How to Select Art Prints
Most people don’t think about artwork until they are ready to style their space. It’s easy to put the focus (and budget) on building your home and major furniture purchases, with little money left for styling. But we really don’t want to make art an afterthought- it’s part of what pulls all the design elements together.
It’s important to be intentional about your art purchases. It’s smart to set aside a portion of your budget for art while working through your furniture plan. This will ensure you have money later in your project to source something you truly love and can afford.
Once you have the budget set aside, the fun part begins! Art can be overwhelming, but we have a few of our go-to tips and tricks broken down below to help you get it right- without breaking the bank!
SCALE
Whether you have a full wall of open space or a small nook, it’s important to think about scale. Getting your sizing correct is just as important as the art itself. In the elevations below, you can see the larger art that is hung just above this bed looks much more polished than the too-small art hung at an odd height.
QUICK TIP: Brown kraft paper cut to various sizes and hung with painter’s tape can help you narrow down what size of art your space needs.
DIY ART
If we can’t find it, we make it! We are big fans of DIY art- it's a great solution for spaces we need custom large-scale art without the sticker shock.
We have created our own custom painted wood panels, framed wallpaper, thrifted old paintings and applied a plaster design over the top, and even framed dried florals and rugs. All it takes is a little effort, thinking outside of the box (and maybe a little Pinterest inspiration) to come up with something unique and impactful!
We framed a wallpaper panel with painted wood trim to create a large-scale graphic art piece for this laundry room.
We filled the whole wall of this bedroom with large dried palms for lots of texture.
These wood panels were painted with a graphic design to create an amazing art deco moment in this sitting room.
If you already have several smaller art pieces you like, or want to include a collection of family photos, try a gallery wall! As you can see in the elevations below, It’s important to keep scale and spacing in mind when putting your layout together.
QUICK TIP: Bring that kraft paper back out and cut out a piece to the dimensions of each of your frames. You can then play with the layout on the wall without having to make too many nail holes!
To keep the collection cohesive and well-thought out, try one of these ideas:
Use the same frame (think slim black metal frames with mattes) or even different frames with similar colors (shades of brass/gold).
Try keeping the art or photos in a similar color palette- black and white can look really great in this setup!
If you want to keep the look clean, try a simple layout with even spacing.
QUICK TIP: We spend a lot of time sourcing inexpensive, high-quality frames. Here are a few we love to use in our projects:
Elevated Aluminum Poster Frame Black Threshold
Thin Gallery Matted Photo Frame Black Project 62
Matted PS Narrow Rounded Gallery Frame Project 62
For more inspiration, check out our Pinterest and our portfolio of work!