I don’t find this to be all that new. I think the process for some in picking artwork is just too painfully confusing.

I can't count the number of times I've thought to myself, "Ummmm....art?" when someone asks a variation of "How can I add interest to my room?" or "What should I do with this wall?" Even people who explicitly want art seem to struggle with choosing art. Asking about size and positioning I get, but so many people don't even seem to know what they like. Or maybe don't care what they like and are only worried about what other people might like.

I do not have this problem. I am quickly getting to the point where I have more art than wall space. And I like it all.

Seriously, this is inconceivable to me. I still have the first picture I ever bought when I was 14 years old at an at an art show at my local Brentanno's. It was a small portrait. I loved it and seemed like such a grown up purchase to me.

As an adult, I have eschewed modern houses for want of wall space.

I also do not like open floor plans because of the lack of walls for hanging art.

I mainly notice the lack of art in houses that have huge glass walls, and while I like these walls, I also have lots of paintings that I like to hang.

I've never hard a shortage of artwork for my walls, although in college I did used to hang black-light posters, but I also did fluorescent paintings of my own for the walls.

The absence of lamps always jumps out at me. I only use an overhead fixture long enough to walk over to the lamps.

I see things: paintings, pictures, 'wall art' I like I buy when I know I have a spot for it. This idea of 'oh here's an empty space lets go on a search for what to put there' is so odd to me. Who wants to live in a gallery? Surrounded my random STUFF?? I want to live in a home that reflects my life, what I like, my family. I can't imagine posting an empty wall and asking random strangers 'what should I put here?'. HOW to put things maybe but WHAT--not happening.

I notice the absence of lamps too, which I don't get. My house needed rewiring, so my lamps switch from the door.

I don't think art needs to be profound necessarily, nor do I think every space needs to be filled. If you like something because it's decorative but nothing else, that's fine. I just think it's an odd phenomenon that people will have nothing in the room but the standard furniture and then will not be able to figure out why they think it looks so dull, and then in turn can't seem to figure out that a piece of art or two could be an easy solution.

I have noticed people buying inexpensive canvas wrapped prints and just throwing them up on a wall to fill some space and/or no art at all. People sometimes do not see the value in taking the time to find something that speaks to them.

I also cringe when people do not have lamps and just have a single bulb or just one overhead light and they ask why their room looks like it is cold or boring or unfinished.

Great topic Pal!

I guess if you want no art you like it that way, it's fine. When I lived in my first condo the LR was the back parlor and it had very elaborate plaster cornices and door/window surrounds (Ionic pilasters holding up pediments) and once I had repaired the plaster and painted (it was polychrome, 4 colors total) I didn't want to put any nails in the walls. I think I had a couple things but mostly empty walls.

In real estate here I see a lot of the Holly Golightly print which you can get at IKEA. Sometimes its from staging (because it's big I guess) but sometimes it's the owner's.

So I guess it's a matter of what you want as a conscious choice. I am just having a hard time with the idea that people don't even think of it.

The other thing that I have read in several posts is. "There is this room between the kitchen and living room . . .", "there is this alcove area in the living room . . ." "There is this empty space next to the kitchen . . ." and they don't know what it is for or how to use it. I wonder if more and more people are growing up eating literally at an island or in the living room in front of the TV and have lost the idea of "dining area". To be honest, since we have moved into this house we have eaten dinner in the Living room watching the news, because there is no dedicated eating area until after we renovate, which has been endless.

Yes to the lamp thing...how many people post, "How do I brighten up this dark room?" when it's a huge family room with only the overhead light in the ceiling fan. Doh!

I've always had art on my wall as far back as I can remember...maybe when I was 10 it was the Peter Max Beatles posters, but it was something! We built with few hallways and more open space and does have fewer walls for art, but we manage. We have lots of artwork just sitting up in the attic that's been collected over the years, but it's not valuable stuff...just stuff.

Art is the first, and sometimes only, thing I suggest when there is none. I also suggest lamps and end tables. What's with the living rooms and dens with no tables? I get that some people are not house obessesed, but they somewhat care since they are asking for help. Others are decorating challanged with not an inkling of what to do. Then, as someone said above, low on funds. But art is something you can take with you, unlike shiplap.

