Great Interior Design Really Loves the Use of art for that unique element

Featured Image: Miniature Bronze Ravens by Adam Pomeroy – HERE

Interior Design LOVES the use of Art –

People display art in their homes because it is aesthetically beautiful, makes them feel good, gives an insight into their personality, complements the room and gets people talking. Great interior design really loves art – because it adds that unique and personal element – that extra ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’.

We, as humans, have long since been using our walls as a platform to express ourselves. You can go right back to the Paleolithic period, when cavemen and women scrawled symbols inside their caves, or perhaps, fast forward a bit closer to when we were teenagers ourselves, and when frayed posters of pop stars and Hollywood icons graced our bedrooms. We may have become a bit more sophisticated in how we display our passions and interests, but our love of showcasing them in our spaces remains as strong.

It is how you put it all together that matters.

Basic Principles of Interior Design.

We are not interior designers and would not attempt to dish any advice on the intricacies of it, (we might ask some experts to come on here and do just that!) but we do know, however, that the basic principles are to combine practicality with a mix of colours and styles, pieces of furniture, accessories and objects that complement each other and which ultimately speak the story you wish to tell.

If you want to make your home truly reflective of you and your personality, you will already recognise the importance of using key items, photos and pieces of art to pull it all together; whether it is a quirky little print you picked up at a vintage market and framed yourself, or a piece of original art that you bought on your travels, (or both) the interior design approach in your home, really needs these personal pieces in order to be and to feel authentic to YOU. As we said, great interior design LOVES art for that reason.

Budget:

To achieve a certain look, you don’t need to have a big budget. If it is going to be AUTHENTIC to you, then perhaps you will only be using what you already have, to add those final touches. Whether it involves you using pieces that you have inherited, or unique one-off items you have come across in markets or antique stores over the years or indeed whether you have been able to pick up original art from galleries or auctions, then putting them all together and watching the magic happen is just so exciting.

Examples:

Maybe a large ceramic vase you picked up on your holidays, sits proudly on your bookshelves, a bronze sculpture that you were gifted by your office, graces your console table, some art posters you and your partner picked up for a steal at a nearby auction hang on the wall behind the sofa or a painting handed down from one of your ancestors, looks perfect over your fireplace.

Whatever the mix, it is the addition of ART and those other ITEMS OF SIGNIFICANCE that add the final personal touch to your home.

They also become talking points of interest too, for when people visit and are interested.

When the things you own have a story, (even if that story is that you waited through 150 lots before the print you wanted came up at auction – or that the painting over the fireplace was never your absolute favourite but belonged to your granny) then it helps to tell YOUR story, just by being there.

TIPS:

Go back and look at the items you already own. You may need to look at them in a new light, move them around and fall in love with them all over again. Why did you acquire them in the first place? What story did they tell?

Have some fun putting your pieces together. Go online for inspiration and enjoy pouring over interior magazines but DONT over stress about perfection and don’t those dismiss items you already own (furniture included – a sanding, staining or lick of paint can go a long way!).

Go ahead and allow your art AND other favoured possessions to do the talking for you!

If the budget allows, choosing art by the spaces you have to fill, is also great fun – but if you are doing this, consider measurements, colour choices and specific styles to complement where they are going – and remember, only buy what you love.

If you are redecorating and stuck for ideas, a large painting can sometimes be a wonderful focal point from which to take accent colours. The contrast offered by putting a large colourful painting, for instance, into a clean, contemporary space can really work and be wonderfully uplifting.

Darker sculptures can also really stand out in bright spaces. Also, classic art with a Renaissance style with bring a certain air to a room and might best suit rooms with heritage aspects to them. However, the contrast of putting a piece of art that is – or appears to be – old, or classic and traditional – in an uber contemporary space, also works really well.

People often feel they need to have bright, white walls to showcase their art. The truth is that not all art pops on white walls (particularly if they are stark white) and often darker colours on your wall can help in allowing the art to stand out.

PS: If you struggle with mood boards or envisioning how it will look, and you can afford the help of an interior designer, then we, highly recommend you enlist one. They will capture your vision and help you to make it a reality.

Otherwise, have some fun trying this yourself.

Shop Original Art HERE