Art and Soul

The artwork we use to decorate our homes provides us with an opportunity to outwardly express what is most important to us: our spiritual beliefs, our family, our heritage, our style, and so on. Unfortunately, many of us don't take that opportunity. Instead, we opt for a meaningless landscape scene because we've seen it work in catalogs, it fills the empty space on our wall, and it happens to coordinate with the color of our couch.

As Latter-day Saints, it remains important for us to consider keeping sacred images front and center in our homes. However, that doesn't mean our homes need to look like the lobby of the stake center. Our homes, while set apart from the world, are still meant to be lived in; it is possible to elegantly integrate meaningful artwork and personal mementos with these visual reminders of our eternal goals. Read on to learn how.

Making Your House Your Home
The first hurdle to jump is choosing those art pieces that best fit your family and your home. Take a quick look around. What personality does your home describe for its inhabitants? Does it look like the family living there is your family?

Decorating according to your own taste isn't too difficult, it just takes some self-discovery. Artist Lynde Mott believes each person can attain tremendous control over his or her surroundings.

"The main thing you should be thinking isn't, 'Is it trendy?'" says Mott. "It should be, 'What do you love?'"

Mott has a tremendous affinity for Nauvoo and the early Victorian style that goes with the period. In her home, she decided to incorporate her love for the people and stories of Nauvoo with her own artistic touches. Likewise, Vernett Jones of Logan, Utah, decided to decorate her condominium at Bear Lake with a nautical theme to fit with the waterside atmosphere.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you consider a style for your house or for a particular room:

1. Is there a country or place you have an attachment to? Connect your decorations to the theme of that place.

2. What are your interests? If you're an artist, decorate your studio with your own artwork. If you're a writer or reader, decorate your library with pictures of literary figures. Sports enthusiasts can decorate the rec room with sports equipment and trophies, or theater nuts can decorate with theater posters.

3. What colors give you energy? Create a palette with a few of your favorite colors (consulting a color wheel to make sure they don't clash) and use them.

4. What is your favorite getaway? If you like the beach, decorate with sea stars, seashells, beach gear, and sailing equipment.

5. Is there a particular time period you enjoy? If so, do some research to discover decorating techniques and styles or the era.

6. Is there a particular object you are fond of or collect? Try basing your theme around it.

7. What is your family like? Make sure your family's interests come through in the theme, and let your children have a say in what goes onto their walls.

As you plan, it's important to consider how the decorations fit within your family and situation. How do the decorations portray your interests and passions? Do they relate to places you've been, things you collect, or family memories?

Before you begin, be sure you're mentally prepared. "I don't move on a project until I have some good visual reference for what I'm going to do," says Mott.

Choosing Your Pieces
While some, like Mott, may literally create their style themselves, others can develop it by keeping a watchful eye for those pieces that best communicate their personality. Vernett Jones has found many of her decorations from catalogs and magazines, as well as craft and hobby shops.

Jones matched her decorations to her neutral carpet and her seashell-bordered wallpaper. To add personal touches, she painted a picture of a boat to go over the fireplace, and her daughter cross-stitched a ship to hang on the wall. She has received several paintings that have fit with the decorating scheme as well.

Jones's family comes through in all of her decorations. She loves decorating with family pictures, and on her wall is a framed list of family sayings. When her parents passed away, she put together several shadow boxes filled with memorabilia from her parents.

"Those kinds of things give it a unique feeling that makes it ours," says Jones.

This is where some of the best decor comes from - your own experiences. Family photos, shadow boxes filled with Great-grandpa's reading glasses, tickets to the Yankees game, or seashells gathered from a recent family trip add an important dimension to your home. In fact, creating a memory wall is often the least inexpensive and most meaningful way to decorate your home.

Along with family mementos, consider the type of art you want to hang. There has never been more beautiful art to choose from - especially within the LDS culture. And those important sacred pieces in your home - be they paintings Christ or fine photographs of your favorite temple - can easily fit your style. To select the artwork that works best for you, take a long look at the current decor in each room you are considering. Which colors would your art piece complement best? Would a charcoal sketch, a delicate acrylic painting, or a powerful photograph go best with your furniture? Look closely at the overall style of the room (contemporary, classical, baroque, etc.) to decide. Also, consider the size of the room. A small space that lacks windows or light is a great choice for a nature scene. This creates the illusion of a window and makes the space seem bigger.

As you make your house your own, be true to yourself and your family. Your home should show the world who you are and what you believe in. "It's really a tangible testimony," says Mott, "a very visible way . . . to express very non-visual ideas."

Professional Touches
Once you've chosen your perfect piece of art, you need to decide where and how you are going to display it. Deciding which room you want to display your art piece in is probably one of the most challenging parts of hanging your art. Here are a few specifics to consider when selecting the piece and the room in which it will hang:

Choose a focal point.
"Don't start decorating without knowing what your focal point is," says Heidi Tyline King, author of Ideals for Home Decorating and several other design books.

