Large original painting by Aymar De Villele hanging above couch in a Weehawken NJ living room. Courtesy of Barsky Gallery in Hoboken NJ.

When deciding on art for your home, you’ll probably have a thousand questions whizzing through your head.

What type of paintings should be in the living room?

What’s the most meaningful art for home decor?

How many paintings should be in a room?

Here, we’re sharing some ideas on how to know what art to buy, helping you choose the perfect pieces for your home and your growing art collection.

Select a Style
Decide with Colors
Get Inspired
Pick Size Based on Space
Art in Every Room

Select a Style

One of the easiest ways to choose art for your home is by trusting your personal style.

Chances are, you’ve begun to develop a unique sense of style that shines through in your furniture, light fixtures, and appliances. You can expand on that style by choosing art that fits.

Frames can also help to keep your art within a particular style. Metal frames offer more of an industrial vibe while more ornate frames can create a bold, traditional look.

Decide with Colors

Using the color palette of your home is another simple way to choose the best art to decorate. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Choose art with a background color that matches the color of your wall.
Pick art with colors that are complementary to your walls and furniture using the color wheel.
Use art that’s the same color as your wall in a slightly different shade.
When in doubt, choose art that’s black and white.
For the brave among us, choose bold art in bright colors to contrast a neutral room.

Get Inspired

No need to choose the art for your home out of nowhere. Get inspired by what you already own.

Match your iconic leather couch with a mid-century style piece. Use your eclectic color palette to decide on some funky prints. Use the textiles in your bedroom to decide on a complementary work of art.

On the other hand, you might design your space around art that’s meaningful to you. Perfect for anyone building a home from the ground up or designing a completely empty space from start to finish, choose art that speaks to you first, then fill the space around it.

Pick Size Based on Space

When choosing the size of art, you’ll need to consider the space you have to work with.

Generally, a large piece can really make a statement, taking up much of a wall and leaving very little emptiness. However, a huge work might not make sense in your entryway or with your large furniture.

Additionally, a few smaller pieces can work together, treated as a single piece, and displayed accordingly. Or, create a gorgeous gallery wall out of multiple works.

You should be able to hang your art about 60 inches from the floor to the center of the piece and 4 to 6 inches above large furniture. The work should also be about ⅔ the size of the furniture below it which will likely affect the size you go with.

Pro Tip: Take advantage of Digital Art Staging to see how a piece will look in a certain space.

Art in Every Room

Another great way to choose art for your home is by going room by room.

If you’re an art lover, chances are you’ve got the living room and bedrooms covered. But what about the kitchen or bathrooms -- often overlooked rooms of the house that aren’t usually graced with beautiful works of art.

A simple gallery wall in the empty wall space above the toilet is often a missed opportunity. Plus, the kitchen (at least for us in New Jersey) is the heartbeat of the home and is just waiting to be sprinkled with thoughtful art pieces.

Let yourself be guided by the rooms in your home and how they’re utilized.

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We get it. With so much incredible art out there, it can be difficult to choose the perfect pieces to style your home.

Need a professional touch? We offer our friends in Hoboken, NJ Art Services to help you curate the collection of your dreams.