How will art look in your house? See real art in my real house
When considering purchasing art for your home, I think it’s so helpful to see photos of art in real homes. It helps you understand how big or small a certain size painting will feel in a room and it is also helpful to see the art in context – and with real-life surroundings.
I brought a few of my available paintings home and hung them in my very “normal” house. Sure, I’m creative and I think I have a good eye, but I am not an interior designer or decorator and my house is a mix of 100 years’ of homeowners’ updates (we haven’t done any)! All that to say, you don’t have to have a perfect house or an interior designer on speed dial to welcome original art into your home and to love living with it.
Over the mantel is a popular – and fantastic – place to hang art. The painting in the photo above is 40”x30” and is the perfect size for over our mantel. Obviously, our sconces create a width constraint and our 8’ ceiling means we can’t have anything super tall. When styling a mantel, I like to add items that complement the art. I like the mantel to feel balanced, but not perfectly symmetrical. I’m not into matchy-matchy. Items of different heights and textures keep things interesting.
Purchase painting on the left, above
Purchase painting on the right, above
Bedrooms are a great place for art. You start and end your day with your bedroom walls. Even if you have windows on two walls, and a closet on one, you probably have at least one wall for hanging art – and probably more.
These 18”x24” paintings fit really well above the bedside tables in our guest bedroom/office. You don’t need to decorate around the art, but accent pillows or a throw blanket can be a fun way to coordinate with the art. I like having one painting on each side of the bed, and that make sense with our space since we have a corner on the left side and a window to the right as natural “edges.”
Purchase painting in the above photo
We have a large wall parallel to the side of the bed that can fit a larger painting. I moved the painting that was over the fireplace into the bedroom, and it works on this wall as well.
My house is fairly small and each individual room is small, so I don’t have an amazing space to properly display a 4’x5’ painting.* So, for these curve paintings, I used some sample room backgrounds. I think these fun, graphic paintings would look incredible in a Mid-century Modern home; in particular, I am dreaming of these paintings heading to Palm Springs. Wouldn’t that be perfect? Maybe you know someone who needs these in their house…I could also so easily see them in a contemporary house or urban loft.
Purchase orange "Curve Appeal" painting
Purchase green "Curve Appeal" painting
*I always preach that you don’t need a huge house to have huge art. You definitely don’t, but I like to be able to stand back and look at art and my 1920s bungalow – that does not have an open floor plan – doesn’t allow for that. On the other hand, the apartment we lived in before purchasing our house was smaller than our house, but it had an open floor plan and it could easily accommodate a 5’ painting.
For more info on purchasing and living with art:
Learn to hang art like an interior designer
How to start an art collection: Five tips from collectors
Why should you have art in your home? Collectors share their top reasons
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What questions do you have about purchasing art? Feel free to email me at catherine@catherinefreshleyart.com. If you're in the Portland, OR area, I would love for you to come into my gallery!
What a great post! It’s so very helpful to see art hanging in a real home. Just lovely!
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