When you're faced with a space that already has a lot of good colors, it can be easy to think of those when selecting art. And why not? If the colors in your art collection match the colors in your furnishings, textiles and accessories, then there's no doubt that all elements will complement one another and not much chance any will fight.
Of course, being bold enough to put a piece of art in a space that is of a color that doesn't exist in your space yet has its merits, like being dramatic and making a big statement. Having art that doesn't have any room color precedents can lead to a layered, sophisticated space with a lot of interesting interactions.
What camp do you fall into? Does your art only contain the colors of the rest of your space? Maybe one or a couple colors from the space in the art (the camp we imagine many folks will fall in)? Or did you choose a dynamic piece of art that introduced a whole new color scheme? What were your color intentions with your art collection and the rest of the space? (And should you be looking for some art color inspiration: Art by Color)
Images: 1: Juan Enriquez; 2: Peter & Margaret; 3: Celeste and Nikolai; 4: Drew Steinbrecher; 5: Erin
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I pick room colours for living and art for making me happy. I tend to choose room colours that make art look good. I go to museums and notice what colours they paint their exhibition halls.
Love this bold look!
We are intentionally designing our home with very neutral walls and furnishings so we can begin collecting (and creating) art without restrictions. We like so many different styles and colors that we didn't want to run into the "we can't hang that because it clashes" issue. Especially in the case of our own art, we wanted the freedom to experiment without hesitation. It would break my husband's heart if he spent time and effort working on a painting, and I told him not to hang it because it would mess up the mood of the room. :)
Neither. I pick my room colors on the overall feeling I want to create for the room. And I select art because I love it. There are colors I gravitate towards for my home so they all end up working. It peeves me to select art based on the room. Same thing for framing (which I'm passionate about). You don't pick a frame for the room, you pick it to complement the art.
Both. Most often I pick the art to go with the room, but I have based an entire room off of a particular piece of art that I liked.
i would love for my art to somewhat 'match' my space, but i decided on a very different room color.
my walls are greyish blue and most of my art is warm tones (bright red, mustard yellow, rusts and browns), so i'm finding it difficult to choose throw pillows/rugs in a complimenting color for both the walls and the art.
thoughts?
I also do neither...and pick room colors for the overall vibe of the room. I pick art because it reminds me of an experience (usually purchased on a trip) or because it "speaks to me". I don't have any art that doesn't mean something to me or has some story behind it. I frame everything that needs to be framed in the same thin black metal frame (in an attempt to try to unify very different pieces) and choose each mat individually according to what looks best for each piece.
If I could AFFORD art, I'd design around it, LOL! Actually most of my wall decor is textiles from various other countries. Things tend to just fall into place.
I did buy a fantastic hand carved 3-fold screen because it so perfectly matched the colors I had already painted my sunroom. But I wasn't shopping for it, it was more of a lucky find.
Like Allison6971, neither. I choose wall colors to set the tone of the room and to flow with the rooms around it, and all the art we have speaks to us in some way. Specific walls are hung with art that I see in some way "going together" although not in a matchy matchy style. For example, I have a couple of prints (by different artists) from the early 1910s from Norway that really reinforce each other; they hang over the living room mantel with a print we happened to get for our wedding. Frames are chosen both in terms of each piece and in terms of what it will be hanging with.
I love this post, and I love what people are saying in the comments, too. As an artist, I believe that art should not be an afterthought, and it's so much more enjoyable if it has meaning for you - but the overall design is important too. I like Sherri's comment about choosing neutral colors in the room so they can be free to hang whatever art they enjoy. I also think building a room around a strong piece of art is unconventional and exciting. And it's also fun to break some rules every now and then!
I have a different approach... I have a lot of small pieces in salon-style displays, so I lay them out according to shape/size and the color relationships across the whole group... if that makes sense. I try to think of the entire group as one big composition. It works pretty well, and I don't feel like any of my art clashes with the wall colors.
As for affordability, I buy mostly unframed works from students and print shops, in standard sizes if I can get them. IKEA and Target are my best friends for frames (and the glass "floater" frames are great for non-standard sizes). I also use americanframe.com for the occasional custom frame - not cheap, but the prices are still way better than a lot of other sites. :)
I just moved into my apartment in June, and so, i have a blank slate literally on my walls. I went a bit crazy purchasing art this Spring and really had no game plan, but the art features a lot of colors I had never before used as accent colors in a room. I guess now I am leaning toward working around my artwork, but I have sourced some lovely pieces to put on my "buy" list (rugs, furniture) that will enable everything to mesh together.
So much fun, this decorating in my head thing.
Same here...when we moved into our new house last fall, I had a two week window after closing to choose paint colors for each room. After living in rentals with white walls, I wanted something different. I tend to gravitate toward the same colors, so it was a matter of picking a color for each room and seeing how the light interacted with each room's color over those two weeks.
