My opinion is same as most-why have prints that everybody can get when you can have something personal and very deeply yours? Even if it's the same street photographed-you'll look at it very different way knowing you took that pic. If you buy something in Paris next time you there, street artist or gallery doesn't matter-maybe you have it already-you'll always like it more than a print.

I'm not against prints..I was but I softened with years and even bought one recently myself..but if you have something that's potentially much more enjoyable to you than anything nice but mass-produced, why not to use it?

PS I have never been to this Arhaus site..first time I see it. Expensive..So yeah totally understand you about this sale.

What do you say about their quality/service? Do you recommend it?

Colors & style seem appropriate, so barring that, doesn't it mainly depend on how they make you feel when you look @ them? I like pictures that evoke good feelings/memories in me & those street scenes seem like they could...

Plates! Which you shall find strolling the Marche Aux Puces, bien sur!

Again, like Lisad said, art is totally subjective, but I think I'd like to see something a bit more colorful/bold. I have no objection to the artwork you chose, but I'd like to see a splash of color added to that gorgeous room! And that is such a fun chandelier you have! As an aside, I got the Arhaus Toulon dining table and bench and still love the set after 3 years. Beautiful solid quality!

I'm not loving them. Everything I've seen in your home has been unique & unexpected. You've put things together and styled such distinctly personal rooms. I don't think these would make your heart sing if you saw them on your wall.

Since you go to Paris every year, you know you can purchase prints from any of the stalls at Place du Tetre. There is an artist there - his name is Michigan. He has a studio on Rue Lepic, just around the corner from Place du Tetre. We purchased several pieces from him. I still have to get them framed - but here is one:

I'm suggesting this in particular, because he is the most charming old man and his works are lovely. Not touristy. He has oils, watercolors - large, small. Originals and prints.

I agree that something needs to go there - but I would be patient and find something that is truly special to you. Something that holds a memory.

Your home is just marvelous.

I see them as places you'll be visiting which mean memories, no matter if they were purchased there or not. I like them also, and prefer the more subdued colorations, especially since you're not using bright colors in your room, or like myself, simply don't care for them. Maybe i'm just lazy, but I personally wouldn't want to go thru all the trouble of what's involved with getting pictures from camera to frame.

I know you didn't ask, but I can't help but imagine a plant stand with a potted fern in the opposite corner of the cabinet on the window wall, but then I am a plant person.

I think the prints are okay but kinda ordinary. Your room is not and I think deserves something better. I like the idea of photos, black and whites. Or something else with a bit more color. I love your room.

I think they are lovely and they look to be signed and numbered prints. If you have a credit, this might be a good place to spend it. If you didn't have a credit, I might say keep looking.

I have these two watercolors from an estate sale. I didn't buy them on one of MY trips to Paris, but I love the city and get enjoyment from looking at these. I think those prints will do the same for you.

Don't let the credit drive you to a decision you would not otherwise make. My 2 cents. BTDT

Spanish, your prints are of a wholly different caliber, and look marvelous in their spot. garden, your room is so uniquely wonderful that I would be really careful what you add to it. I'm afraid these prints don't live up to your other objects and will have a negative impact. Art can do much more than remind you fondly of places you've been. Their artistic caliber should also be considered. Even a print from a true artist can touch you in a deep way, and that is what you look for.

I just looked at their site and their prints seem outrageously overpriced. However, I did see some really great earrings at reasonable prices and their pillows are beautiful. Why not look for something else for your credit and wait for the perfect piece for your wall or consider the idea of photographs?

LOVE your light fixture!

1929Spanish-GW, now i'll go into total guess territory..and my guess will be: your prints (which I love)are already more personal to you because you got them from estate sale. You have at least two memories connected to these-remembering traveling to the city you love -and joy of discovering these prints at estate sale in the context of other people's life..

It's nice to stumble upon stuff. There is a sense of discovery to it. Much more satisfying(at least to me) than try to see whether you can make work something that's already there, easily attainable..

Another guess: I imagine they didn't cost as much..?

You know I also have this credit from West Elm for half a year already..so I totally understand. But I don't want to spend it on something I am not really in love with. Each time I'm in their store I'm underwhelmed. It's not as it expires..I'll wait..

