The Artful Home: Using Art & Craft to Create Living Spaces You'll Love

by Toni Sikes

A spectacular ceramic vase, an elegant blown glass light fixture, a hand-forged metal chair: well-chosen art and craftwork turn a house into a home, reflecting the owner’s personality. Create a warm and expressive environment by thinking like an artist and envisioning your home as a canvas for displaying beautiful things. Written by Toni Sikes, Founder and CEO of The Guild, Inc.—a leading name in fine art and crafts—this image-packed guide offers practical information on finding, showcasing, and caring for original art. Sikes gives a room by room tour, revealing the potential in every space and showing how to transform hallways into galleries; build a room around a special piece; use color, composition, and texture like a painter; and design vignettes that enhance collections.

159 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Goldenrod · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basic design principles, eccentric applications.

[Chi Dubinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is the founder of a company that supplies original art for homes--furniture as art, paintings, sculpture. She demonstrates how to showcoase these items to best advantage. One of the book's chapters is "Living with beautiful objects"--the text of the book is interesting, but it is really the photographs that are stunning.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book didn't contain any earth-shattering decorating advice. The photos will be familiar to people on their catalog or email lists. However, it's a worthwhile read for learning how to effectively use color and composition in a home.

Useful appendices include an art glossary and explain how to maintain records of art/craft purchases as well as how to care for various types of objects.