I'll start with photos ... I have been going back and forth between displaying objects on top of my kitchen cabinets and leaving them bare. I like the space both ways, but it does feel a bit bare to me when nothing's there. DH and I collaborated with an artist who is currently making a sign for us modeled after national park and forest signs we have seen on our many hikes together, using the name of a favorite trail, and this 4 foot long sign will hang above the cabinets eventually. In spite of the oft general consensus to leave that area of the kitchen bare, this speaks perfectly to who we are. And we look upon it as art. Different, yes. But I like it that way.

Ours will look like this:

One of the artist's other creations:

I'd like to tweak this photo and frame it. It makes me smile.

Lars, you totally get it. What a fun and enlightening spirit you have!

I used the tiller from my first sailboat as a statement piece in my bathroom. Bellow it is an access to plumbing panel I covered the insert piece with a fabric I liked to make it look like a framed piece of " art". These pieces were born out of necessity to fill a space creatively due to practicality and budget but now when I could change it I do not cause it is one of my favorite wall spaces.

This is an old industrial pipe holder. I like it.

I love this thread! Will be back later. :)

Art. It's ALL art! (And art niches are still cool.)

Art on the floor is still art.

It's ok to have a bigazz niche over your front door and to... gasp! ... decorate it.

I guess what I really hope to convey is that art should not and cannot be narrowly defined. Have a vision. Be a maker. Don't be afraid of anything that draws your eye in.

Remodeling, that's so beautiful. Do you still have the board?

I know some people think light switches should match the wall color in order to be as unobtrusive as possible. I think they provide the perfect canvas for creativity. This one is in our kitchen.

I've mentioned it before, that years ago I had an acquaintance that was in the art business, had studied art and had been collecting art her whole life. Every room in her house was covered in art, from floor to ceiling. Sure, most of us couldn't decorate or live that way, but it made me appreciate that the opposite, decorating with too little art (whatever it is), was just as extreme.

Ida, you niche is a great example ... imagine the responses you would get if you posted in decorating asking what to put in your niche? Or if your new house plan include the niche?

Someone in the building forum just asked about placing art on a high wall over a kitchen. The responses are sad and some just rude. I see so much potential for those large bare walls. Yeah, it won't be cheap to decorate those large spaces, but it can be done, and be a space that tells us who the unique people who live in the house are.

My parents downsized (again!) and I just helped my Mom rearrange some of her art, through facetime! We just hung 3 small paintings with a small Moroccan brass canteen they had picked up 45 years ago in Morocco. Another wall has larger paintings mixed with a wood carving from that same trip. We have always mixed art with "found" items.

My "sexpot" flower pot, with an Ari photobomb.

Terra cotta canitster

My monster finger puppet collection from college, and my Opus figurines I made in high school (the Opus on the right is wearing a Bill and Opus '84 campaign button (maybe '88).

Some of my jewelry

I have a few things - nothing earth shattering. A vase full of peacock feathers on my dining room table; a conical spool of natural twine on my bookcase - at Christmas time I put a small glass bulb on top as a tree topper. A copper rock, the size and shape of a skull. It came from an abandoned copper mine - complete with eye sockets. I bet it's the real thing. (I use it as a door stopper on my garden house porch. A magic 8 Ball; A bouquet of black pencils (unsharpened) in a clear glass beer stein; 2 wooden walking sticks with handles that look like animal heads. I put a topaz earring in each one to look like an eye; and a small bouquet of goldfinch feathers in a wooden vase in my kitchen window sill. Like I said, nothing too special but wait until Halloween.

COVID has me going crazy being in the house all day so I decided that I need the subjects of my art to check each other out. I have an entire soap opera going on in my head about how this guy is pissed because his girl is checking out a different guy, all the while another girl has her eyes on him. The guy in the photo on the right can't tell if he wants to check out the red lady or the pink guy with the flower in his mouth. And on and on and on and on. It makes me giggle every time I climb the stairs. My storyline is not complete because I still have some pieces to hang but you get the idea. My staircase will contain more drama then The Young and the Restless. Is that still being aired? This time the art is more about the storyline then the piece itself.

All of this along with my photoshopped light fixture and window shade that I have not yet decided on ;-)

LOL! That's some drama right there, Friday!

Thanks for this, IdaClaire.

Art and home decoration can be personal and interesting without being expensive. New homeowners don't need to find it all now; for me I'd rather live with the empty spaces until I find what I love. Visiting a home of a friend is fun because you get to see who they are through their stuff. My favorite homes were not created in home decor stores but along the path of life.

Lately, if I catch the news,or someone broadcasting from their home, my favorite pastime is checking out their homes. It’s fun!

I wonder if plants count as art... they do to me! The blue bunny pottery was given to me by my mother, I love them😎

CC

I totally see plants as art, especially the keeping them alive part. I think plants look like growing statues. How they are displayed adds even more artistic flare. You have some beautiful art going on!

I think plants are beautiful examples of art! Nature's finest. No wonder artists try to capture their form in myriad ways. The shapes and shadows and hues all add up to the perfect artwork! Yours are lovely, CC.

Just some of our favorites at our Cape Cod house:

This hangs n the house above the deck in the summer. It was a gift from our daughters

These are a thrift shop find

A ear late friend shot this photo

From a favorite Cape pottery shop

A wall of John Dowd prints

Some of my non-typical art: nest found in our yard soon after moving to this house, and priceless kids’ art.

