When it comes to making a place feel like home, thereÂ’s no easier way to express your personality than with a little decoration on the walls.
Choose your favourite pictures and go for contemporary white frames, or mix different types of wall art all centered around a theme, such as floral or heart designs for example. Combine a modern framed print with pieces displayed in white box frames, such as family photos, hand-crafted hearts or butterflies, or treasured mementoes.
Add another dimension to your display by attaching wooden battens to the wall and painting them to match the wall colour and use these panels to attach your artwork to the walls.
Beautiful typography is another theme that looks great in modern and vintage-style interiors – and one that you could base your wall art display around.
Link your wall art to the room that its displayed in, too, so in the kitchen or garden room you can get creative and frame attractive seed packets and pop them in inexpensive frames, painted in a vibrant colour.
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Beautiful ways to display wall art
If you have beautiful fabrics swatches that you love, but just don’t know what to use them for, consider framing them in needlepoint frames to create gorgeous wall art – these will look great together displayed as groups of three different-sized frames.
Heart themed art on battens
Looking for a way to make art leap off your walls? Employ battens to create a panel-effect wall treatment and then use the jutting beams as the points from which to hang your treasured collection. This will make centering your hangings a breeze, and the shadow created by the subtle extra distance from the wall will add a softer look to your artwork.
Love Grows art print
Bold & Noble
Similar card wreath
Whippet Grey
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Living room with typography-themed elements
Put your devotion to a particular decorative device on full display by extending it to your wall art. In this calming living room, the love of typography is bold and unapologetic, and the scheme is kept in check by employing soft textiles and neutral colours. Beyond soft furnishings and ceramics, the theme is taken to the wall via a homage to vintage printer type. It’s all a bit font-tastic.
Letterpress print
The Tom Paine Printing Press
Sofa
Graham & Green
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Framed seed packages
Even a garden room or utility space would benefit from the addition of wall art, especially when the chosen works are a playful extension of the room’s purpose. Case in point: these seed packet prints, with their vintage-look illustrations and vivid colouring, simply explode with charm and take this potting space from functional to fabulous. The repeated use of a single frame in a bold colour is an effective way to create a strong look that is effortless to achieve.
Seed packet prints
The Old Design Shop on Etsy
Frames
Ikea
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Renaissance painting bathroom mural
For those so inclined to take their art appreciation to new heights (and widths), make the wall the art itself. Advances in surface printing technology have allowed for the production of wallpaper and mural panels to rival any fresco. Even the cracking of an aged work comes through in stunning detail. A bathroom is a great place to try this out. However, if you’re daring enough to give this a go, keep the rest of the room sparse and the palette simple.
Mural
Surface View
Bath
Catchpole & Rye
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Embroidery hoops used for decorative display
Wall art should escape the confines of canvas and paper to include materials of all kinds – especially now, when affordable fabrics in gallery-worthy designs are at an all-time peak. Look equally to the reemergence of needlepoint and ink-work, and you have a slew of textile styles from which to pick or mix and match. What better use for a small scrap from a recent sewing project or that vintage fabric swatch you never knew what to do with but had to buy anyway?
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Contemporary art print in an ornate frame
Nothing shows artistic spirit more than the breaking of the rules. In truth, the only rule should be: if you like it, then do it. Here, a contemporary black and white typographic print is mounted against a bold paper and framed in a weathered baroque frame. Hung on a Grecian repeat wallpapered wall, this should be a total mess, but actually it shows fabulous individuality and cheeky charm.
Small Talk print
Design Vintage
Similar frame
Marks & Spencer
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Plates and platters wall display
Plates and platters are a simple yet simply striking way to adorn your walls. While respect should be paid to the Limoges and Royal Daltons of the past, this display doesn’t have to be a selection of your nan’s wall plates. From contemporary graphics to photo-realism to naive illustrations, a collection of glass, ceramic and even melamine dishes will serve up piled-high plates of chic.
Similar plates
John Derian at Liberty
Similar wire bowl
Nkuku
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Artwork tile kitchen splashback
Ditch the expected repeats or fussy mosaics that make up most of the kitchen walls out there and delve into a bit of artistic flair. Give a humble splashback the star treatment via wall tiles that come together to create an Art Deco mural on a subdued scale. It’s a look that says, “Cooking is not the only good taste you will find in this space”.
Tile mural
Fine Art Tiles
Similar kettle
Wesco
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Children’s room with giant wall sticker
Keep your child’s room playful and fun, but maintain the contemporary cool you demand of the rest of your home via a wall sticker in its smartest form. This ever-so-popular take on peel-and-stick wall decoration channels the simple times of outdoor play in a sweet cut-out shadow effect. And most importantly, this choice of artwork can’t be knocked off the wall as a result of overactive playtime.
Wall sticker
Amazing Sticker at Etsy
Similar dolls house
Wooden Toy Store
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Contemporary pet artwork in a kitchen
Who doesn’t want to pay tribute to their pet in a playful and artistic way? Whether you commission a bespoke pop-inspired portrait, find a fun and funny likeness of your pooch or have a go at painting it yourself, a cool contemporary kitchen is a perfect spot for a bit of puppy love. Play it practical by framing your work of art in an easy-to-clean frame or go for a glossy, wood-mounted, wipe-clean likeness.
Similar artwork
Etsy
Kitchen countertops
Acqua Kitchens
