Art is completely subjective; and choosing the ‘perfect’ piece can often end up being a minefield. This post should hopefully point you in the right direction when it comes to choosing artwork for your home that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

When it comes to choosing a new piece of artwork for your home, there are many factors to consider to ensure that your new investment fits perfectly with your décor – and let’s face it, art often is an investment as it can be expensive! You might want your new piece to be a stand-out feature and a real talking point, or you might prefer something that dresses your wall nicely without causing too much of a stir. One thing’s for sure though, however you plan to make your artwork work within your space, it can be difficult to know what will have the greatest impact; especially when there’s so much choice available!

We saw a fantastic post on MyDomaine, written by Gabrielle Savoie of Savvy Home. Her post sets out 8 Foolproof Tips For Choosing Art For Your Home, Straight From The Artist (the artist being Zoë Pawlak), and we couldn’t help but feel inspired to write a little something of our own…

One key takeaway from the post was Zoe’s attitude when it comes to choosing artwork:

“While your home décor can obey certain rules, such as investing in neutral couches or flooring, I urge people to use their walls for irrational or eclectic choices”

8 Foolproof Tips For Choosing Art For Your Home, Straight From The Artist

We love this type of conversation-starter artwork; the type that jumps off the wall and makes you think wow; the type that every person will either love or hate, but certainly won’t be indifferent towards. But that’s just us… If that sounds all a bit too much, artwork that sits nicely in your home without stealing too much of the attention is also a winner!

Taking all this into consideration, we’ve compiled our top three tips for choosing a new piece of artwork for your home:

1 BRILLIANTLY BOLD OR STYLISHLY SUBTLE?
Deciding whether you’re looking for a piece with real stop-and-stare WOW factor or something less obtrusive seems a good place to start. You know your own style and can usually imagine the type of piece (to an extent) that you’re looking for; so, you can narrow your search down a little to begin with. However, it’s still important to keep an open mind too! You might well have a very clear idea of what you want, BUT one piece of artwork could turn things on their head when you’re least expecting it. It’s good to start with a rough idea of what you think you’re looking for, but don’t stick too rigidly to it; you never know what might catch your eye!

2 SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING…
It can be easy to think that one huge piece of artwork is guaranteed to be a winner – but, in reality, unless you have a ginormous room/wall, it might actually have the reverse effect and make your room look all kinds of weird. Don’t think that bigger is always better! Scale is so important when it comes to choosing a piece of artwork for your room; and a good rule of thumb is to choose something between 30cm and 120cm wide as most houses can comfortably accommodate a piece of that size!

In addition, a piece of artwork that is too small might get lost in your room. But, we have a couple of solutions for you in case you have found a small piece of artwork that you absolutely love!

FIRSTLY, you might want to include a decent-sized mount around your favourite piece of artwork. By doing this, you’ll increase the overall size of your frame; hence, making the artwork seem bigger.

SECONDLY, you could create a gallery wall using your favourite piece as the centre-point and surrounding it with a variety of framed pieces of differing size and shape – you might even want to mix it up to include mirrors and other wall-mounted accessories too! (For tips on creating a gallery wall, Lisa Dawson has a must-read post; click here to take a look!)

3 ULTIMATELY… DO YOU!
At the first mention of artwork, some of you might feel completely out of your comfort zone. We get it! The art world can seem pretentious and a little bit scary; but don’t let that put you off! Art, in all its forms, is designed to evoke emotion and its true beauty is that each person viewing it will perceive it differently. With this in mind, choose a piece of artwork that you truly love! Buy with your heart; if it doesn’t make you smile when you first see it, it’s probably not going to make you smile months or years down the line.

So, to summarise, here are our main pointers when it comes to choosing artwork for your home:

DO
– Keep an open mind: be willing to ‘go with the flow’.
– Think about size and scale – smaller pieces usually need some tweaks to make them work.
– Choose something that YOU love – don’t listen to the opinions of other people too much, this is YOUR piece of artwork.
– Enjoy the process – don’t let it stress you out!

DON’T
– Be too stubborn with your initial ideas – sometimes you’ll find something perfect that is not what you had in mind at all.
– Let yourself feel overwhelmed – choosing art should be fun!
– Be put off by creating something yourself – gallery walls can look incredible (and they’re fun to put together!).
– Think that the ‘best’ art should be expensive – there’s no need to spend a small fortune on a piece of art, what really matters is how it makes you feel, not the price tag!

Here at 1Wall, we pride ourselves on offering high quality pieces of framed artwork (and home accessories!) at an affordable price. We know that framed artwork is considered a luxury, however, we have a vast range of framed wall art that you don’t need to break the bank to buy. We also offer every single piece of artwork in over 10 different frame options; so, whatever your home interior style, you can find a frame to complement it perfectly.