TIPS FOR CHOOSING ART
Art can help to make a house feel like a home, but making the right choices can feel intimidating. We’ll outline a few of our basic suggestions to help break down the mystery behind choosing art, and hopefully help you make your selections. Artwork has the ability to be extremely transformative without being permanent, and we consider it an essential part of home décor.
View of our Gallery House dining room, where the artwork is at the same scale as the adjacent windows.
STYLE
There are certain ‘rules’ of home décor that many people feel comfortable following – for example, investing in neutral finishes and pieces of furniture, as they are more likely to outlast trends. However, when it comes to artwork, we urge people to use their walls for fun and original choices. When trying to choose art, many people feel that colour must be their guiding star. While matching colours in a room is a perfectly acceptable method for selecting art, we find it is often more interesting when the artwork contrasts the room.
In our Ritchie Rowhouse project, the cool greys, blues, and greens in the Icelandic sheep painting over the sofa are offset by the warm gold leaf treatment that has been applied to the niche in which the painting hangs. This makes the piece stand out more.
Art is a place for expression through colour, content, and texture. Choose pieces that make you feel something, and try to identify what it is. Does the subject of the artwork appeal to one of your interests or hobbies? Does it remind you of a person you know, or want to know? Does it remind you of a place you’ve been or have always wanted to go to?
In the master bedroom of the same project above, a large scale tropical scene acts like a "window" into another world. The colourful painting sets the tone for this room, adding depth and warmth. Furthermore, the shape of the painted frame compliment the vaulted ceilings in the space.
We find the best pieces of art are ones that you are able to make a personal connection with – that is more important than perfectly matching colours in the space. When you’re looking for inspiration, we find images inspired by nature are a good place to start. In our Modern Victorian project, this impressionist style painting of flowers adds to the calm, neutral atmosphere of this serene room.
Also, art doesn't need to match other art in the room. Contrasting pieces is what makes a space exciting. It is playful and more interesting to mix pieces of different styles, colours, and in different mediums than to make everything match. This can be particularly important when clustering multiple images together, like in the foyer image below. Mixing pieces can help create a personalized narrative, which should be representative of you and your home.
Finally, we recommend being open to different types of mediums while you hunt – paintings, drawings, maps, fabric tapestries, and photographs are some of many examples of different types of wall hangings. Also, don’t forget about rugs, pillows, and other decorative elements. These are all items that can help make artistic statements.
SCALE
Generally, our feeling is that when it comes to choosing the size of a piece, bigger is usually better. People often underestimate the size required to fill up a wall and to have visual impact on a room. For example, one common mistake is choosing art that is too small for the wall space over a sofa, or over a bed. A common rule of thumb is that the art above a sofa should be 2/3rds the width of the furniture piece at a minimum. Larger usually looks better, and we prefer proportions that are more like 3/4s of the width of the piece of furniture or wall where the art is being hung.
Take a look at our Ritchie Rowhouse living room again. The length of this painting is 6 feet (72") long, which compliments the proportions of the 8 foot (96") sofa very well, as it is 3/4 of the width of it.
Sometimes several pieces can work together in one display to great more visual "mass" in a room. In this case, think of the overall display as one unit. Here's another look at the foyer from the Modern Victorian project. The abstract painting is 48" wide, which matches the proportions of the bench very well. When you step back and look at how vast the entire wall is, you can see that the two smaller frames to the right-hand side of the painting helps to anchor both the furniture and the art in a more appropriate scale to the room.
Use frames and matting to add size to art pieces when necessary. In the image below of one of our Modern Victorian dining room, the frames and matting around each of the charcoal drawings adds several inches to the size of the piece, making them fit more proportionally in the room.
When mounting art over a fireplace, an easy rule of thumb to follow is that the art should be wider than the opening of the fireplace, but smaller than the mantel. Our West End Apartment project below demonstrates this rule well.
In conclusion, good artwork makes you feel something when you look at it, and it should be hung in a space that compliments it's proportions. Good luck with the hunt!
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written by Charisma Panchapakesan, OAA
