I have watched clients spend months agonizing over a sofa and then buy a piece of art in five minutes because it was on sale. And I have watched the opposite — someone walk into a gallery, stop in front of a painting, and simply know.
The second approach almost always leads to the better outcome.
Art is the most personal thing in a home. It is also the most permanent in a different way than furniture — you do not replace it when it wears out. You live with it. It becomes part of the visual language of your life. That deserves more than a quick decision.
The Only Rule That Matters
Buy what moves you.
Not what matches your sofa. Not what your designer recommends. Not what is trending. Not what you think you *should* like.
Buy the thing that makes you stop. The thing you keep thinking about after you leave the gallery. The thing that, when you imagine it on your wall, makes you feel something.
This sounds simple. It is actually quite difficult, because we are trained from an early age to second-guess our instincts and defer to external authority. Learning to trust your own eye is a practice, and it takes time.
How to Start Trusting Your Eye
The best way to develop your eye is to look at a lot of art — not to buy, but to notice. Visit galleries. Walk through museums slowly. Save images of interiors you love and pay attention to the art in them.
Over time, patterns will emerge. You will notice that you are consistently drawn to certain things: a particular palette, a certain scale, a specific kind of mark-making. That is your aesthetic speaking. Listen to it.
Think About Scale Before You Fall in Love
One of the most common mistakes in buying art is getting the scale wrong. A small painting on a large wall disappears. A large canvas in a small room overwhelms.
Before you buy, measure your wall. Know the dimensions you are working with. A piece that is roughly two-thirds the width of the furniture below it tends to feel right. A single large-scale work almost always makes more impact than a collection of small ones.
When in doubt, go bigger. Most people err on the side of too small.
The Question of Placement
Where a piece hangs changes everything about how it reads. The same painting can feel intimate in a hallway and monumental above a fireplace.
Think about the light in the room at different times of day. Think about what the piece will be seen against — a dark wall or a light one, a busy background or a quiet one. Think about eye level: art hung too high is one of the most common mistakes in interior design.
The center of a piece should generally hang at eye level — roughly 57 to 60 inches from the floor. This is the standard in galleries for a reason. It is where the eye naturally rests.
Original Work vs. Prints
I am often asked whether prints are acceptable. My answer is always the same: it depends entirely on the print.
A high-quality fine art print of a work you genuinely love is infinitely better than an original piece you bought because it was affordable and matched your curtains. The question is never original vs. print. The question is always: does this piece mean something to you?
That said, if you have the means to buy original work — especially from living artists — I would encourage you to do so. There is something different about owning a piece that someone made with their hands. You can feel it.
African and Diaspora Art
I want to say something specific about African and diaspora art, because it is close to my heart and because I think it is profoundly undervalued in the mainstream design conversation.
The breadth and depth of African artistic traditions — from the bronze castings of Benin to the geometric textiles of the Kente weavers to the contemporary painters working across the continent and its diaspora today — is extraordinary. And it is not just beautiful. It carries history, meaning, and a kind of spiritual weight that I find in very few other traditions.
If you are drawn to this work, I would encourage you to learn about it. Visit galleries that specialize in it. Read about the artists and the traditions they are working within or against. The more you understand, the more you will see — and the more meaningful your collection will become.
Building a Collection Over Time
The most beautiful art collections I have seen were not assembled all at once. They were built slowly, over years, with patience and intention. Each piece was chosen because it was loved, not because it filled a gap.
Give yourself permission to live with empty walls for a while. It is better to wait for the right piece than to fill a space with something you are merely content with.
The right piece will come. And when it does, you will know.
*If you are building a home that reflects who you are — including the art on your walls — I would love to be part of that conversation. Reach out through the contact form to learn more about my styling services.*
