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Interior Redesign: Choosing the Right Artwork for Your Room

Like other accessories, framed artwork can either be disruptive and jarring to the eye or put the perfect finishing touch on any room. You can find many books in your local library or home decor store loaded with the "do's and don'ts" of artwork. However, one author's do is often another's don't, so it's not surprising that decorating with artwork can be a source of confusion.

There are many aspects to choosing artwork to complement your room, but if you get the two basic considerations right, you should be on your way to creating a harmonious element that will enhance your room.

A formal portrait in oil can look very out of place in a casual family room. Likewise, those posters that graced the walls of your college dorm probably aren't right for the living rooms of your post-student years. So the first step in choosing artwork for any room is to make sure that the piece is in harmony with the mood and style of the room. Evaluate the artwork by asking the following questions:

Is the piece suitable for formal or casual rooms?

While the formality of a piece can be modified to some extent with the type of frame and mat used, there are pieces which just don't make the transition well. On the other hand, there are many types of framed art prints which work equally well in formal or casual rooms. Artwork should always enhance the mood of the room and, in fact, can play a major role in establishing the appropriate mood.

Is the subject matter of the artwork appropriate for the room?

While many advise restricting depictions of food or dining scenes to the dining room or kitchen, I think it is more a question of the piece's style and that each piece should be evaluated based on its own character. It is, however, advisable to keep erotic art in private areas of the home, usually a bedroom. Very personal photos should also be confined to non-public areas of the home. If the subject matter is disturbing in any way, try to place the piece a room where the viewer has physical and emotional distance from it, such as a hallway. Never use pieces of this nature in dining rooms or bedrooms.

Is the quality of the piece suitable for the room?

An aspect of harmony often overlooked is the issue of quality. A room will look much more cohesive if everything in the room is of a similar quality. It holds true for artwork, as well. Bear in mind that the style and materials used in matting and framing can have a major impact on the overall quality of a piece.

The second basic consideration in choosing artwork for you room is the shape and size of the area in which the artwork will hang. If you draw a mental box around the wall space available for the piece, its shape will become immediately apparent to you. Vertical spaces should be filled with vertical framed art prints whose relative proportions approximate the shape of the wall area. Horizontal wall spaces take horizontal pieces. Square spaces can be used for square or round artwork. As to size, be guided by the size of the wall space as well as the scale of the furnishings immediately surrounding it.

When decorating your home, choosing the right artwork for the right room can be the perfect way to put a great finishing touch on your interior design.

5 Simple Tips for Decorating with Art

Choosing art can be a difficult process. Not only are there millions of pieces out there for you to sift through, look at, dismiss and decide upon, you must also have a good understanding of what it is you are trying to accomplish when decorating with art. Below are five simple tips that can make selecting artwork easier and ultimately more enjoyable.

· Connect with it: You have to find art you like! Of course, this might seem obvious, but it can often be left out of the equation when selecting art. Don’t be so willing to take other people’s opinion of what is “good” and neglect to understand your own. Art is many things to many people, but when choosing how to decorate with it, it needs to be yours and yours alone. Whether the piece inspires you, calms you, excites you or just generally makes you happy, that is where you need to start.

· Blend it: Not only should the artwork affect you internally and emotionally, it must help create a space that surrounds you externally. Aside from within the walls of a museum, art is rarely viewed independently. Meaning, there are usually other elements that will affect your perception of the piece. Whether it is furnishings, accessories or the people who occupy the space, the art you choose should be a reflection of that and be able to pull it all together.

· Hang it: What good is wall art if is not on the wall? Here are a few tips for hanging your artwork:

o Bigger is often better by creating more of a statement. Go with small prints on narrow walls large works for large surface areas.

o When hanging above a desk, try to get the frame about five to ten inches above the desktop. Also, when hanging wall art over furniture, it should, generally, not be longer than the piece of furniture.

o Hang art so that the center point of the piece is at eye level for the average person. However, with high ceilings, it is often times good to go up a bit, if you are trying to emphasize the height. Bring the print lower if you want to create the feeling of a smaller space.

· Mat it: A white or subtle cream mat is what you may often see in stock or default fine art prints because it brings the most amount of focus to the artwork itself. However, when actually decorating with art, you might choose something that gives the artwork a complete and whole look, emphasizing colors and surroundings. To create maximum impact with your prints, consider choosing a mat that contrasts your wall color: light mat with a dark wall and dark mat for wall painted with a light color.

· Frame it: Usually, when selecting a frame, you want to avoid choosing a color that is too similar to the color of the mat you chose. Again, like mat and wall colors, it is a good idea to find a mat and frame option easily distinguished by the eye. A dark mat and a dark frame can leave the eye confused as to where one starts, and the other begins. Blending and selecting mat and frame colors that are evident within the painting itself, can provide a cohesive and complete look. Like a well-dressed suit, you can think of the mat and frame like a sharp shirt and tie combination.