If dyhgarden was utterly in love with these prints-another guess-she wouldn't ask anybody their opinion. When it's art you love-print or no doesn't matter- it strikes you or makes you happy or makes you contemplative..it changes you for a tiny tiny bit. And you're willing to experience this tiny change, and you don't really care whether other people feel the same regarding that specific art or not.

And dyhgarden. I'm guessing here but you know yourself.. if you do love them really love them-then just to hell with what I say:)

PS Both rooms are wonderful , in a very different way. I mean dyhgarden's and Spanish's.

Excuse my mistakes and typos please, they might be numerous..feeling under the weather today

Too funny, Spanish.

The art shown by 1929 Spanish was described as watercolor. So those are originals, and the hand of the artist is something you can sense from that. Some of the things people describe as "prints" are actually from a print-making process (limited numbers produced), and sometimes the term is used for higher or lower quality inkjet reproductions or even sometimes for what I'd call posters. I'm not being an art snob here, I have owned and enjoyed all of the above. But I personally get a different feeling from an original piece of art. The idea of something bought locally as shown by jpmom sounds ideal to me. Personal photos are a nice option if you happen to be a really good photographer, but let's face it-- most of us are not!

Wow! Thanks, everyone. I've been gone all day.

Arhaus -- My living room Tangier sofa and two chairs; the secretary. In the vestibule: the corner chair and the bombe chest. The quality is very good. My upholstered items were made in North Carolina. It took 16 weeks to have these pieces made. I need to start another thread -- how to spend my $600 before the deadline!

I already have framed photos of Paris, but I printed them as sepia tones for my previous home. I have three in my living room by the bookcase, but I have four more. I think they need to be reprinted as black and white.

Here's a photo that I took of the Eiffel Tower. Not to be enlarged and framed, but it's just a fun shot. I was at the Musée du Quai Branly. The colored spikes are lights in their garden that is under that black roof along the right side. It's a quirky shot.

Oh, on having a plant in that bare corner -- I tried that and it died! There's a heat vent on one side and an air vent in the floor under the front window. Wrong environment for a plant. Unfortunately. I was bummed.

Dyhgarden, if those are "touristy" prints I guess I am just a tourist at heart, because I love them and think they would be perfect for your dining room. They are light, which is lovely, as they complement the light and airy feel of the room itself. They are sized for a group of three over your buffet, and depict places in Paris you are fond of even if you didn't buy them there. FWIW, I don't care for photography in dining rooms and there's something awfully Mrs. GotRock's Trip to Rome with Slides about displaying one's travel pictures like that :-) You have the credit, you're getting good value for your credit because of the sale, and they are lovely. I would get them in a red hot minute!

@dyhgarden I love that pic you took. Why not use that? Maybe have it put on a large canvas? Or, if you're not sure of the colors, play around in a paint program until you come up with something you feel fits the space better, then have that put on canvas. Or, have it done it 3 different colors and put them up side by side. There's so much you can do with your own pics.

What could be more perfect than your own picture that depicts a moment so beautifully..

Spanish, I whole heartedly agree! I'm not an art 'connoisseur' or an art snob, nor do I feel it is necessary for it to be signed, an original oil/watercolor/acrylic,and gicIee prints are just fine, as is a print under glass. I know very little about what determines value, and we can leave it at that, unless it's art from centuries ago, that's what piques my interest. I have many vintage French pastoral scenes, all prints, but it's the *vintage* as well as the scene itself which attracts me. The fact that they're prints doesn't make a difference, since I know I could never afford the real deal, let alone locate it. I have vintage Goody fashion prints hanging in my bedroom, worthless, but I enjoy looking at them.

My dog 'art collection' hanging in my FR were painted by a good friend who dabbles in painting. I took them 'off her hands' when she wanted to sell them~I always loved them when hanging in her home. Needless to say, I'm not impressed with names unless it's in the Monet category. The most precious 'art' is that from my children done years ago, and from grandchildren today. The true value might be *how* it was acquired, not the dollar amount or a signature.

I like, but don't love, the Paris prints. Maybe a bit touristy, but mostly I think they are going to get lost in the space. But, then, I tend to like art that makes a statement. These are pretty, but don't have much to say.

