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Sometimes I see photos of people’s homes and I’m surprised that they don’t have any art on the walls. Growing up, my parents always had art in every room, which included wall art, sculpture and other beautiful pieces. Some were professionally done, others were created by members of the family. My mother still has a self portrait I did of preteen self in their living room!
Adding art to a room just makes it seem more homey. It’s a great way to express your personality while giving rooms some visual interest. The previous owner of our home painted all the walls light gray. While this presents a nice clean look, it makes the walls look really barren if they don’t have anything on them. You can get away with empty walls if they’re stark white, but gray? Not so much.
When we moved to our new home, we brought with us several pieces of wall art that we hung in various rooms. But moving to a 3-bedroom home from a 1-bedroom condo meant we still had a lot of empty walls. Over the past few years, we’ve acquired new pieces. And like my parents do, I expect we’ll pick up new pieces and swap out some of our existing works each year.
Our living room has a big empty wall above the couch, so that was one of the first things I knew I had to fix. Even though our home was built in the 1980s, I wanted a statement piece that leaned into the mid-century modern look that Palm Springs is known for. I found this great abstract piece on Wayfair that is three dimensional and has a similar vibe. I love that it has a sense of being handmade and uses different textures.
In our kitchen area, we hung up one of my favorite pieces – a Rosie the Riveter Norman Rockwell print on board that my husband bought me from Art.com. My grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter in WWII, so this piece has a lot of meaning to me. On the adjacent wall, we hung a piece of my mother’s art. It’s a quick gesture drawing of a woman in three poses. For the exercise, she wasn’t allowed to pick up per pen once she put it down on the paper. This technique creates a really modern and fluid style.
Upstairs in the guest room, I’m working on a desert theme. Above the bed, I’ve hung three boho-inspired prints on canvas that I got from Amazon. You’ll notice that this room has pink walls, not gray – that’s because it was the bedroom of the previous owner’s daughter. We just haven’t gotten around to painting it yet! But I do love how these prints are versatile enough to match whatever wall color we end up going with.
On one of the side walls, we have a Joshua Tree poster. The park is only about 30 minutes from where we live, and it’s definitely worth visiting if you’re ever in the Coachella Valley. I used to make solo day trips to Joshua Tree when I lived in Los Angeles just to get some actual quiet. The landscape is amazingly beautiful and the Joshua Trees themselves are a species you won’t find many other places in the world. According to legend, Mormons traveling across the west gave the trees their name. The tree’s unique shape reminded them of a biblical story where Joshua held up his arms to help the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan. Who knows if that’s true, but they do resemble people when you see them backlit by the setting sun.
On another wall, we have another piece of art created by my very talented mother. This one is a collage she did for us inspired by our home here in the desert. It features desert animals, plants and typical Palm Springs architectural elements, even a photo of our first dog Lucy. This piece captures so many things about our life here in Cat City that I think it’s the perfect way to welcome guests.
Our bedroom is still a work in progress, but I did manage to find some inexpensive prints for one of the larger walls. I put them in some basic frames and they at least add some nice color to the room. They’re also in the mod-century boho style. Though I’ll probably replace them eventually, I thought they were cute enough to wake up to each morning.
We’ve also added some small art pieces around our home, including these lovely handmade vases we bought at an estate sale in downtown Cathedral City. The artist made them using slab pottery, rather than a typical pottery wheel. I love that they are both geometric and soft in their design. He suggested that we paint them, but I prefer the natural clay color. Filled with some faux dried flowers from Michael’s, they look great on our fireplace mantel.
Whatever your style or interests, you can find art to express it around your home. Even little touches make a difference. Like this little wooden cow that my grandmother gave me. I’ve hung it in the kitchen in every one of my apartments and now it hangs next to the pantry in our new home. Seeing it each day reminds me of her.
What type of art do you have in your home? Are there any tips you’d give someone looking to incorporate artistic pieces? Let me know in the comments.