How to choose artwork that makes your home feel more like you
There’s a piece of decorating advice we hear all the time when choosing artwork for our homes:
Find something that matches the room.
Match the cushions. Match the rug. Pick up the colour in the curtains.
And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with creating a beautifully considered space, I think choosing art can be so much more personal than that.
Because your home isn’t a showroom.
It’s where you live your actual life.
It holds the ordinary Tuesday mornings, the people you love, your favourite chair, the music you put on when nobody else is around and all those little things you’ve collected because, for one reason or another, they felt like you.
Your artwork can do that too.
Rather than asking, “Does this match my room?”, perhaps a better question is:
“Does this feel like me?”
Start with how you want your home to feel
Before thinking about colour, size or even where an artwork might hang, think about the atmosphere you want to create.
How would you like to feel when you walk through the door?
Maybe you want your home to feel uplifting and energetic — somewhere that gives you a little boost after a long day.
Perhaps you want it to feel calmer. Softer. Like somewhere you can close the door on everything happening outside and exhale.
Or maybe you want your space to feel bold, expressive and interesting. Less like everybody else’s home and much more like your own.
That feeling is a wonderful place to begin.
For example, an artwork such as Rush has a completely different energy from something quiet and restrained. It’s full of movement, colour and that sense of your mood suddenly lifting.
You don’t need to own the “right” colour sofa for a piece like that.
You simply need to want more of that feeling in your life.
Notice what you’re naturally drawn to
Choosing art can become surprisingly complicated when we start trying to make the correct decision.
But your initial reaction is often much simpler.
You scroll past ten artworks…and stop at one.
You walk into a gallery…and keep returning to the same piece.
Something about a particular colour combination makes you smile. A shape reminds you of something you can’t quite put into words. An artwork simply feels good to look at.
Pay attention to that.
You don’t always need to explain why you love something before you’re allowed to love it.
Take Cosmos, for example. Its layered colour, movement and sense of space might make one person think of curiosity and childhood wonder, while somebody else simply loves the energy it brings to an empty wall.
Neither response is more valid.
Art becomes personal because of what you bring to it.
Think about personality, not just palette
The things we choose for our homes quietly say something about us.
Some people love rooms filled with books, treasured objects and interesting finds. Others feel happiest surrounded by open space and a handful of things they really love.
Some of us are drawn to riotous colour; others want smaller sparks of it against a calmer background.
None of those choices is right or wrong.
And your art doesn’t necessarily need to behave in the same way as the rest of the room.
In fact, sometimes the artwork that makes a home feel most personal is the one that introduces something slightly unexpected.
A burst of orange in a neutral hallway.
A beautifully expressive abstract above a very traditional piece of furniture.
A vivid piece of art in a quiet bedroom.
That contrast can be exactly what gives a room its personality.
If you enjoy bringing art into your home but aren't ready for an original, my collection of abstract paper prints is an easy way to experiment with different moods, spaces and pieces that feel like you.
Let colour mean something to you
Colour still matters, of course.
But rather than thinking only about whether a blue artwork goes with your blue cushions, think about the relationship you have with that colour.
Maybe blue reminds you of the sea and instantly creates a feeling of space.
Perhaps yellow feels optimistic.
Pink might feel joyful, rebellious, comforting or nostalgic.
Green could remind you of walks, gardens and the feeling of being somewhere quieter.
Our responses to colour can be wonderfully individual, which is one reason I find it so fascinating to work with.
If you’re particularly drawn to blue, you might enjoy my blog post Blue – the colour of calm, clarity and emotional space, where I explore more of the feeling and atmosphere the colour can bring into a home.
Ask whether you want to keep looking at it
There’s another very simple question you can ask when you’re considering an artwork:
Would I enjoy seeing this every day?
Not:
Will everybody else like it?
Is it fashionable?
Does it fit the latest interiors trend?
Just…do I want to keep looking at it?
Because the artwork you live with becomes part of the backdrop to your life.
You might see it while drinking your first cup of tea in the morning. Pass it countless times in a hallway. Catch sight of it from the sofa or notice a tiny detail you hadn’t spotted before.
That repeated experience is where art in the home becomes more than decoration.
It becomes familiar.
Part of your environment.
Part of the way home feels.
Your home doesn’t need to impress anyone
Perhaps this is the most important thing of all.
Your home doesn’t need to look like somebody else’s Pinterest board.
And you don’t need anyone else's permission to choose artwork that makes you happy.
The best homes aren’t necessarily the most perfectly coordinated ones. They’re the ones where you can sense the person living there.
Their memories.
Their quirks.
Their confidence.
Their favourite things.
So when you’re choosing your next piece of art, start there.
Choose the artwork that makes you linger for another second.
Choose the colour that gives you a feeling.
Choose the piece that sparks a memory, lifts your mood or simply makes you think, I love that.
Matching the cushions can come later.
Need a little more confidence choosing art?
If you love art but sometimes find yourself second-guessing what will work in your home, I created my free Art Confidence Guide to help make choosing artwork feel much easier and more instinctive.
It’s a gentle guide to helping you discover what you’re naturally drawn to and choose art that aligns with both you and your home — rather than following somebody else’s rules.