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!).

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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.

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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.

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!).