The client said, “I never really thought about coordinating my room to the art.”  Well, here is the concept:  decorating a room as background to your art is not the same as buying art just to decorate a room. 

Two years ago, my daughter and I visited the National Gallery in Ottawa (www.national.gallery.ca).  The building was impressive, as was the collection, but I can really only remember two rooms of art.  One was the collection of Alex Colville.  I enjoyed it even displayed on sterile colourless walls, but I can’t remember a single painting.  However, I have much more clarity about the Group of Seven.  That collection was displayed on deep blue painted walls.  The colour unified the collection.  The paintings were more powerful.  The setting was more dynamic.  And, I remember the paintings as well as the experience.  The same thing happened last year at the Art Gallery of Ontario (www.ago.net).  I don’t remember the wall colour (mustard brown?), but I do remember the calm unity of the Group of Seven collection—calm due not only to the common theme, but also to the painted walls.  The adjoined painted room for the Victorian collection was also quite memorable.  The Victorian room had the additional advantage of a second floor landing for a “birds-eye” view of this floor-to-ceiling collection.  My memory was served by the total art experience, not just the mere display of art.

In your own home, first organize your art collection, be it oils, watercolours, prints, or posters.  Place a collection together on a neutral background like a white or cream bed sheet.  Study.  Is there a common theme?  What about common colour tones?  Your choice is to present your collection by blending with a wall colour or contrasting with a wall colour.  Contrast the experiences mentioned above.  In the National Gallery, the stark white in the paintings jumped from the deep blue walls.  In the AGO, the wall colour calms the collection.  Here are similar collections creating different experiences due to the colour of the walls.  Choose your wall colour and those of your room fabrics to enhance the art experience within your home.  The client in question rethought the whole process.  The object was to make the painting collection more a part of the room experience.  First, the previously white walls were painted Benjamin Moore Hawthorne Yellow, contrasting with the sombre blues and browns in the room’s painting collection.  The contrast makes the paintings visually more prominent.  The new fabrics in the room are derivative in pattern, texture and colour from the style and colour tones in the collection of paintings, so the fabrics contrast with the wall colour too.  This “common contrast” in colour tones reinforces the eye’s attraction to the paintings.  This in turn makes the paintings seem closer, making the room seem more intimate, making the experience of the room and the paintings more memorable.  And that’s why we decorate, to make the experience of a room more memorable.