Other unusual “art”.

Bottle found under our porch. Box my dad sent to my aunt from France when he was in the army, with family photos.

Things from our African safari trip.

Hotel pens.

Old ladder and a painting purchased at Santa Fe artist market.

Mask from Venice vacation.

Little houses.

We actually packed this guy and moved him from our former house. Angry Bird from one of our kids.

Love it all! I have a lot of art in the form of paintings, prints, portraits, found and natural items, too many collections, really. Downsizing is in my future.

Photo 1 is above my kitchen sink. Two Durer prints, one from an antique shop and a gift, and a small whitetail deer rack gotten by a family member. I picked it up in their barn and bought the little plaque and stained it.

Photo 2 is a little (antique) bracket shelf and vase containing feathers found in my yard. Wish I knew what bird they're from.

Love the feathers!

Y'all are all just wonderful. I am so heartened to know that such interested, artistic eyes are among us.

A couple of things. One is a small collection if sterling vases, which fortunately I polished a few days ago (must be running out of things to do!). They are on a crocheted doily and handkerchief that were made by my grandmother. The other is a favorite handmade iron clock with a copper face and clapper. I have had the clockworks repaired a couple of times. Good clock people are hard to find.

I've shared the "gallery" I hung in our powder room (thanks to ilikefriday's influence!), but here it is again. Most of the artwork in here has a Navajo shepherd theme, and I recently added a photo of my Navajo friend bottle feeding one of the little ones her family kept on their farm. Might be a weird theme by most standards, but this room makes me so happy now!

I have a wonderful old hutch in my front foyer that I enjoy displaying found things that I love. Two dinosaur egg fossils I found on our property. A bowl filled with fossils and pottery shards, also found on our property here.

An old spoon that I also found here. I need to search somewhere online to find how old it is.

@User

The gallery wall looks fabulous! Did you add art on the wall opposite the toilet? Isn't it funny how changing a tiny thing can bring you so much joy.

Thanks, Friday! The wall across from the potty remains a work in progress. I'm actively looking for more art to hang there, but haven't found much that's jumped out at me yet.

Lynn, those pieces found on your property are such a cool link to the land! And every one could tell a story, I'm sure.

Actually, Friday? You just inspired me again and I dug out two pieces from the closet. One is a small vintage crewel work picture, and the other a Navajo yei weaving. See? Just chatting with you here makes me hang things on the wall. You got tha powah! 😁

I think it needs a longish piece hung between the two areas, then something below the long Hopi flowers painting, then... well, then we'll just see how it evolves. It's fun!

I think I need to change my screen name to ilikefridayPowah! It is looking fab. How about a long, skinny carving between the paintings? Maybe a mask, ukelele, flute, whatever you can find. Something not square or rectangle???

Love it! I'm on the lookout!

Ida, I love your gallery powder room... so awesome! Friday, your stairway with all the drama and jealousy is the best! You both have beautiful artwork. This post gets my creative juices flowing!

Probably 50 years ago, my Mom was into flower arranging and used pieces of driftwood in her designs. My grandfather, her father, found this piece and gave it to her. I've always liked it. It found a home in DH's study. I like the contrast of the natural structure with the image of the manmade structure, the Brooklyn Bridge.

DH's family had a bunch of antique walking sticks...one of which is carved with his family name, so I needed a way to display them...put them in the foyer.

vintage art

Friday, I'm still working! This is really harder than one might think it would be. I liked your addition of a large piece at the bottom, so I added this big print of trees. It's never struck me as particularly Native American, but hey... trees. I might also look for a large print to replace the tree print with, but no rush. Anyway, it's taking better shape.

@User

Things are looking better and better! I like the trees. Gallery walls are great because they can evolve over time.

Here are the steps I have swirling around in my head when I am hanging art. Maybe it will help you or maybe not. Take this with a grain of salt as I am no expert on gallery walls or anything else for that matter. I came up with it off the cuff but it works for me.

Start with the largest pieces first. I like to create vertical columns of art going up the wall with the largest pieces at the bottom. Here is the start of four columns.

Next center art vertically on each column, with the bigger pieces on the bottom. Try to have the same amount of space between each piece.

As you obtain more pieces, create more verticals but keep the bigger pieces on bottom. Do you see below I went from 4 columns to 6 columns?

Last, add one or two smaller pieces outside of the typical areas. You are done once every inch of space is covered with stuff from floor to ceiling ;-)

C C, your “bunny” pottery is Dedham Pottery and is very collectible. My friend, who grew up in Dedham, MA, has so many beautiful pieces displayed in a custom made glass front cabinet.

Bonnie, is the pottery from Newcomb Hollow in Wellfleet?

I have two large lighted niches in my hallway. In each hangs a Chinese wood shutter my. daughter brought home from her Navy years in Asia.

JudyG Designs, thanks for the info on the Dedham pottery, I love them and reading the bottom doesn’t tell you much. My mother gave them to me years and years ago. I have more pieces around my kitchen... I’m using a pitcher to hold potatoes! Maybe I should put them somewhere safe? I like having them around though, they make me smile😁

Friday, thanks a million for those very helpful schematics! I love that your arrangement seems to be rather freeform, but is actually quite structured and well planned. This will be very useful to me going forward.

I just ordered a 20 x 20 print to replace the trees in the large frame at the bottom of the wall. More Monument Valley landscape, but it just works so well with the theme. Plus, I love the place. It's magical.

Really lousy mockup: