Art for living room/bedroom walls

[JandLandG]

Afternoon all

not long moved into a great new home.

not too grand, but v pleasant edwardian period with quite high ceilings...and therefore big, blank walls.

i think it's time to move on from our old stuff we had in our 1930s semi, so i was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/suggestions on what to put up/where to find interesting/good/tasteful stuff.

have been mooching around various places recently but nothing's grabbed me as yet.

the living room has some nice bookshelves and fireplace/mantlepiece for family photos etc and the walls are light and plain at the moment....

ditto our main bedroom really. what to put above the marital bed?!

just wondering if anyone had any thoughts/opinions

thanks

[Kathyjelly]

Ring the local art college and ask when their exhibition is. Some of the stuff here is amazing. And prices are reasonable.

[TheHeathenOfSuburbia]

Was looking at stuff on here: www.simplycanvasart.co.uk/ with a view to brightening up living room. Haven't decided yet though...

[noddyholder]

Agree with kathy definitely try and get some original pieces via the college.I have quite a collection!

[JandLandG]

hey, thanks for these

have thought about local art colleges before but never quite got round to it...perhaps this is the time to try a bit harder on that front.

but perhaps their exhibitions are at the end of the academic year though so too late for now i suppose.

anyway, certainly getting into an optimistic vibe for autumn...nice, grown up curtains needed for tremendous big sash windows in our room and in sitting room.

few other bits and bobs planned...with the piece de la creme of a kitchen/diner type extension on the back next year...quite looking forward to the nighs drawing in and getting stuff done!

[noddyholder]

That sounds great!I am in the middle of a big renovation atm but luckily living in a nearby flat!have 7 weeks to move in though and still empty shell .Also check ot local galleries and artists on ebay HTH

[artyjools]

Or try local art club exhibitions. Most clubs will have one or two exhibitions every year and even the small ones tend to have their own website nowadays. Prices range from a few pounds to a few hundred pounds and you might be really surprised at how good soem fo the work is .

[CerealOffender]

folksy and etsy are good. what sort of thing are you into?

[CerealOffender]

that simply canvas site is horrific!

[lalalonglegs]

Vintage posters nicely framed - advertising posters, good graphic-y stuff - always looks great. IME of (London) art colleges, students charge a fortune for pretty shoddy stuff.

[noddyholder]

agree re canvases dreadful

[TheHeathenOfSuburbia]

Damn, I was worried the canvases might be a bit passe.

[LizHF]

If you've got some lovely family photos, you can get them blown up into black and white pictures and mounted onto canvas, I think that always looks nice. If that's not for you then I would also go for some lovely vintage posters.

Liz

[CerealOffender]

sorry heathen!

[TheHeathenOfSuburbia]

So, I can't put this, say, or this in my living room?

Sigh. Back to the drawing board. (not literally, that would be a shocker!)

[BoojaB]

I have to agree with Cereal and Noddy - the canvases are tacky.

I've had the same question for months now - what to put above the bed? I haven't been able to find anything!

[ScaredOfCows]

Same here, can't find anything for the living room wall. All I want is a nice print, in a frame, with glass. All the shops seem to have in is canvases and metal wall art.

[jollydiane]

look if you want art then use easy art, you can pick pictures by colour or type. I know some might consider it to be lazy but and not 'proper culture' but I am so pleased with my prints. Also use a cash back website such as top cash and you get cash back.

[GrendelsMum]

I potter round local art galleries , and never have any problem filling our walls with art (well, have problems affording everything I'd like...). There may be a big range of prices, but if you fall in love with something expensive the Arts' Council's 'Own Art' scheme gives you interest free loans to buy art, which is a great scheme - you pay it off monthly. I have to say that people always notice / comment on my most expensive pieces of art, and not on the cheapies.

Don't forget to budget for framing, which is always ludicrously expensive.

Having said all this, I'm told that Ikea's limited edition prints are pretty good, if you're near an Ikea.

[ZinglebertBembledank]

There's also Allposters.com. Choose from millions of prints (well a lot) in a choice of frames.

I've gone for this which is one of my favourite books.

But some MNers might prefer this one

[ninah]

try ebay it may take a while but you can find some good original work on there (if you wade through a fair bit of dross)

[CerealOffender]

look here, lots of original and beautiful work some shite too i grant you.

[prettywhiteguitar]

I am an artist, look for samantha snowden on facebook and I will add you as a friend, you can look at my paintings there :)

[Attenborough]

I'm looking for something for our sitting room wall too - though we live in a little cottage which could easily be twee so it needs to be something fairly bold. I'm thinking of a linoprint - if anyone can recommend somewhere to begin looking, I'd be delighted.

[southeastastra]

our local john lewis has a gallery and mostly has fab paintings something for everyone

[CerealOffender]

ahem.. attenborough what sort of linoprints do you like (i have a vested interest here!)