Home Stagers have a New Ally

Home staging is a quickly growing field of real estate professionals who specialize in getting the best price for a “For Sale” home, without adding significant costs to the seller. It’s been said that the cost required to hire a home stager is so minimal that usually the first price reduction of a non-staged home is much greater than the cost to stage it. Brass tacks? Home staging saves money in the end and is well worth the small upfront cost. One thing all home stagers and redesigners need? Fine art prints.

Home staging not only saves home sellers money, but also gives them a clear sense of simple decorating and design concepts that can be easily implemented into a new house. Most home stagers offer an in-house consultation where they walk you through some of the ideas they have, and recommendations you make, to add top dollar to your selling price. When they do this, take note. With all of their decorating tips, design techniques and professional experience, home owners can really learn a few things to implement in their new house. And if you simply are not decorator savvy, you can always have a home stager or decorator help set your new house, even if you don’t plan to move.

Home staging and home decorating should be left to the professionals but implementing some of their techniques can really give a home seller a fresh start at a new house. One great resource home stagers from around the US and Canada are beginning to discover is Imagekind.com. Imagekind recognizes the value of a well decorated home and has been partnering with home stagers and decorators to create that perfect first impression a buyer gets when they walk into a well decorated home.

At Imagekind.com, home stagers and decorators can choose from hundreds of thousands of digital art prints online. From both classic, museum artwork as well as independent, emerging and even local artists home stagers are not only realizing the benefit of using Imagekind as their art provider, they are helping support the arts as well! After the print is chosen, you can pick from over 5.5 million frame and matting options available to really create that perfect expression of color and design all home stagers and decorators are looking for in any room of any house.

Healthy Art

By

Veronic.a F.ree

I consider my home a haven from the chaos and stress that exists outside the walls of my house. My home is a place to rest my body and renew my spirit. It is this belief that generated the idea of decorating my home with healthy art. My personal definition of healthy art is artistic creations that nourish the body, uplift the spirit, and are visually appealing.

When at home I like to be surrounded by things that I find comfortable and pleasurable. I like to change the appearance of the interior of my home often. I don't make major renovations, just simple changes such as rearranging the furniture or changing color schemes or wall dcor. My idea of decorating with healthy art is a wonderful way to not only change the dcor in my home but to also change my eating habits.

Daily I am reminded by medical reports, the news media, magazine advertisements and various other sources of the importance of establishing healthy eating patterns. I know that in order to live a balanced life I must not only take care of my physical body but also nurture my spiritual and emotional needs. Healthy art creations provide the perfect way to maintain the balance I need.

In an attempt to establish a healthier diet I have stopped buying cookies and chips for snacks and started buying fruit instead. I also have started eating more vegetables. Space is limited in my kitchen. Finding a place to store the replacements for my usual junk food required some creativity. Fresh fruits and vegetables are too beautiful to be hidden away. In keeping with this idea, I now use them to make edible artistic creations to beautify my home. This way they serve a dual purpose. Healthy food is always in sight and within reach.

Baskets and bowls can be purchased for minimal prices at yards sales and flea markets. These make excellent starting points for creating edible displays. These creations need not be confined solely to the kitchen or dining room. Fruitful displays can also add beauty to a foyer or family room.

I enjoy creating arrangements with unusual fruits and vegetables. Buying fruit to match a tropical theme, a holiday theme or a certain color scheme gives me an opportunity to experience and enjoy flavors, textures, and aromas that I would not ordinarily experience. I've found a large variety of unexplored fruits and vegetables at local Farmer's Markets.

In spring and summer I like to incorporate flowers and herbs into my creations. A basket filled with fuzzy, aromatic peaches and blooms from summer flowers makes a soothing arrangement. (I put the blooms in individual vials and mingle them in with the fruit.) An assortment of tomatoes arranged around a container of basil is fragrant and uplifting. Red is an energizing color and basil has a unique aroma which makes this a winning combination. Mint is easy to grow. There are numerous varieties available that make wonderful additions to healthy art displays.

Decorating with fruits and vegetables is a slightly challenging in the fall and winter. Braids of garlic and strings of dried green beans and peppers make great edible art items. Wire baskets become artistically lovely when filled with various shapes, sizes and colors of onions and potatoes. Pomegranates are a favorite seasonal fruit that I like to use in my artistic designs. There are so many different varieties of apples easily accessible in local markets, that just a collection of various types of apples becomes a work of art.