Art adds personality and allows the owner to express themselves. I might not be able to paint or draw, but I can discover a new piece that moves me in some way, one I enjoy seeing each and every time I see. When we moved this last time, I got rid of very little art that had previously been mine. There are two laundry baskets full, and larger pieces between them and the wall - art I will not part with (yet). That said, I've bought more since moving, but I'm about out of places.

I think some people are intimidated by the word "art". When I used to answer questions on the Home Decorating forum I tried to point out that wall decor doesn't have to be an oil painting. And that there are all kinds of interesting things that you can put on walls. Framed antique maps of places you like, textiles, framed pages from books, antique signs, shallow baskets, etc. There are many options. Just make sure it is meaningful to you and/or appeals to you.

I agree that wall art does not have to be paintings or prints. I have a lot of Zapotec tapestries that I have on walls plus a lot of African and Mexican masks. I like things that are textural and three-dimensional.

In addition to table and floor lamps, I like wall sconces and have designed a lot of those for work that sold well. I also designed a lot of table and floor lamps that sold well. Unfortunately, I do not own any of the lamps or sconces that I have designed, and I should.

Another piece of art is photographs. I love the idea of taking them to a printer and having them sized to whatever you want and then either just framing them or framing with a mat.

I have given away so many of my own paintings (that I painted) as gifts. My best friend has two in her home. One she asked me to paint and I let her choose the direction in which she wanted me to go and the other I just had but never hung. It fits nicely in her home.

I have many of my own that I painted hanging in my home.

I also think the HGTV Effect is in play here. Folks are programmed to DIY, Sweat Equity will Increase Home Value and are fed the various few ”project du jour” from a handfull of actors-turn-designers.

Then there’s the gallery wall (of which i have one in my office). I think the focus on filling space with things that “go together” is a new way to experience art - not for every space and not universally a good idea.

And, of course, there is no standard definition of good art, it’s always in the eye of the viewer.

Art doesn't speak to me but lamps do. The curves of them, the textures, the colours, the light that they throw, the lamp shades and their shapes - I love them all whether they be table or floor lamps or chandeliers.

I have to admit I will walk into a lighting store for fun and spend an hour just looking at them and touching them and lifting them up and turning them. I do love lamps.

Lamps can be art.

Although nothing is hung in this house yet except in the two finished bathrooms, we will probably eventually run out of space. And we have everything from pieces we have picked up from the curb to original work by listed artists and everything in between. I am not sure where it comes from is important, and not everything has the same level of meaning or importance.

Jinx, I so love the Kimbell. That building is one of my very favorite buildings. That Louis Kahn sure knew what he was doing :-)

I agree, Zalco! Love The Modern, too. We didn’t have time to get over there yesterday.

Art is certainly a window to the inner you to outsiders walking into your home.

One thing I'm noticing a lot is coffee tables that look like they are in the middle of the room, like an island. What's up with that?

Art is personal and decorating, thanks to IG, has become colorlessly homogenous and generically soulless. Art conflicts with the black and white or sea of greys of today’s trends.

If you haven't, watch My Architect, about Louis Kahn.

I am one who has trouble finding art and does not use much of it. Framing maps or mementos or prints, yes, that is easy because we almost all have things like that with meaning for us.

I have trouble selecting oil paintings. The two I like best I bought from the PO. I trust his taste more than my own! Very little art "speaks to me." I just do not have an eye. I love art museums, and have been to many of them, and would take plenty of the things I have seen on art museum walls (ha ha) but I am unable to find art that someone has not already curated for me. I very rarely see art I like outside of a museum.

Have friends who collect paintings from local artists that are known nationally. I must say they are mesmerizing and add an aura to a room that is hard to describe.

I don't think I've ever bought art or "art" but I sure do have a lot of it for some reason.

Wait, that's not true. I did spend a couple bucks on my thrift store angry chicken print:

(still needs reframing/matting. That brown. Bleh!)

