Maybe you’ve just bought a house, or maybe you just moved into a new apartment and you’re wondering what to put on the walls. Maybe you’ve lived at your place for a while, but you haven’t decorated because you weren’t sure what to buy.
No matter what the reason, if you’re ready to hang something on the walls, you should skip the cheap, mass-produced artwork at your local home décor store.
Here’s why.
Many people turn to mass-produced art because it’s affordable. It’s true that it is much cheaper compared to some art, but the truth is, real artwork costs less than you think.
Did you know you can buy hand-painted reproductions of famous artwork? From a detailed painting of the Toshogu Temple at Nikko to the fluid nature scapes of Monet, there are real, talented, trained artists out there who are able to recreate beautiful scenes for your home with a hand-painted touch. And most importantly, they can do it for a lot less than what it would cost to buy the actual painting.
One of the reasons many people turn to mass-produced art is that it’s so easy to find. You can pick up a new picture for the bathroom or a new print for the dining room when you’re out at your local craft store or home repair store. Finding real art can seem like a hassle, but it doesn’t have to be!
There are many places you can go to find art from actual artists. Try your local thrift store, go to an estate sale, or go to an art fair on a Saturday morning.
You don’t have to leave your home if you don’t want to! There are great places to buy online art that include:
The thing about mass-produced art is that almost all of it is boring. It is created to appeal to the masses, and it is often chosen by homeowners simply because it fits in with a certain color scheme. Once it is hung on the wall, it blends into the background, and you and your guests don’t notice it.
Art is meant to stand out. It’s meant to make you think. It’s meant to make you feel. True artwork should create some kind of reaction when you see it, and it should call attention to itself when friends and family come to visit. They should point to it and ask you about it instead of glossing right over the image because it contains a quirky saying that they’ve read a million times before.
When you buy mass-produced art, you’re giving your money to big-box stores. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but every time you give them your money, you’re not giving it to an actual artist.
When you buy actual art from an actual artist, you’re cutting out the middleman. You’re giving your money directly to a real person, and because of that, your purchase directly affects their livelihood.
It’s a way to encourage the creative endeavors of artists. They can continue to create meaningful works of art when you pay them for their pieces instead of paying a large company to mass produce boring art they think will sell.
We all know that fine art can be worth a lot of money. It’s also true that there’s a lot of art out there that isn’t worth all that much, but there’s at least a chance that the real artwork you bought will appreciate in value. At the very least, it might maintain at least some value.
There’s absolutely no chance that a mass-produced piece of artwork will appreciate in value. Buying mass-produced art is like buying a brand-new car. Just like a new car depreciates in value the second you drive it off the lot, mass-produced art also loses its value the second you walk out of the store and hang it on your wall.
You’ve probably heard of fast fashion. You’ve probably also heard of fast furniture. Did you know fast art is a real thing too?
Anything created cheaply that’s sold cheaply and loses its value immediately is guaranteed to end up in the landfill. It isn’t interesting, so unless you can find someone with the right color scheme in their home, it’s likely to end up in the garbage.
You won’t be passing on that mass-produced print to your children either.
Real artwork has staying power. There will be people who will want to buy it from you if you’re ready to sell it, and there will likely be people in your family who want you to pass it on to them after you pass away.
You deserve to surround yourself with the things you love. Everything you see should have a story. It should make you feel happy to look at it.
Mass-produced art doesn’t have a story. It doesn’t come with an artist who has a story or an interesting story about how you procured it. It’s simply something you picked up while you were out one day, which means it’s hanging on the wall just to take up space. You deserve to hang things on your wall that bring you joy.
No matter how cheap or pretty at first glance, it really is best to leave the mass-produced art on the shelf. Instead, curate a home full of actual artwork that you love, that has a story, and that will retain its value. It may take some time, but it takes a lot less money than you think, and it really is the best way to turn your house into your home.