Since I started decorating my home with healthy art I have drastically changed my eating habits. Reaching for a mango, kiwi, tomato, or carrot is much healthier than grabbing a cookie or munching on chips. Having beautiful arrangements of fruits and vegetables in sight and within reach serves more than one purpose. Healthy art nourishes my physical body and lifts my spirit, and adds beauty to my home.

Decorating With Art

A Little Savvy with Framed Art Prints and Photographs Can Help Successfully Pull a Room Together

By Cel.este De.Sapri

Maybe you’re restricted by an older living space with existing furnishings, or overwhelmed by the possibilities a stark new space may offer. Maybe you’re decorating with unlimited funds, or on a shoe string budget. What ever the circumstances, framed art and prints can offer numerous solutions to decorating dilemmas, and they are often key elements in bringing a room together.

To use framed art successfully, as wall decor, color, and grouping, proportions and hanging need to be given careful consideration. Begin by thinking about the feeling or mood you wish to convey. Consider the colors and styles of existing furnishings, you may wish to reinforce, contrast or complement especially those that would be difficult or costly to change, such as flooring or bathroom fixtures. Study the space itself. Is it large and expansive, with high ceilings, or small and intimate?

So, now that you’ve begun thinking about mood, space, color and placement, here are some thoughts about materials and tools. If conservation is an important concern, the matting material should be one hundred percent acid free rag board. This is what museums use. Double mats may work well in situations where you want to maximize an accent color. The accent colored mat is usually placed under the lighter mat so only about one sixteenth to one quarter inch (about three to five centimeters) of it shows. Mats are usually four ply, but thicker, eight ply mats can really draw in the eye. They work best with photos and very small prints. Silk mats may be used in more formal and classic situations. If a mat is not used there are spacers, called fillets that may be used to prevent the piece from touching the glass. This prevents condensation from forming. UV glass does not prevent, but will cut down the amount of fading, over time. Always make sure your mat and frame are not distracting the viewer's eye away. They should compliment the piece, not compete for attention. And, finally, I suggest a level and a good sturdy hammer, if you’re doing the hanging yourself.

Careful hanging, relationships, and grouping will help give a professional look. Unity is most important in bringing a display of pictures, prints and photographs together. Grouping frames for your walls are will give character to the setting. Frames in the same color and finishes unify a collection, even if pictures are of various shapes and sizes. Framing different subjects with the same color mount also helps unity.

Placing all the items you wish to group for a particular wall, on the floor in that room is an easy way to visualize a plan. You can rearrange the items until you are satisfied. Then, step back and check the arrangement, before going to the wall. Remember, a consistent spacing factor between each item is important. Picture cords and large hooks may be hidden under bell cords, ribbons and decorative rosettes. For formal settings, chains can hang pictures on traditional picture rods. Large, bold pictures can be further away, in more open rooms. Small detailed pictures should be hung in intimate halls and baths. The most common error made in hanging pictures is to hang them too high. Standing eye level of an average person is fine for halls and entryways. In living and dinning rooms, pictures should be at eye level when seated.

Interior Design Psychology, Tapping the Foundation of Mood

You may have heard of the interior design concepts incorporated within the practice of Feng Shui. If not, I don’t blame you. The term, Feng Shui, not only sounds ridiculous when pronounced in the English language, it is usually only uttered by a select few of the population; namely, interior designers, decorators and the owners of those spaces who are looking to enhance not only the look but also the “feel” or “sense” of their interiors. If you haven’t heard of it, (my advice?) don’t bother with it. Feng Shui appears to be a dying trend that found its peak of popularity and influence only a few years ago but has since wilted into other such outdated design movements.

Boiled down? Feng Shui is the concept of item placement designed to elicit a specific, and therefore an intentional feeling of mood, particularly a tranquil or peaceful sense of space. This item placement varies from all things found within an interior. It can include anything from the walls of the structure to the art on the walls, from counters and cabinets to the exact angled positioning of furnishings and furniture. Feng Shui often seems to go a bit overboard in its pursuit of providing that perfect space that it becomes near laughable in its highly structured pursuit of serenity.

The practice of design psychology differs from Feng Shui in that many of the practices of Feng Shui are based on ancient practices lingering on the superstitious. Whereas design psychology claims a heightened sense of the human psyche tested through science, Feng Shui simply doesn’t. Interior decorators are beginning to understand the importance of design psychology by implementing the techniques with their various clients.

Procuring the correct understanding of the concepts required for each specific house vary as widely as the dweller. There is not one single theme that can be “cookie-cuttered” to fit all interiors everywhere. There are, however, basic themes that can be applied to a specific group of people, such as those looking to buy a home. The effects of design psychology work best when the owner of the space is consulted and their specific lifestyle is taken into consideration. Colors, accessories, furnishings and the like are all unique to the individual. The same color combinations that illicit positive memories in one, may not induce in another.