Use Artwork to Create Inspiration

You're thinking about redecorating, or maybe you've just moved into a new home or office and you cant decide where to start. Let me ask you this:

• Do you know what mood you desire to create?

• Do you know what colors you desire to use?

• Do you know how to create a unique conversation piece or focal point?

• Do you need inspiration to get all of these thing coming together in one? 

Try looking at original art. Art can appeal to anyone's taste and is often surprisingly affordable. Not only will it look great, it will create a unique conversation piece and amazing focal point able to pull together an entire room. Finding great art isn't hard, and can actually be a lot of fun. Here are a few places to start looking:

1). Go online. Use major search engines to search by keywords such as "modern sculpture" or "floral pastels". If you'd like your art purchase to represent a favorite subject or place, search for that at Froogle, Google's shopping network. At http://www.froogle.com/, a search for "Rosebud Lake" finds beautiful photographic prints as well as original oil paintings of the famous lake. If you'd like to look at objects of interest while learning a little about the artist who created them, many artists and craftspersons have their own websites. You can find listings of artist websites at an art directory such as Art-Bridge (http://www.art-bridge.com/).

2). Perhaps a walk through an art show will help you decide what your inspiration piece might be. You might find yourself drawn to a great oil painting for over the mantle. Your inspiration might be  porcelain vase for the bookshelf. Being able to view the actual piece will let you appreciate the colors and textures, key elements when designing a room's décor. This is a great time of year to enjoy public art fairs where you can browse artist's work at individual booths.

If it sounds too overwhelming, starting with a great piece of artwork you love is a great way to create the mood you like as well as establish the colors in your room.  A lot of people are afraid of color because they dont know how to put it together.  So if you have a focal point of say a beautiful painting over your fireplace, the painting will establish both the mood and colors for the room.  Then you can go from there.

Whether you prefer to browse through galleries and street fairs or prefer to sit comfortably in your warm and cozy (but still boring and uninspired) home at the computer remains your choice. Just remember when embarking on your next project that some of the best decorating inspiration can be found in original art and fine crafts.  When ordering on line make sure your have a site that offers a money back guarantee so that after you get it and you decide it just wont work, you can return it.