I scanned through the other Arhaus offerings and saw lots of thing I like better (empasis on "I"--my taste is not your taste). There were two with red barns (one panoramic from far away and one close up) that I thought would look nice in your space.

Love your Eiffel photograph. Shutterfly now does premium card stock prints, for a different look than regular photo paper. Looks like the largest size is 11x14. I would do wide mat with nice frame. I think it would look great in the DR. If not over the sideboard, elsewhere.

I did 8x10 b/w prints of various Europe photographs I had taken and used in DH's office hallway. People always asked about them.

I've lost count of European architectural etchings and lithographs purchased on ebay, etsy and locally. I just bought an etching of the wooden bridge in Lucerne. I like to buy ones of places I have been and loved.

You can also Waterlogue a photo.

I'm so annoyed you can't get it (waterlogue) for Android :(

OK..I have literally everything on my walls, from finer artworks to street artists' works to my kids' works to my dear friends' kids works to my relatives gifts to silly ceramics to prints bought on Etsy..i also like different techniques so i have oil and drawings and etching and collages and art done in techniques-that-i forgot-their-names..

the point is i do like them all. some are favorites, and extremely dear/significant to me and bring a lot of memories and some are more into "I like it!" category. And some are in "My husband likes it.." category too..:)

but the ones that i bought because they'd be pretty next to the kitchen-in the very beginning as we moved to this house and i was in this crazy mode about getting stuff you know? (i was generally in crazy mode back then but it's not the topic here)-they are pretty, and people say "cool!" about these (by the way they made out of seeds and cinnamon sticks)).. but i have a feeling I'm going to leave them right next to that kitchen when we move again..

I'm not suggesting that's what this thread is about, because frankly how could I know? Everybody's being right, art is personal. I even read somewhere "Art is what you frame"-and I kinda tend to agree. Aha.

so yes, it is about how art ends up being in my place, to a big extent, and who gave it to me, and where i found it..exactly what I was trying to say. It's just easy to find things that you're driven to. Especially to me. Since I myself can draw mostly cute little houses. and piglets:) Piglets somehow are easy to draw...:)

Lol, Aprilneverends, I agree with much of what you said. And I have to wonder how many people who decry buying something that depicts a town or place that wasn't purchased at the same locale are such purists themselves? Is it acceptable to see something in Paris, wish you'd bought it then and then order it online after you get home? Is it too proletarian to simply like a place and want a print of it, even though you have never been there----- for example, if a person who had never been to Paris at all saw those prints and simply liked them enough to buy them and put them on their wall?

Some of us buy stuff just because it is pretty and goes well in a particular space ----stuff that really doesn't have all that much deep meaning in our lives but looks good and we like it. I too have the gamut of artworks from framed movie and play posters (oops, souvenirs!) to fine art and like all of it equally well. I am baffled that a snapshot of something run through a program that enhances it to look like a painting from an art production factory in China is considered a better option than prints because the latter are "touristy."

"I am baffled that a snapshot of something run through a program that enhances it to look like a painting from an art production factory in China is considered a better option than prints because the latter are 'touristy.'"

I don't think it is so much "better" as "more personal." The snapshot you took is more personal, and may have more meaning to you, than the generic image of the same subject, even if the generic image is better executed (or an original watercolor by a fabulous artist). My snapshot skills suck, so I would always go with the higher skilled but less personal work. But dyhgarden's snapshot is pretty cool.

It's a strange thing, but after reading everyone's comments here something compelled me to look at pictures of the room again. Now I just want to say - leave it as it is, don't put anything on that wall. Pretty strange coming from me, with a house filled with art and antiques who has to have all that to feel happy. However, your style is so compelling that I have to respect it, and those prints have no place in that room, in my opinion. However, in the final analysis your opinion is the only one that matters.

Have you checked out the app Dreamscope? It's quite remarkable and also free. There are so many filters and variables that it takes a little time and experimentation. As a throwaway example:

Original photo:

The Flower Petal filter:

I know, right?!!

Linelle, I don't know if you mean that example to be a good one or a bad one. I think it looks like an illustration for Little Shop of Horrors, The Garden Version!

