How to Choose Original Art for Your Home: Colour, Size and Placement

Choosing an original artwork for your home can feel like quite a big decision.

Should you choose something because you genuinely love it, or should you be sensible and find something that works with the colours, furniture and style already in the room?

I don't think the two are necessarily as separate as they seem.

Most of us gradually fill our homes with colours and objects that reflect our taste. The furniture we choose, the things we collect and even the small objects we keep around us say something about what we are drawn to. So it makes sense that the artwork we love will often have some connection with those choices too, even if the relationship isn't immediately obvious.

But I would always begin with the artwork.

You should genuinely love it.

Buying a piece simply because its colours match the room seems the wrong way around to me. A sofa might eventually be replaced and a wall can be repainted. An original artwork is something you may live with for many years.

It should be something you still want to look at when everything around it has changed.

Does art need to match the room?

I don't think artwork has to repeat the colours already in a room.

It can, of course. There is something very satisfying when a colour in a painting or print connects naturally with another colour elsewhere in the space. It can make the whole room feel harmonious.

But contrast can be just as interesting.

Sometimes introducing a colour that isn't already present is exactly what a room needs. Complementary colours can bring energy to a space, and a piece of art can completely change the feeling of an otherwise neutral room.

I think harmony is more important than matching.

And harmony doesn't necessarily mean everything being the same.

Size matters, but there are ways around it

Scale is something I would consider carefully.

An artwork that is much too small for a large wall can lose its presence. At the other extreme, a piece that dominates the available space can feel as though it is constantly demanding your attention.

Neither means that the artwork itself is wrong. Sometimes it is simply in the wrong place.

A small original can still look beautiful when it is given the right position, and framing can change its presence considerably. A well-proportioned mount and frame can give a small artwork more breathing space without overwhelming it.

I don't think every wall needs to be filled either.

Sometimes the empty space around an artwork is part of what makes it work.

Giving art room to breathe

Some pieces really do need space around them.

When there is enough room, your eye can settle on the artwork without being distracted by everything around it. A strong piece can become the focus of the room simply because it has been allowed to stand on its own.

But I also love seeing smaller works grouped together.

A collection of small frames, or even a mixture of different sizes, can look beautiful. I would just be thoughtful about what I put together.

If every piece is fighting for attention through colour, subject, frame and scale, the result can become confusing. There needs to be something that connects them, even if that connection is quite subtle.

They don't need to match, but they need to be able to live beside one another.

A frame gives an artwork a home

Framing makes an enormous difference.

To me, putting a frame around a piece almost feels like giving the artwork a home. It becomes complete and ready to occupy its own space.

But the proportions matter.

I don't like seeing an artwork suffocated by a frame or mount that is too tight around it. Equally, too much space can sometimes make a small piece disappear inside its frame.

Then there is the frame itself.

The wrong frame can overpower an artwork completely. Instead of noticing the art, you notice what is surrounding it. I generally think a frame should support the work rather than compete with it.

If you are deciding how to frame a print, I have written a separate guide on What Frame Is Best for a Linocut Print?

A good frame doesn't have to be invisible, but the artwork should still be the reason you are looking.

The unexpected places are often my favourites

I love seeing a large piece of art given plenty of space on an important wall.

But I am often even more interested by artwork that appears somewhere unexpected.

A little original tucked into a corner. A framed print leaning on a shelf. Something beside a bed, above a small piece of furniture or in a study. A piece sitting on a windowsill where you discover it rather than immediately seeing it when you enter the room.

There is something lovely about finding art in these places.

Not every artwork needs to become the centre of a room. Sometimes it is much more enjoyable when you notice it almost by accident.

I don't think of art as furniture

In my own home, it has always been the artwork first.

If I see a piece that I love and have that feeling that I absolutely must have it, I don't start wondering which wall it will go on. I bring it home and then find its place.

I don't really think about art in the same way that I think about furniture. Its purpose isn't simply to complete the decoration of a room.

For me, the connection is much more personal.

Perhaps our taste connects all these things more than we realise. The things I choose for my home and the art I am attracted to probably come from the same part of me, so somehow they usually find a way of living together.

Living with art

I find it difficult to imagine a home without art of some kind.

And by art, I don't mean that every wall needs an expensive original painting.

It might be a print, a small sculpture or a beautiful handmade ceramic bowl that you use every day. It might be something made by an artist you admire, something you found while travelling or a piece that simply caught your attention and wouldn't let go.

You can also browse my original linocut prints if you would like to see the work I currently have available.

These things give us something to look at, enjoy and sometimes think about. They make our surroundings more personal.

For me, art makes life more beautiful. It gives me inspiration and pleasure, but there is something else that is harder to explain. Living with things that have been imagined and made by another person feeds something in me.

A room can change. Furniture moves, walls are repainted and our homes evolve with us.

But the art we genuinely love has a way of staying.