bedrooms - the sea seems to have a very calming effect on the eye although I’d suggest you avoid the depictions of ships crashing onto rocks in a storm unless you find that relaxing. Cityscapes work well and especially those depicting nighttime with the soft glow of city lights. Abstract paintings also work well here but you really want to aim for more muted or desaturated colours. Abstract art is especially versatile here because you can pick out particular colours from your room or soft furnishings and help the painting fit with the overall theme.
Whereas small kitchens do not lend themselves to framed paintings, the bedroom is a great place for framed art. There are so many different types of frames available to suit every taste and budget and again, you can introduce something of your character in your choices with frames and mounts. There are some online companies that allow you to upload your painting as an image so you can see what it will look like in a particular frame. I use EasyFrame but there are probably many others you could use (I’m not paid to say that - they are just really good!).
The Living Room
The living room can be the most daunting room to place art - everyone will see it!
The living room is arguably one of the most difficult or intimidating rooms to decorate at the best of times and then I’m going to suggest that you add artwork to the challenge too. The living room is possibly the most exciting room to decorate with artwork too. I suggested at the start that introducing artwork into your home gives you a chance to show your character and personality and doing this in the living room puts it right out there, front and centre for everyone to see. What’s to be afraid of?
To be fair, other than the time you spend in the bedroom (and most of that is with your eyes closed in the dark) the living room, by definition is where you are likely to spend most of your time at home. As a starter for ten, I would suggest thinking of any artwork as a conversation piece. If the artwork is interesting or unusual it is bound to catch the eye and invoke a conversation, so please don’t pick up the first canvas poster you find in your local DIY store! Think about the setting or vibe you are trying to achieve with the room and choose something that fits in rather than stands out as if it shouldn’t be there (granted, that would be a talking point!).
If you are the outdoors type you might find a large and imposing landscape painting fits in and speaks to your wider interests. Equally, if you travel a great deal, for work or pleasure, old maps set in characterful frames and look great. I have an old map of Europe and Russia and the talking point arises when visitors see it because the countries are not all correct (by today’s geopolitics at least) and the seas have unusual names. In essence, anything really goes in a living room but try to think how a painting reflects something about you or your family.
The study or home office
The home office or study is where you can have some fun with your artwork. Go on, be bold!
With the pandemic forcing many people to work from home and many businesses now looking at new ways of working that may well include a mix of flexible working from home, the home office or study has taken on a new importance for many. To begin with, the home office or study was probably just a spare room or space at one end of the living room but more and more people are designing their spaces specifically for working in (I know I have) and it is important to get the look and feel of it right. But, there is also an opportunity here. In the traditional office setting, one couldn’t simply rock up with a painting and hang on the wall but at home well, it’s your house - your rules, and now is the opportunity to get creative.
As I have said before, your choice of artwork should reflect you as an individual and give an insight into who you are but we all have to limit ourselves to some extent. However, this is not necessarily the case with the home office or study. Largely, it is a dedicated space just for you so why not let go a little and get bold. Have you always loved those bold and aggressive abstracts? Do you find pictures of cute cats relaxing? Maybe you really like those bold semi-nude abstracts that seem to be so popular on Instagram right now (if you haven’t seen them check out Sophie Tea Art who now has a shop in London. I’ve often wondered where that sort of art would be placed and I think the study would be perfect). Whatever you choose is up to you,
If you are limited for space, or don’t wish to put nails in your walls or perhaps you can’t decide what paintings to hang you could try the floating art concept. Put simply, you just prop up your paintings on a mantle, shelf, or desk (whatever you have) and assemble your paintings along the length of your area and allow the paintings to overlap and sometimes stack in front of each other. This then becomes a very dynamic art gallery and you can simply move and swap paintings around whenever you want, so no getting bored of the same old scene. I actually do this in my home office (I have a lot of paintings!) and I find it relaxing to have something new to look at each day. Okay, I should be working and not worrying about what I’m looking at but once an artist…you get the idea!
So there you have it. I hope you’ve found this useful and do leave a comment and let me know, especially if there is another topic you’d like to see covered in a future post. Coming soon will be my argument as to why every home should have abstract art it, not that I’m biased of course!
Finally, if you’ve read this far then thanks - I really do appreciate it. Now go, there’s nothing more to be seen here!