Because the focal point is the basis of the room, it must be determined before everything else. A focal point is just what it sounds like - something you want to focus on and draw attention to. It should be interesting and attractive; it can be something that is already part of the architecture, such as fireplace or a window with an amazing view, or else something that you add, like artwork.

King recommends using color to connect a focal point with the rest of the room. "If the focal point is a particular color, put a little of that color elsewhere in the room with a pillow or an accessory. It will tie the rest of the room in with your focal point." Also, furniture and accessories should be arranged around the focal point to bring even more of a dramatic effect to the space.

Consider the size of your walls. If you are looking to hang a small piece, avoid hanging it on a large, open wall. However, if you group a number of small pieces together, they can give the impression of being one larger piece, and can therefore look nice on a large wall.

Think of the lighting.
Make sure that the wall you are considering isn't hit directly by sunlight. Sunlight can damage your beautiful artwork, causing it to fade and crack. Instead, hang your artwork on a shady wall, and add artificial lighting to draw attention to it, if possible.

Consider the placement of your furniture.
If you are going to reposition any furniture, do it now. Furniture placement will affect where you hang and how high you hang your artwork. A picture hung above a piece of furniture should not be wider then the furniture itself, but it should be about half the length of the furniture. Take care that the art is not too close to the furniture or too high above it- typically there should be an eight- to ten-inch gap between them.

Decide on the number of pieces you'll display.
One large painting can be a very nice focal point for a room, but clusters of art can also be quite appealing. Even numbered groups create a calming and organized effect while odd numbered groups are considered more visually interesting. Neither choice is right or wrong; it simply depends on the room and your personal style.

After making the above decisions, take craft paper and trace your piece (or pieces) of artwork on it. Trace around it and cut it out. Take the template and tape it on the wall (masking tape is usually best). Don't worry about getting it completely level, that will come later. Leave it there for a couple of hours; walking in and out of the room will help you decide if you like that placement. Keep in mind that the standard rule is to hang pictures at eye level. Take into account the purpose of the room; if you are hanging the art in the dining room or living room, consider that most the time guests will be sitting, making "eye-level" considerably lower than in a hallway.

If, in a few hours, you are still happy with your template placement, take out your measuring tape and your hammer and nails and work out those particulars. In no time you will have a spectacular new focal point for your room!

Decorating with Decision, Not Doubt
After all this talk of choosing pieces and displaying them correctly, remember that the first step in beginning to decorate is courage. "Where the rules of real estate are location, location, location," says Mott, "the rules of decorating are courage, courage, courage."

Many people put off decorating with colors or themes they really love in anticipation of an uncertain future: three years from now, when a transfer is likely, or five years down the road, when they hope to build their dream home. If you worry your taste won't be the same as the person who will "really" be living in your home someday, just remember: a can of neutral paint can do wonders for upping your resale value, and paint isn't expensive.

In the meantime, go ahead and make your home yours. Don't be afraid to create a space of joy and beauty that reflects your family's unique style and personality. There's no time like the present to start enjoying the home you have now.

Something more . . .

Smart Art
Artwork helps fill our homes with beauty and joy, but did you know it can also improve our minds as well?

According to a recent "Thinking through Art" three-year study conducted by Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, looking at fine art on a regular basis helped children improve five critical thinking skills: observing, interpreting, associating, problem solving, and flexible thinking.

During the study, students in third, fourth, and fifth grade made regular visits art museums. After three years of visits, researchers determined that students participating in the study spent twice as long discussing each piece of art as other students did, and they were more likely to offer evidence to support their ideas.

Adults can also benefit from artwork. According to recent studies, men and women who displayed art they loved at work and at home enjoyed lower stress levels than those who did not. Researchers theorize that employees with art felt more comfortable with their surroundings and more in control. And people who decorated their homes with art were more likely to invite friends over, improving their social life.

Framing 101
You've picked out the perfect piece of art. But how do you go about framing it?

Rule number one: don't go cheap. Frames can be pricey, but using a cheap frame is going to cheapen the look of the artwork itself. You don't need to use the most expensive frame available, but try to buy something nice and classy.

Keep in mind that the color of the frame doesn't necessarily need to match the colors of the painting. A frame should complement the colors, not overpower them or blend with them. Pull out a medium shadow tone featured in the painting and consider using a similar color for the frame. This will enhance subtle elements of the artwork.

The frame must complement the room in which it is hung along with the picture it is going to frame. If your room has dark furniture, plush rugs and pillows, and elaborate decor, you might want to choose a more ornate, possibly even gold-colored frame. If your room is on the other end of the scale, such as a sleek contemporary style, use bold black or silvery tones. In a casual, homey room, consider using wood frames or frames in warm tones.

If you like modern art, a gallery wrap is probably your best option. A gallery wrap is a canvas which has been stretched over the edges of a frame and stapled on the back, so that the hardware isn't visible on the sides. The final result is a finished, frameless painting with a crisp, contemporary look. However, if this is the look you are going for, you will need to take it to a professional, as this type of framing requires special tools.

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