Pictures on your walls?

[homebird29]

What kind of art is on the walls of your house? Specifically the living room? Would love some ideas of kinds of pictures to buy to make the place feel a bit more homely.

We've got various things, some picked up from holidays and a few things which were gifts. For example, a water colour print from John Lewis which was a gift, some vintage postcards framed in one of those mounts that fits three images, a couple of original water colours bought from a street seller in Italy, a framed advertising poster from an Art Nouveau exhibition.

Choose things you like and can live with, especially if they are going to be visible to you much of the time you are in a room. I like Lowry's work, but it's not the kind of thing I could live with, IYKWIM, so I wouldn't buy a print for the house. I particularly like things which are a bit different which remind me of places I've been and things I've seen, but it's down to personal taste.

In the living room a Framed poster from France, a couple of DP's massive paintings and mine, (odd stuff that no one else would like but makes us laugh). Canvases my brother made. A framed batik from the 50's, some dark photography that my best friend did. There's a poster of Picasso's "Two women running on the beach" in the baby's room. An unframed canvas that a well known artist gave me to look after when he was unhinged (his words). Some of my dads paintings, framed and unframed. Pictures the kids have drawn. Plus a load of hand drawn sketches a friend made for my dd when she was born. A mismatched collection, but all stuff we just like the look of (rather than fitted the room or is fashionable) and collected over years!

We have artists on both sides of the family, plus family friends so we do get given a lot!

My advice is Just collect loads, everything you think is pleasing to look at. Then you can swap them around if you get bored of looking at the same thing

How wall art is arranged is just as important as the pictures themselves, IMO. Pinterest is definitely your friend for inspiration!

I am slightly different. I have some decorative wall plates on the walls as well as pictures.

In my dining room I have a set of old country life scenes and a couple Royal Albert "Old Country Roses" plates with cottage scenes on them.

In the sitting room I also have a set of plates with swiss cottage scenes on them ( father gave them me , he bought them in the 1980's) but they are pretty. I find these things easier to clean than pictures.

I also have a some paintings. I got two from a craft fair . They are original water colours by a local artist. I had to frame them myself.
I also have a nice picture ( well I like it) from an art shop - its one of those oil pictures that you get a lot of copied in China. Its a street scene. I have another of a cottage in twilight on another wall. You can see I like cottages and scenes.

My brother is an artist and he looks down his nose at my pictures but I like them anyway.

I also have a wilton carpet wall hanging in my study .

I think you need to pick what you like. I have had good luck in getting nice cheap prints and such from charity shops. You can pick up good paintings and pretty plates that way too.

I love calendars for this sort of thing; I've got a vintage print of Venice from one I picked up a few years ago in the sitting room

It's cheap, too

I have paintings everywhere. Been painting them for over twenty two years. Portraits of the family from babyhood to adulthood. They are involved in various activities as if caught in a moment in time eg painting, in the garden, feeding ducks etc etc. then there are flowers given for special occasions and places we have been on holiday. Trouble is I have run out of wall space although friends and relatives are also surrounded by my efforts. So be careful what you start!
My advice would be to choose pictures you engage with and will probably grow to love. Good luck.

I've got all sorts. Looking round at the walls now, I can see collages, original paintings, stained glass, framed photos, painted silk and sculptures.

I love art and am fortunate in living in a very arty place so galleries are in abundance. I try and buy at least one original piece a year and also whenever i travel and have done so for over 15 years so have quite a nice mix now.

We've got posters picked up from art exhibitions we've been to, screen prints by local artists (nothing more than ~£120), some botanical plates razored out of defunct, vintage natural history books: mounted and framed, some plates by these people: www.peoplewillalwaysneedplates.co.uk, and a couple of more valuable one-off pictures, both of which were gifts.

Mostly Art purchased from Galleries. It takes a lot of going round to see something you might buy, but we found that after the first one the next were much much easier. The first picture we bought hasn't been a great success, really, but it's been worth it for all the others that came behind.

My oh takes nice pics. We've blown some of them up onto canvases. We love it as it keeps it all personal to us.

Um it's hard to think actually. There's a couple of pictures the children did that I really like - in frames probably charity shop ones.

There's an embroidery by my Granny who was a prolific artist and there's a proper framed photographic print from the National Gallery which I love, it's enormous. The ceiling is really high so it fits Ok here, hope it still does at new house.

We've got a lot of large oil paintings my grandparents did over the years and we're not putting them up till we've moved but there are so many and they are so big and lovely that it will probably fill the house, and more.

I feel really lucky to have that, they were both brilliant painters.

I have a large oil painting on one of the living room walls that was made by an artist who is famous for making oil paintings from photos that are 100% hand painted.

Family photos.
A sketch of the kids an artist friend did - it's a colour 'storybook' type picture.
A framed poster of where we honeymooned.
An art print of our favourite city.

Not very inventive