How to choose Art for your Holiday Home

When it comes to decorating, you might be wondering how to choose art for your holiday home. With plenty of walls and areas to feature in your property, art and interior design play a huge part in that first impression.

Read on for our guide with input from Howard Flanagan of Art Unlimited and Anne Easterbrooke of Ammonite Home Styling.

How to choose art for your holiday home

Art above all, is an investment. When selecting a piece of artwork for your holiday home there are many factors to consider.

You might choose a piece before decorating which will ultimately dictate the look and feel of your property.

Property Considerations

If your property is located by the coast, choosing artwork of the sea or local points of coastal interest will thrill your guests.

You’ll need to consider durability and placement if you’re accepting children or pets into the property. For example, you wouldn’t want to place a breakable art piece near a doorway where children and dogs might be running in and out of.

If the piece is sentimental or high value, you might want to consider additional insurances or good housekeeping bond.

Art Galleries

Local art galleries such as Art Unlimited offer a range of pieces for browsing, purchasing, and loaning. They are huge supporters of local artists which a great thing to reference in the property’s welcome pack.

Art Unlimited offers the opportunity to loan art pieces temporarily so you can see how best it works in a space in your holiday home. Howard and the team can also advise on what works best for your property.

Landscapes paintings and photographers are great choice for drawing guests in and creating excitement about their seaside stay or countryside retreat.

Wall Spaces

No home is complete without pictures hanging on the walls and one great option is a gallery wall.

This could be curated collection of pictures or mirrors can be arranged in a way that has real personality.

An arrangement of pictures can effectively fill a wall with much more impact than a single picture. Different numbers, sizes, styles and colours of pictures and frames can be designed to achieve distinct effects.

Gallery walls are suitable for any space, and as well as adding character and style they are eclectic, contemporary, and sophisticated.

Focal Points

The first consideration is what kind of visual impact you are trying to achieve.

Do you want the wall to have impact and be the focal point of the room? Or are you looking or a subtle way of adding a layer to the room to lift the occupant’s eyes upwards?

An eclectic mix of frame styles with pictures in bolder colours would achieve the former, whilst a muted collection of prints framed in similar frames would achieve the latter.

A drift of pictures following the stairs as they ascend accentuates the height and space of the stair well and a gallery of small quirky pictures in a downstairs loo can introduce a real talking point.

As creating a sense of calm and spaciousness in a holiday home is important, keep things simple, to avoid the wall looking cluttered.

Themes

You will need to decide the theme of your pictures which could relate to your property’s location.

Bear in mind the colour scheme of your property and the room then, pictures and artifacts can be chosen.

There are few rules, but make sure you aim for a sense of symmetry, cohesiveness and proportion in your choices.

How to choose Art on a Budget

We would all love to decorate our homes with original art pieces, but budget does come into play. Ready-made gallery walls are available online sourcing is easy on a budget if you use a little ingenuity.

For a DIY gallery wall, you can find prints and posters online and frames from retailers such as IKEA and Marks and Spencer.

Pictures should always have a mount, and you can buy these ready-cut or cut them yourself using mounting board from retailers like the Range.

Look out for greetings cards to use as pictures, and calendars are a good source of pictures printed on good quality paper.

Hanging art

When you are ready to plan lay your pictures out on the floor to look at the arrangement.

Alternatively save the pieces of paper that come inside your frames and stick them to the wall with lo-tack tape and move round until they look right.

Use a template like those on posterjack.ca to help you. A good rule of thumb for gallery wall sizing is to keep the entire collection between two-thirds to four-fifths of the size of the wall.

Start at the middle and move outwards when planning and ensure that the centre of the gallery is about six feet from the floor.

Trust your intuition and choose artwork that makes you feel good, and most importantly have fun!

Art Unlimited

If you’d love to chat more about how to choose art for your holiday home, Howard would love to welcome you to Art Unlimited. The gallery is located on 15 South Street, Bridport.

Dream Cottages were proud to sponsor Art Unlimited’s “Open Art Competition” for 2022.

Ammonite Home Styling

If you’re looking to create a “wow” first impression in your holiday home, Anne designs attractive and distinctive interiors.

Whatever stage you’re at on your holiday let journey, Anne offers a range of services.