where to buy affordable art
Turns out home ownership is overwhelmingly expensive and everything costs a lot more than I anticipated, art edition.
One of the reasons I started this Substack was to be able to write about my love for interiors. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about; my first ever internship was in a design studio. I considered architecture for a career but didn’t like that I’d have to keep up mathematics or that I’d been confined to higher education for five years. So instead I decorated houses on The Sims and saved inspiration Pinterest boards until I bought a house.
I’ve always liked “period” properties (officially means pre WW1, British/English builds) so it came as no surprise that I bought one. Overwhelmed by the task of doing it up, I started posting inspiration pictures on a separate Instagram account. Rather amusingly it has amassed a following far larger than my personal one (link is here for anyone interested). Since then I did a little interiors course and taken on a few projects for others to help them style their own homes. I find it rewarding but hard work - home is such a sacred space and being tasked with making someone else’s house feel special to them is no mean feat.
I digressed a little, back to the point of this post. One of the major things I found when decorating our home was how difficult it was to figure out (and find) art for the walls. Art is a very personal thing - something one person likes, another won’t etc. I am very much from the school of “let the walls do the talking” when it comes to the personality of home. That said, just because I like impressionist art doesn’t mean I can afford to put it on my wall.
Affordable means different things to different people; I’ve written this from the perspective that you have hundreds rather than thousands to spend on key pieces - and then small change for the rest. This has been our own approach… Over the years we’ve collected menus, postcards, tour posters, invitations - all kinds of inexpensive pieces and then had them framed (if you live near me then we use Artscape in Harpenden for most things worthy of a custom frame, and I’ve put some tips for less expensive framing options at the end of this post).
We have a few inexpensive heirlooms too - to me these are the priceless pieces. I try and avoid the mass produced posters. Perhaps it’s the snob in me (which isn’t justified but nonetheless exists) but I instantly eye roll at use of Audrey Hepburn, French quotations or any other “live, laugh, love” style imagery on walls. So, where do me and my high horse get all of mine from? Here goes…
