Posted on: April 3, 2008
The Art Effect
Channel artistic inspiration to redefine your living space
By Mary Margaret Murphey
CTW Features
Image courtesy Design Within Reach
Give your inner artist a chance to liven up your home décor with eclectic flea-market finds, splashes of color and subtle furniture rearrangements. The sooner you start thinking like an artist, the sooner your home will reflect that creative shift, Toni Sikes explains in her most recent book, “The Artful Home” (Lark Books, 2007).
As the founder and CEO of The Guild, a leading source for artist-made home décor products, Sikes is well versed in mixing art with living space.
In one of the early chapters of her book, Sikes lays the groundwork for thinking like an artist with these nine tips designed to give inner artists a voice – and a canvas.
1. Dream and fantasize about the possibilities. Shelter magazines offer endless ideas, the stuff of dreams!
2. Mimicry is a great way to develop your design skills. Tear out photos of beautiful rooms you find in magazines. Browse, instead of shop, through home furnishings catalogs. This frees your imagination to really see what is appealing to you, without the urgency of need.
3. Use home repair, fabric and art supply stores as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with materials of all sorts, from metal and wood to paper, clay and paint.
4. Become opinionated about what you see. Whenever you visit someone else’s house, think about what you like and don’t like.
5. Arrange furniture, art and objects in new and interesting ways. Show off your books in places other than bookshelves – on chairs and stools, under tables.
6. Don’t limit your use of color, or feel like colors must match. (The soul is not beige, after all. It is more a Joseph’s coat.)
7. Mismatching and eclecticism are not only permitted, they are encourages. Place flea market finds and personal photos side by side with pieces purchased at galleries.
8. Engage your senses. Enjoy the luscious texture of a cashmere throw, the smell of oriental incense, the sound of your favorite Miles Davis CD. Touch, smell and sound merge with the visual to create a total experience.
9. Find beauty in everyday things. Buy a hefty coffee mug made by a potter, and start every day with this small piece of art.
