Selecting the right art piece for your home can be overwhelming, especially if this is your first time buying art for your home. There are many different ways you could go about selecting art but here are my top tips to help guide your decisions if you are new to purchasing art for your home. I hope you find this helpful!
Typically when purchasing artwork, interior designers usually say to buy the artwork first and then create the room around the art. It is much harder to find an art piece that you love than finding the furniture to match it. But don’t worry, if you have all of your furniture already set and are looking to add to your space, commissioning an art piece to suit the room is another great way to guarantee you have the perfect art for your space.
Tip 1: Determine The Mood You Want To Create.
The first step in selecting the art for your room is determining the mood. The mood is how you want the room to feel when you walk into it. Do you want it to feel relaxing, calm, energizing, romantic, moody…
For example, if you were to choose a piece for your bedroom, typically, you would want to create a calm, relaxing atmosphere. Thinking about abstract landscapes or abstracts with fewer colours or a combination of lighter tones could help set a calm mood. Colours like blues, whites, beiges can all help create this mood as well.
TIP 2: Determining The Colours Of The Room The Artwork Will Go In.
When determining the colours of the room, you want to think about the top three colours that stand out to you. If you have furniture, think about the colour of the furniture and if you have accent pillows, a rug, wall paper, take all of this into account. Pick your top 3 dominant colours.
*You could also try squinting your eyes and see what colours stand out to you.
The artwork you would add to this space should incorporate these colours. It could include hints of those colours or be the dominant colours in the art piece. Making sure to include the top 2 or 3 dominant colours will help to bring the room together.
Tip 3: Finding Your Style.
Finding your style can be the toughest thing to do. There are so many styles out there that it can get confusing to choose the right one for you. The best way to find your style is to keep looking at different types of art. Explore contemporary, expressionism, abstract, pop art, photo realism, whimsical etc..; Scroll through sites like www.saatchiart.com or www.artsy.com to look at the different styles out there.
There is no right or wrong way, and whatever you naturally gravitate towards is your answer!
Tip 4: Selecting The Right Size.
Selecting the right size can be a guessing game. Having some structure in determining the perfect size of art for your wall space can help. One of the biggest mistakes people make is choosing an art piece that is too small for the space. Focusing on that empty wall space, an artwork should ideally cover just over 1/2 to 3/4 of what you can see. It needs to be slightly smaller than the available area and shouldn't overwhelm nearby furniture. The general rule of thumb we use is that artwork should be about 75% of the width of the furniture, and this applies to a single piece of art or a grouping.
Tip 5: Selecting The Shape and Number of Canvases
Choosing the right shape for your space is something to consider when selecting the right art piece. If you are going to invest in a piece of art, you don’t want to buy a piece of art only to find that the shape or size is too small for the space and makes the room still feel bare. If you have high ceilings, think about taller and longer rectangular canvases to make the space feel grander. Whereas, for low ceilings you would want to think about shorter and more horizontal artworks to elongate the space.
When looking at the wall space where the artwork will go, think about the shape of the space that you see. Typically, above a long couch you would want to think about a long rectangular shaped artwork.
If you have a lot of circular organic shapes as decor around the space, you may consider a circular art piece to fit into a squarish space on your wall. Having a variety of shapes of art around the house can also make your walls more interesting.
If you like the look of a diptych or triptych, just keep in mind the size that you would go for, if you were to do one piece, and choose the size and shape accordingly.