Ingrid is so correct!!! We started collecting art and objects that we love over 50 years ago. I still love my paintings, etc. just as much today as the day my husband and I were hippies floating around art galleries in Boston. You must love what you see. Sometimes you love one of those paintings so much that you will find yourself decorating around that one piece. Please don't do the matchy, matchy stuff. That's so boring. PotteryBarn is boring to me. Everyone today has to have their living spaces look like PotteryBarn and that's what they want you to do. Be creative and start your own look!

I think it'll depend on you. A More eclectic individual will mix both frameless and framed art. For me, I'm not as eclectic and prefer more order to my art. I prefer all of my artwork to be framed (even Contemporary work). Depending on the decor, I sometimes make all the art in the same color frames and in some cases, I will mix it up a bit.
I also see nothing that terribly wrong with buying off the rack art as some people are not avid art lovers and collectors. It's also okay to match your room if that's what you like as well. while it can certainly be more interesting and personalized to find art you love, it is also can take time and is sometimes expensive.

We're art lovers, too. I sometimes wonder if my home is starting to look like a gallery... there isn't a blank wall to be found! We have a mix of styles: landscapes, a few abstract pieces, a lot of quirky stuff, photos, kids' artwork. It's all mixed in together. I do think that a lot of our stuff has common colors because we tend to be drawn to warm colors and earth tones, so maybe that's why I have no problem mixing and matching them. But that's not always the case. Also, when I frame things, I try to always frame them in fairly basic black frames -- this makes it a lot easier to move pieces from room to room, rearrange, etc. IMO there are very few (if any) "rules" to displaying art because it's so personal, but just be aware of hanging the pieces at the right height -- I could go on and on, but there are plenty of resources on this, both online and in books. My pet peeve is seeing paintings hung too high, or one little picture on a huge wall...

We seem to be having the same art struggles. I'm looking for art that is already framed, but the chances of all of them having the same frame color is slim. In my bedroom, I have three sepia toned prints. One has a mahogany frame, one has a dark brown, and one has an antique gold. They're each in different areas, so I think it looks okay and they're tied together by the actual print colors. Now, if they were in a grouping, I don't know if that would work. It tough enough finding art that you like, but then to make sure the frames match is even tougher.

Laurie

Thanks everyone. I am not an art collector by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps I should have said "wall decor" rather than art because nothing I own is high quality and I don't think I could afford anything that is!

Another problem I'm having is in my living room I don't really have a dominant wall. What I mean by that is usually when I see people's living rooms there is one wall that is larger or less broken up than the others. Or if not different in size, has a fireplace, built-ins or something that makes it a natural focal point of the room. I feel like that wall is usually decorated in a way that sets the tone for the whole room and might have more vibrant or larger pieces and acts as the main attention grabber with some smaller pieces on the other walls. My issue is all of my walls are broken up by windows or open up into other rooms middle leaving several smaller wall spaces, but no dominant one. (I don't have a fireplace or any built-ins.) So this leaves me with seven rather small "wall spaces" all similar in size (within 2 feet). It's making the balance thing is tough for me - I feel like each wall area has to be similarly done, maybe not in the the actually look of the pieces but to be balanced has to have a similar amount of decor covering it and be similarly arranged since every wall is pretty much the same. I'm sorry if this explanation isn't making sense!

denifitz, your explanation is actually very clear and I can see the problem that would pose. I would want to be sure to put vertical groupings in most of those places to give a rich and cohesive look. One lonely piece of art in one of those areas would look lonely and haphazard, I would think. I would go for rich colors and somewhat fancy frames for at least some of these areas to give them importance and interest. The frames don't have to match with each other in one of the spaces, but they should be related. If you like pictures without frames that's a personal preference that I think you should honor. It's your home and the art police will not come after you. I've seen examples of rooms with unframed art that were beautiful; it just has to be well-done. If you could post pictures of your rooms that would be very helpful.

Even wall decor rather than original art can be good or bad. Just choose your prints carefully and make sure they reflect your individual taste, rather than what you see in all the catalogs. Individuality is what counts so that your personality comes out in your rooms. Flea markets often have original art at reasonable prices, or swap meets or consignment stores.