A beautiful home can be considered an oddly shaped modern piece of art in itself, or it can be a time capsule looking into the past with its Victorian Style build. It’s all up to us. Our homes represent the culture around us and are usually themed to portray the people who live within its walls. 

Whether it be a farmhouse with barn sliding closet doors and old barrels as end tables or a remodeled bus draped in tapestries and painted vibrant colors, they typically carry one thing in common no matter what the theme is—photographs. Photographs can be styled in multiple ways to fit the theme of any home.

 

It’s All About Location!

The location of a home always plays a huge part in its interior design and decoration. In the United States, we see cozy farmhouses with sleek white and gray paint, maybe a pop of red or light teal throughout the house. In the living room, hanging from the walls are usually black and white portraits that show off families with daughters blowing daisies in cotton dresses or husbands and wives captured on their wedding days. 

Displayed in the kitchen is an old butter churn in the corner and a blown-up portrait of someone’s granny sitting on a small stool milking a cow. However, this representation is completely different than the farm-style home found in London. The beautiful London homes across the sea are just dreamy. As opposed to the modern farm style in America, the homes in London are painted in bright teals, greens, and fuchsia. 

The photographs are not as aligned or organized. In some of the houses, the frames on the portraits do not match. Portraits can hang in clusters making collages, and in some houses, they are displayed neatly above fireplaces. Where Americans show off their immediate family, in Britain the photos that homes display can take you back decades and, in some cases, the homes display photographs of angles and heavenly structure instead of actual family photos. Both styles bring different aspects to the table. America’s modern farmhouse makes the place feel clean, crisp, and breathable, whereas, London’s style of mismatched artwork can make the place feel comfy and cozy.

 

Beyond the Photographs

The best way to add décor to your home is to add art. Art can be expressed in multiple ways. You can find old furniture and fix it up or keep it the same. If you love plants, you can add some greenery to make your home feel more natural and earthy. You could add a pop of color on your walls and throw some shams and unique shaped pillows on your couch for a bohemian theme or better yet take it away to create a sleek, modern, or edgy look.

One of the more simpler ways to add art to your home can be by taking those photos you cherish and turning them into paintings to hang up on your walls. You could build your own furniture like the famous 20th-century artist Giacomo Balla whose apartment just became open to the public to tour. 

This apartment is decorated in the artist’s own original work, each room containing some aspect of his life in furniture that he built, pictures that he created, and of course paintings and photos of his beloved family. Balla was a futurist so his home is decorated in bright colors and was given an abstract design that was way ahead of his time.

 

Our Story is Told

Homes are decorated to express the people that live there. They tell the stories of our lives through the way we display the photos of our families on the fireplace mantle or in a collage of beautifully framed pictures lining the stairs. 

The art we place in our homes can express the area we live in like the farmhouse with sliding barn doors in replace of the original doorframe or the modern bookshelf found in an upscale New York apartment. Art, décor, and photographs play a huge part in making a house feel like home.