When it comes to making a house a home, the finishing decorative touches are absolutely essential. Here are five things you can hang on your wall that will add a touch of flair, homeliness and individuality.
Nothing is more individual than getting your own snaps blown up and framed. Holiday and family photos, a favourite pet or anything else you can imagine can look great. With digital cameras and the technology behind putting photos on canvas getting better and better, a cost-effective and totally unique wall hanging is easy to achieve.
Frames
Providing they suit the artwork and the room they are being hung in, frames add an air of quality to your walls. They do not have to house expensive artworks to work well: postcards and posters can look great if set off by the right frame. They are also the best way to protect your art and, as they mean you don’t have to use tack, your walls.
Original Art
There is original art of any style imaginable available online and in markets throughout the country. Not only can you have something to bring you great pleasure whenever you look at it, but you could end up making money. You could strike it lucky and end up with the next Banksy on your walls and make a tidy profit.
Rugs/Tapestry
Almost like holiday snaps choosing a rug or tapestry you found in a market on holiday, or picked up by chance closer to home, can add a brilliant touch of style, quality and individuality to your home. They work especially well in rooms with plenty of hard surfaces, like hallways or rooms with tiled or wooden floors, preventing too much echo and making sure they do not feel too austere.
Mirrors
Practically speaking there is no better wall hanging than a mirror. They are much more than the something to make sure your hair and makeup looks right before you head out. For one, they can be extremely decorative in their own right. They often come with fantastic frames and in recent years tarnished, antique mirrors have been used increasingly to give homes a contemporary, shabby chic look. More than anything, however, is the light and space mirrors can help create, making rooms more comfortable to live in and, if you were putting your home on the market, more alluring to potential buyers.
Five things you should never hang on a wall
How you decorate your property is really what turns it into a home. Like furniture and lighting, what you hang on your walls is an essential consideration. We pick five wall hangings you should avoid if you want your home to be an attractive, contemporary place to live.
5 things to never hang on a wall
Blu-Tack
Ok, it is not a wall covering in its own right, but this reusable putty-like substance and its alternatively coloured counterparts are the bane of walls throughout the land. The damage they do to walls outweighs any price advantage.
It almost invariably brings bits of the wall with it when moved, leaving a room looking tatty and in need of redecoration. It also makes wall hangings look dog-eared and cheap after a while.
Adhesive Mirror Stickers
Again, the major issue is the damage they do to your walls. Patterns and designs are often tacky, but as long as you like them that is no problem. The real problem comes if you want to remove them. You will end up removing bits of wall and have to spend time and money on repairs.
Posters
If you are not a student or teenager then nothing says cheap and tacky like the kind of posters you can find on the high street. Pictures of disrobed celebrities or your favourite footballer might be to your taste, but most visitors and potential buyers will probably not be so enthusiastic.
They are not all bad, vintage posters in a frame can add a touch of contemporary class to a home’s decor. But there are plenty of better, more individual wall hangings to choose from.
Flying Ducks/Kitsch
There is nothing wrong with kitsch, but it must be done very well not to be off-putting. If you have something like flying ducks on your wall and you are not being ironic then it is likely that your decoration needs to be freshened up. Breathing new life into your decor can massively increase the pleasure of living in your home.
High Street Art
Affordable art is great, and high-street shops deserve credit for helping make it available but use widely available art sparingly, otherwise your home can look too generic. Also, make sure it chimes with how you have decorated the room you are hanging it in. This might not matter to you, but visitors and perhaps even potential buyers are won over by first impressions.
