Choosing art for your home
Decorating a home needs more than pretty paint and beautiful furniture. You need pictures on the wall to give character and intrigue to a room. And a selection of different styles and mediums is key to creating depth.
Choosing and finding art can be quite a daunting task, especially when you are doing it with someone else as you can quickly discover while you’re a sucker for a moody landscape, your partner likes a frame filled with food, people or animals.
The next thing you need to decide is whether you want a series or a gallery. We have both in our home, depending where you are in the house. Up the stairs we have a series of vintage photographs from the Middle East. When framing a series while you can’t always make them the same size (depends on the shape of the images) you should always put them in the same colour frames. I recently read that the easiest way to choose the colour of the frame is to pick the prominent colour in the image. This is fine with black and white photos or moody landscapes as you can rely of black, white or natural. It becomes tricky when you have colourful images as it almost seems a shame to put them in something so plain. Thank goodness for sample pots of paint and wooden frames! While a hassle it does mean you create something a little more exciting.
Adding paintings and embroideries gives textures to a room as too many prints can appear flat. Embroideries are now so easy to come by thanks to the insurgence of Suzanis on the market and great companies like The Fabled Thread which teach you how to use multiple stitches on their beautiful designs.
A very lovely expert once told me that you shouldn’t buy art for how much it will cost, buy because you love it and have to have it. You should love and appreciate what you buy and and added bonus if it ends up becoming worth something in years to come.
Prints - The V&A shop has long been a favourite of mine, and is a great way to find prints of artwork, drawings and ancient textiles. Their collection continuously changes depending on their exhibitions so it is always worth a check. Likewise when visiting an exhibition it’s always worth a check in the gift shop for a limited edition print. If you have a favourite artist they often will have a selection of limited edition prints on their website for a fraction of the cost of an original. Always get one with a fresh signature so it is more authentic and not mass produced.
Books - It may seem sacrilege cutting up a book for the pretty pictures but if you do it nicely you can still keep the rest of it. I found this is particularly good for decorating childrens rooms, and bathrooms. Likewise with programmes such as for Glyndebourne as each year a different artist designs them. Pictures from books are also a good way of creating a series. Two Artists at Home have a brilliant selection of vintage books filled with pretty pictures. A great example is in the house of Chloe Willis interior designer at from Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler where she has used pictures from a book on Chinese sampans.
Embroidery - Etsy is the best place to find embroideries from around the world or vintage. Beautiful Suzanis from Uzbekistan or weaves from South America can easily be fixed to your walls either in a frame, using pegs or hooks. Alternatively make your own using inspiration from the likes of The Fabled Thread or Thread the Word.
Paintings - The best place for paintings is always going to be galleries, antique shops and auction houses. However, you can pick up a bargain online if you know what you are looking for. Ebay is a great source so long as you have a specific artist or style in mind.
Photography - Photographs can be found everywhere and anywhere and I love them because they tell not only the story of the subject but also who took them. Wandering the windy streets of Old Jerusalem you will come across little cubby holes selling old photographs of camels camped outside Damascus gate. A great source of sporting, fashion, film photographs is ArtPhoto Ltd. Alternitively print off your own images from your travels.
Instagram will always be an amazing source for your interiors and finding art is no different. I have bought photographs from photographers I admire by DMing them to ask if they sell prints (I have yet to be turned down), and paintings much the same way. There are lots of lovely antique art sellers too out there like Discerning Palette, Etalage, Tat London, Wallis Antiques and Sourced by Holly among many many others!