As for art, I buy what I'm drawn to, and there is also a common thread with that as far as colors go. My art is in harmony with the paint colors I like, even though my tastes are very eclectic. So matching the paint colors I had chosen wasn't a problem. The only issue with choosing art is where I'll put it and whether it'll fit. I do have some pieces with colors that are not prominent in my home, but to be honest, my home looks like a rainbow threw up all over the place, so staying within a certain pallette isn't a big deal.
And yes, my husband does't care how I decorate, so I have free reign to do what I want. And the art that my husband has or is drawn to happens to be in harmony colorwise with my art, and sometimes in harmony even by subject, so displaying his art hasn't been an issue at all.
I furnish a room around the art rather than buy art that match's my furniture, but because I am attracted to certain colors my furniture and art tend to get along just fine. If something is not in my usual color scheme then I try to repeat the color in at least three places around the room to keep it looking balanced.
Art is a living element on it's own. You can certainly take colors from your main art piece to tie your room together and create "balance" if that's what you're looking for.
But you should never choose a serious piece of art based on the color pallete or style you have in your already put together room.
It takes the life out of the piece turning it into just a filler element in your space.
I've always found that, if I love the art, it will somehow look fabulous in my rooms. Maybe because I decorate my rooms to make me happy, and I pick the art to make me happy, and the things that make me happy somehow work together!
Who knows - but it works for me.
I group my art into specific rooms. Living room has clay colored walls with different art that has a lot of red, Dining room, more black and white photos. same clay walls.
The art that appeals to me most has a muted palette that goes well with my neutral walls and mostly-neutral furniture. So I'm good.
There's a difference between art and wall decor, isn't there? I wish AT would use the term wall decor when talking about picking colors to match a room. It's seems fundamentally off -- and insulting to artists -- to talk about art being something to complement a sofa.
We have art that follows us from place to place. A friend painted us a painting for our wedding that has somehow worked with every wall color we throw at it. Our art is very eclectic, though, from a bright blue triptych that would look awful on, say, a taupe wall, to tradition Chinese art that looks great on certain wall colors. I would never just hang a piece of art in a room where it didn't "go", but I can't say I've ever chosen either a wall color or a painting based on how it works with decor. The thought of matching a painting I love to a couch seems silly to me. I put a lot more thought into whether a rug will match a couch, and fill in our stash of art and photography based on where it fits best afterward. So far that's managed to work, probably because our rooms aren't cookie-cutters of each other.
I will add that I'm currently stumped on a blank wall in our living room that needs something, but nothing we own will fit/look right in that space. So I'm currently looking through my photos to make an art canvas and/or looking online to find the right thing. That is one case where the room dictates art a little. But I don't have any color scheme in mind, per se, just a sense for what might look right.
Ah, I used to work in a lovely furniture store that displayed and sold work by local artists (including myself). My biggest pet peeve was that people chose work almost entirely by whether the colour would work in their space - and they would tell me most of their furniture was beige! Beige! I would be screaming in my head, "your carpet is beige, your walls are beige, your furniture is beige! Chose something you -love-, no matter what colour it is! If you love it, you'll never get tired of it, no matter how colourful it is!"
As for us, most of our walls are a gray that suits both our colourful artwork and furniture. I love both bold and neutral colours in artwork, so we have a bit of both. I don't choose it based on my existing decor, though.
Philosophically, I have a problem with buying your art to match your throw pillows. If you must be matchy matchy, I think the art should dictate the room colour. We collect a new piece of art for every anniversary. The colours in the existing space are never a factor when we are looking to purchase (sometimes mood or style might impact), but it's about art for art's sake, not trendy rooms. When the art matches the colors in the room too much, I feel like I'm in a show room, not a home and the art is usually personality-less.
I agree with robotlaw. Art chosen to "match" is evident, and usually boring --- like the kind of bland prints you see in a staged home. Art, in my mind, should be chosen because you love it, and whatever the colors, you can work it out in your decor scheme over time. If this is frightening, choose neutrals and buy whatever art turns you on.
The bedroom's precarious placement of wall art and lopsided lamps/side tables makes me uneasy. I love the color choices and the quirkiness but the feng shui needs balancing.
Art should be all colors! Rooms with a million colors in them set against a neutral background make me happy. Matching my art to my room is impossible anyway. I like too many things for that.
If there's any decor-matching with the art, it's pretty happenstance. I choose art I love...and I have a LOT of art, as my mom is a painter (with a vivid sense of colour). I have been known to snatch paintings right out of her studio, based on instant love. ;) The majority of my apartment is painted/decorated in greens, with blues as the secondary colours (and then white/cream, charcoal gray, black, silver, light-to-medium toned woods, etc.). So my theory is my colour scheme is like nature, and any colours I add are like flowers in the garden. Bright reds, pinks, purples, and even oranges and yellows seem to feature in a lot of my artwork, and become even more of a colour "splash" against my "neutral" earth and sky colours.