It's wonderful to read all the different ways each of you approaches wall decor.

That black framed art propped on the console is an original white line drawing on black background, of a jazz band. I purchased it in New Orleans in 1992. At the time I purchased it, my powder room was black and white and it went there. Once I sold that house, it's not had a place to hang. My friend from California thought I should hang it in the kitchen lounge. There's not enough wall space in my current powder room (with the black&white marble hexagon floor).

My decor style tends to be sparse -- perhaps because I'm claustrophobic! :-)

sparse: of few and scattered elements

I think the prints are charming and would look wonderful in your dining room. I don't know why, but I totally dislike photos hung as art. I have many pics of my family past and present and have them all in my library and office so I do love photos but, imo, photos are usually a poor substitute for a painting.

If I were to choose a print for your room, it would be this one at the Arhaus site.art

That is a great print for that space, yaya, but still rather pricey for what you get. On ebay you can get a great watercolor or small oil painting for that amount of money.

kswl2 LOL. I included it as an example of what you can do with a photo, as one can do with Waterlogue. I just pulled a random, not very good photo of mine and applied a filter. Of course it isn't everyone's taste, not even necessarily mine, but there it is. Didn't mean to imply the OP should use this filter on anything. I do like how the colors came out.

(I'll try not to click the "like" button anymore lol -I just really like this discussion..whether I wholly agree with a comment or partially or don't really agree..they all are cool

I do see what Ingrid is saying though..that wall is special..

reminds me of Vermeer. Don't ask me why since I've no idea..at least not one I can put into words. Just something in the mood..

If you only had $57 million to spare you could have gotten this art piece!

eta to add link

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/christies-auctions-basquiat-rothko-still-1.3576478

A little pricey, but oh so right for that dining room.

Perhaps you could find something black and white to join the New Orleans piece in your room. Black would pick up on the light fixture (which I love). Maybe something scrolly, even iron sconces would work.

Personally, I don't do Giclee prints--to me they are overpriced "prints". If you need inexpensive, get a regular print or a poster. If you can go up to the $100 range you can get a "real" print, as in lithograph or etching (new or vintage), or even an original. But in the end, it must speak to you as well as enhance your room.

Yikes Rose, imo anyone who buys that painting has got to have very off-the-wall taste and may be into horror flicks like Freddy Kruger. Waking up in the middle of the night and seeing it could make me run out of my own house! lol I cannot begin to imagine it in dhygarden's beautiful classic room. It would seem so out of place imo.

Is that what you see, Patty? I see an impoverished urban landscape..lol..

Patty I was joking. I dont understand why someone would pay 57 million dollars for that!

Well, I can't quite find enough penny rolls to cover the $57 million price tag, but I actually like it. Then again, I've been known to sometimes prefer art that is not the norm.

Rose, I knew you were joking! I guess it's an investment painting for sure.

Ellie, hmmm, that's imaginative. lol Bringing something like that into the house would be like bringing in the devil. Would scare the bjesus out of me.

Patty- it's a self portrait, and I see nyc in it as well :) But yea, he's definitely not every ones cup of tea .

To be honest, I hate Romanticism, followed closely by most Realism. That means I don't appreciate many of the greats (blasphemy, I know.)

A lot of Basquiats work is about his own culture. It's difficult for many people to get because there's generally nothing typically "beautiful", or even remotely attractive about it- especially if you don't know, or can't relate to the context.

I grew up with people that adore his work. I think a lot of it has to do with them being from the same neighborhoods, and cultural backgrounds- they get it.

A painting like this is why the Nazis comdemned modern art and burned it. It held up a mirror to the ugliness in that society and they couldn't stand the truth. If you look at this painting as being indicative of modern society here with its huge economic discrepancies along racial lines then it becomes quite painful to look at. I don't know if that's what the artist meant, but we're free to put our own interpretations on modern art. It isn't spelled out like in realism or impressionism. It's much harder to look at and try to understand.

I don't care for Basquiat's work, particularly, although I do see merit in it. The work referenced above screams New Orleans to me rather than New York.

This has turned into a fun thread! I'm enjoying all the comments, but am a little short 57 million right now.