Posts Tagged ‘art’
10 Inspiring Quotes About Design (Plus FREE Printable Art)
There is so much going on in our world right now (understatement of the year, right?). Sometimes you’ve just gotta take a little breath and feed yourself emotionally. What I wanted to share with you today are 10 inspiring quotes about design and style that have been guiding me throughout the years and inspiring me when it comes to interior design and busting out of boring.
10 Inspiring Quotes About Design + Style
The first one is by British textile designer William Morris who said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
I love this idea of only having around what’s useful and or beautiful. As a minimalist, useful and beautiful has always been a filter for me to decide what to include in a client’s design, and what to put in my own home. If it’s not useful, or I don’t love it, then it doesn’t have a place in my home or my life. Byeeeee.
The second quote that has been so foundational to me is by design legend Billy Baldwin. “Be faithful to your own taste, because nothing you really like is ever out of style.”
This is a really articulate way of saying “bust out of boring!” It’s all about embracing what you love. It doesn’t matter if it’s trendy or popular or cool – if you love it, it belongs in your home.
So be faithful to your own taste, because nothing you really like is ever out of style. You know what you like and you know what you want in your home – so embrace it, love it, and don’t be afraid of it.
And finally, a quote that I live out every day: “Life is too short to settle for beige walls.” If you’ve ever read my bio, you’ll know I’ve experienced firsthand how short and precious life is. So screw beige. Screw safe! If you love teal, embrace it with an incredible teal sofa you love to curl up on with your kids. If you love pattern and color, let’s make your home a mix of patterns, colors, and styles that feel uniquely, beautifully, authentically you. Your home won’t look like every other one on the block, and that’s okay! In fact, I think it’s totally awesome.
I work with so many clients who have fallen into safety when it comes to design. They are afraid to paint a wall a dark color. They’re afraid to push past the safety of neutrals.
Your home is an opportunity to express yourself to bust out of boring; to showcase your style and your ideas and opinions and all the eclectic cool things that you and your family are made of. When you get scared to paint a wall blue, and you settle for beige, that’s just an outward expression of you not embracing who you are on the inside. Don’t settle for anything less than your badass self.
If you’re feeling jazzed up by these three quotes and you want an awesome printable version of each of them (plus 7 more!) to hang up in your office or to complete a gallery wall in your home, you can download 10 inspiring quotes about design and style right here.
Print them up to 18×24″ and hang ’em up where they’re going to help you be inspired, where they’re going to give you the courage to bust out of boring and be your authentic self at home.
How to Choose Art for Your Home
Whether you love abstract paintings, landscapes, large statement pieces or gallery-style collections, here’s how to choose art for your home.
Actually, let’s start with how not to choose art for your home: by picking what’s popular that you’re seeing all over Pinterest. It’s so easy to succumb to peer pressure with art. After all, if “they” like it, why shouldn’t you?
I might offend some cactus- and macrame-lovers, but I’m not into either of those trendy art themes. At all.
I know, they’re both having a major moment right now, but really – they’re just not for me. The only reason I would hang either a cactus print or macrame wall-hanging in my home is that I’ve gotten so used to seeing them everywhere that they (almost) feel acceptable to me.
But honestly, they just don’t speak to me personally. They might finish off a wall and look rad for now, but in a few months, I’m going to be totally tired of that dumb cactus.
So how do you choose the right art for your home?
There’s no magic formula, but trust that you’ll know the right art when you see it. It will connect with you in an unusual way, and will speak to you. You’ll probably find yourself saying something like, “I really dig this piece of art, but I can’t explain why.”
THAT is how to choose art. Figure out what you like, what you’re attracted to, and then hang it on your walls.
“But Lesley,” I can hear you saying,
“what if I love a whole bunch of styles of art that don’t make any sense together?”
Even better, my friend! There is nothing more boring than matchy-matchy art that feels like it was purchased out of a catalog or mass home-decor retailer. I actually love layering art pieces in different mediums and different styles. In the photo above of my dining room there’s an abstract landscape oil painting done by my late Grandmother, a traditional-meets-modern portrait by Josh Young, a Lifehouse album cover, a Depeche Mode concert poster by Tara McPherson, an illustration by Lisa Congdon, and a subway station polaroid I picked up on the streets of New York.
Does any of this logically make sense together? Nope. But is it awesome all together? Yes.
Look for something common between the art pieces you select.
It could be a color (you’ll notice a green-blue color appears in almost every piece above), or maybe the subject matter.
If your art collection really does give off random (and not in a good way) vibes, you can unify the pieces by framing them in the same style or color of frame, or by using the same color of matting.
Great art will last through trends and be with you for a long time.
Trust your gut, listen to what you love (even if it doesn’t make sense!) and embrace the random. No one else has to love the art except you.
Trust your gut. Embrace what you love. That’s how to choose art for your home, and that is what busting out of boring is all about.