ART & Interiors

Putting the finishing touches to a room scheme is so important. This is what will totally transform a room and take it from the ordinary to well…. The extraordinary!

Think of it as being the same as accessorising an outfit. A dress and shoes can be OK and look NICE but styled and accessorised you can be transformed to WOW!

Now I don’t know about you but I would rather be a WOW! Than an OK or even worse a NICE!

It’s the same for our homes. So many are NICE and OK but if you want a WOW home you need to work at the accessorising!!!

Now, accessorising a room is a huge subject so today I want to concentrate on Art. I have gathered a few ideas that I hope will help you to add the WOW to your home.

ORIGINAL

If you are purchasing original Art you really want to show this off – Its pricy and yes fabulous so If you are serious about buying an original piece of Art you’ll need this as your focal point, the piece that your whole room if designed around. If however you have a completed room, take your time, really research your pieces. Visit galleries, go to an art show – trawl the internet to see what’s out there, before making your decision. Most galleries will let you try the art in your home before purchasing. This is a really important process as what could look great in the gallery wont necessarily work in your home.

Original but on a budget

Ok, so is there such a thing? Yes. The internet is a wonderful thing and now with social media you can find a whole host of affordable original artworks. Another clever idea is to track down student art. Look at end of final year shows and get in touch! You’ll grab a bargain and they may be the next Damien Hurst! You never know. The affordable art show is another fantastic opportunity to by original art at a better budget and going to a show like this opens your eyes to a whole host of different styles to see what’s out there and what catches your eye and taste

Of course there are also suppliers such as Art Rocks. These artworks are hand painted in oils and because they are sourced globally the prices are more competitive. What I really like with these guys is the option to commission bespoke painting or tweak their existing range (coming soon) I’m a real fan of scale so its amazing for me to find a company that can not only deliver on cost but can also give me the size and colours that I need.

PRINTS

So how do I feel about prints….. I think they are great but do search around as there are so many. Try and avoid the ones that are too popular and go for something a little more unique. I love a good abstract that pulls together your colour scheme. A wonderful way to use these is to hang in groups such as image below. This makes a great impact that just wouldn’t be achieved with just one. It really does transform a room/wall when you use that space. Don’t be scared – go for more impact . If you can imagine what just one or two of the prints below would look like on that wall – ok but just ok. Put all 6 together and its immediately a Wow! Its touches like this that make such a HUGE difference to your room scheme.

I also love the quote prints that are around at the moment and mixing these with other prints is a great way to get a good impact on a wall. The image below gives another nice way of displaying pictures. Keep the pictures different sizes as it works better than being too uniformed on a shelf such as this.

FAMILY PHOTOS

OK so this is a tough one….. we all LOVE our family’s, our kids, our pets but do we want pictures of them everywhere????

I have lots of my kids/family photos around but I try (and I say TRY lightly) to reign myself in.

The best way I think is to keep them black and white when they are on the wall. I have three huge picture frames above my sofa and each has a picture of one of my kids in (but the images are really small) the impact and the design bit, is the frames but if you go closer you see the kids – but its not ALL about the kids

Another great idea is a photo wall (corridors or stairs are great for this) again I would keep to uniformed B&W as it just looks better. If you’re doing colour prints keep these to frames images on your mantel piece or a chest of drawers.

I really do think that the most important thing is to hang your art/pictures well. If you have a large wall to fill then either have one large picture (and I mean large, bigger than you think works best – fill the space) or use that space to mix a few prints together ( a group of 4 or 6)

I really hope that gives you a few ideas in how to use Art/pictures in your home.

I have listed below a few website and locations that I think are great to find art and pictures for your home.

www.artrocks.co.uk (fabulous range of hand painted oils at affordable prices)

www.artfinder.com (An amazing range of artworks here as various price points)

www.ingofincke.com (one of my favourite gallery’s in London – my favourite artist here being Rachel Deacon

www.grahamandgreen.co.uk (a really nice range of prints and wall decorations at very affordable prices)

www.trowbridgegallery.com (an amazing range of prints that cover so many styles – slightly higher price point, but worth a visit to their website)

www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk (I love this web site and the art works are fab for people with a little more eclectic tastes – good price points too!)