Carefully selected art can truly elevate the most stylish and well-designed home but knowing which pieces to display can often feel like a minefield.
Here, Steven Sulley, art advisor and founder of Soho-based art studio, Woodbury House, highlights 5 crucial factors to keep in mind when choosing art for your home to really compliment and bring your space to life.
1. Budget
Before making that all-important art purchase for your home, you should determine how much you want to spend as this will allow you to establish what is available for you to buy and what is off-limits. Great artwork can be found at any price point, whether you are styling your home on a strict budget or have money to invest in a piece to keep forever.
If your budget is tight, you may want to start off by buying a limited-edition print rather than an original piece as, whilst they are still valuable, limited editions are much more affordable than one-off originals.
2. Space
Another important factor to consider, especially when it comes to wall art, is size. A piece of art will have a completely different effect on your space depending on its dimensions, so you need to look at the size of your wall and the space you are trying to fill before selecting an artwork.
Small artwork will be lost on a large wall unless it’s accompanied by other pieces, for example, while a large-scale artwork may be difficult to place in a home with no open space areas.
Measure your wall’s dimensions and bring pictures of the room with you when visiting galleries and looking out for art, as this will give you a better idea of how much space you are working with and will help you imagine how the art will look in your home.
3. Focal point
Every room needs a focal point, so before choosing your art you should decide if you want the art to be the most prominent visual focal point in the room, or if you want it to subtly complement other design elements that draw attention.
If the room doesn’t already have a natural focal point, going for an oversized piece of artwork can have a real impact. On the other hand, choosing a simple, abstract canvas that ties in with the room’s colour scheme is a low-key way of complementing your decor without being distracting.
4. Medium
An art piece’s medium has a huge effect on what the art looks like and the mood it creates in a room. Art comes in many different styles, mediums and textures, and you will likely find you gravitate towards certain mediums more than others.
If you are choosing art for more than one room, avoid using the same medium in every room. Instead, choose a mixture of canvases, framed art, oil paintings and prints to add a variety of styles and visual elements to your home and enhance each room’s individual décor.
5. Colour scheme
Art and overall colour scheme choices often go hand-in-hand and whether you opt for colour, black and white, or neutral art can largely depend on the other colours in your space.
However, your choice of art doesn’t always have to revolve around your room design and home décor – sometimes the colours of the artwork can be the total opposite of what you have in your space and can still be a beautiful and fitting addition.
A better way to choose wall art is to look for pieces that will complement the overall design of your home, but don’t necessarily ‘match’ exactly. Take a neutral home, for example. Even though the entire home might be black, white, and grey, a pop of colourful wall art can truly complete the space.
Conclusion
Whilst all these tips can be useful in determining the best art to choose for your home, the most important thing is to make sure you love the artwork. If you’ve fallen in love with a piece, it can be easy to repaint a wall or light a section of wall to make it a feature within your home.
Look for art that makes you feel, reflect or remember a favourite memory, and you’ll find something that you can enjoy for years.
Steven Sulley is the art advisor and founder of Soho-based art studio, Woodbury House
Featured image by WangMing’Photo on Pexels
