“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Picasso

No matter the style a room is designed in, art will be the key to bringing a room to life. Often times, a room can be inspired and designed around a single piece of art. For me, adding art to a room is essential to bringing it to life, to adding a bit of adventure to a space, & to evoking a certain feeling when you enter the room. My deep appreciation for art started at a young age. I credit my artist mother for influencing that passion, as she introduced me to some of the great Impressionist artists of our time, like Monet, when I was a child, and equally showed me how the art of “making” and creating my own art through watercolors, color pastels, paint, or clay was both gratifying and exciting, an expression of the soul. I also was given free reign to decorate and hang my own art in my room as a child. It only makes sense that I grew up with a true passion to create and design spaces, using art to liven up and reflect the style of who lives there.

Did you know… art can also have a positive effect on how you feel when viewing it in a room? There have been studies done to show that art can actually reduce your stress! The areas in a home where you want to relax and feel comfortable, such as a living room and bedroom, would be perfect places to start when deciding where to hang art in your home. Art has also been proven to increase productivity, making it a no-brainer to add to any home office or workspace. Most exciting, in my opinion, is the fact that viewing art actually increases your overall creativity. It brings about joy and positive inspiration for a viewer, and for your home, it’s always great to be able to find a sense of joy and excitement when walking inside your home. So if you have that room you dread going into, or you just don’t feel inspired when you walk into it, perhaps you just need to update its walls with a new piece of art!

Here are some inspiring examples of incorporating art into a room:

If you are looking to invest in some beautiful fine art pieces, some great sites to search for artists are:

Artwork Archive

Fine Art America

You can search by a specific artist or style of art, like impressionism, for instance. Several pieces displayed above are by Susan Abell, who specifies in landscape impressionism for her paintings.

If you are thinking you can’t invest in any art right now and alas are doomed to dull white walls, fear not! There are lots of inexpensive ways to create art that will still bring a Wow factor to a room:

1. Frame square wallpaper samples

The framed piece above in the center is actually a large wallpaper sample that I framed. You can display as a group or as just one, or incorporate one into a gallery wall, like I did above.

2. Frame art prints

Instead of buying a canvas, consider buying it as a print and then you can frame it. I also like to buy art books by a favorite artist and then cut out prints to frame them. In the above photo, the Monet piece in the upper left is actually from a Claude Monet book I found on clearance.

3. Create your own modern painting

For the abstract paintings above, I used canvas paper and black acrylic paint and then framed each.

4. Consider non-traditional pieces of art that you can hang on the wall

The framed piece above in the center is actually a large wallpaper sample that I framed. You can display as a group or as just one, or incorporate one into a gallery wall, like I did above.

Whatever art you choose, make it personal to yourself and what you like. After all, your home should be a reflection of you and what you love.