If you're having trouble choosing art, find/pick a genre you like, birds, florals, portraits , etc and go from there

I would also say, try to have something in common w/ the frames so there is some cohesion.

I collect dog paintings, and all the frames have gold in them, from gold leaf to a simple band of gold

just_terrilynn

2 hours ago

last modified: 2 hours ago

Art is certainly a window to the inner you to outsiders walking into your home.

One thing I'm noticing a lot is coffee tables that look like they are in the middle of the room, like an island. What's up with that?

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That's been a pet peeve of mine for yrs.

Most often times it's used to balance the furniture layout... but is totally useless, ARGH!

I think the more you have the less things have to go together. This is probably because I have "more" and they don't "go together" other than they all reflect our taste.

The primary bedroom is going to get all the Japanese prints because they are all similar in spirit and color, and the frames are all very similar because very few frames look quite right, but there are at least a dozen in groups of similar size or era. That room is probably an exception, in terms of its homogeneity.

But the two rooms downstairs will get a pretty intense mix of things that are not related in any particular way. I have a feeling that there are more than 50 things that need to be hung somewhere or other and they span all sorts of subjects and framing styles so far, because the framing was picked to respond to the piece, not any overall plan.

Add me to the list of those who cannot imagine living without art in my home. My maternal grandfather bought paintings and other art which may have inspired me (fyi Philadelphians, he frequented Freeman's back in the first half of the 20th c.). I have several of his things in my house now and my dad's mother painted also. I bought my first painting (a small watercolor) from an artist at an art sale in the K of P mall before it was enlarged and completely closed in. I was in high school and it cost me $25. I still love it and it hangs in my kitchen. I wish the older man who painted could know how much it is loved. I bought two Kathë Kolwitz etchings with money my parents gave me when I turned 21. Still have and love them, although they need to be reframed and matted now. I buy pieces that make my heart sing. Some are very good, some maybe not. Variety of styles from antique French paintings to abstact art. I cannot imagine not having art in my home.

Gizmo, I would love to see your dog paintings!

Hope you will share.

I've always had pictures or china sculptures, special lighting something nearby since I was in the crib. As an adult I have my Oriental rugs, turned wooden bowls, art of all kinds on the walls and in the last house and this one some very special lighting. I also have a number of things in my gardens that are " art" to me. My rock walls that I have made or had made are definitely an artistic venture and the placement of plants and their selection ranks as art by my definition as it brings me so much pleasure to gaze at the changing scenes Nature and I are creating together.

Wonderful thread @palimpsest

The current trend is very "corporate" IMHO, so either no art or ubiquitous stuff. Fortunately or unfortunately, that means all kinds of great used and new art out there and not very expensive. I love art too much, have to work on curtailing myself. If you move a lot, art is tough to justify, the packing, unpacking hanging, repacking, hanging again, fixing the holes in the walls, etc.

the changing scenes Nature and I are creating together.

That's lovely and so poetic

I don't really have art but I have stuff on my walls. We got married in college and had no discretionary funds for years. When DH got a traveling job we reaped the benefits of early airline and hotel loyalty programs and went a lot of places, picking up various posters as souvenirs - a couple from the Louvre (our first trip anywhere) and some other museums. We have other posters from some events and have those in our lower level living area. For a long time these were just rolled up and in storage then one year DH decided it would be a good Christmas present to have a bunch of the posters and some prints framed. I think we only have two original paintings and several prints. The thing I like about all our stuff is that it was purchased as a part of some life experience so it is all very meaningful and brings about fond memories. I've never bought something for the walls just to buy a piece of "art". That is probably in large part because I am too frugal to do so, something I will probably never get over at my age.

I really felt I had hit the big time when I was able to visit an art gallery and get some art just because I wanted art! It was actually part of a local estate sale, watercolors by a guy who just had that as a hobby and went out often painting the local natural areas with dunes. I had been wanting a dune painting anyway, to remind me of home when I lived in PA. I couldn't decide between two (there were dozens) so I got them both. They cost more to frame than purchase.

Most of my art is cheapie found stuff and I usually do the framing when I am feeling flush. Luckily at this point I have more than enough, since I am no longer "flush."