Where to Buy Art: Consignment Stores

Feeling stuck on how to spruce up your bare walls? You can find a lot of inspiration by exploring a variety of places that sell art. Depending on where you go, you’ll see different art styles, and sometimes you’ll also see different ways to display art with furniture and accessories. In this third installment of Where to Buy Art, let’s take a look at consignment stores.

Furniture consignment stores are a great place to look for art. People bring their home decor items here to resell when they’re moving and need to downsize, or when they’re redecorating and don’t want certain pieces anymore. A good consignment store owner won’t take items that are unlikely to sell (i.e., junk). What this means for you, the shopper, is that you get to choose from a well-curated collection.

Consignment store art has been previously enjoyed in someone else’s home. The store will sometimes display its art in a showroom arrangement with coordinating furniture and accessories, so you can see what kind of decor the art might work with. If you find a piece of art that you really like, take note of the price and resist the temptation to buy it at first sight. Why? The consignment stores I’ve visited tend to lower the initial price of an item after a certain amount of time. With a little patience and keen observation, you can stretch your decorating budget this way.

Now that we’ve covered some of the unique benefits of shopping at a consignment store, let’s go over a few art styles you can look for while you’re there.

Painterly Style

Painterly style is a half step between Realism and Impressionism. Like Realism, the art subjects are depicted realistically, to varying degrees. However, similar to Impressionism, artists who create in the Painterly style make their brush strokes an intentionally visible and prominent part of the compositions. Matisse paintings are an example of Painterly style. These works are appealing to homeowners who don’t want the formal look of Realism paintings but are turned off by abstract art. Painterly style is casual and charming without being too saccharine.

Painterly art in a substantial size (estimate two to four pizza boxes) would be perfect for the main display walls in your house—above the fireplace, at the head of the dining table, or in a special art nook. They can easily stand on their own or work with surrounding accessories.

Vedute or Realism Cityscapes

A Veduta (the Italian word for “view”; plural Vedute) is a subcategory of Realism in which the subject is a city. Vedute originated in the Renaissance and have evolved to modern cityscapes in contemporary art. The reason Vedute justify a separate category is that, unlike timeless landscapes, cityscapes mark a moment in time when a city looked a certain way.

Cityscape paintings or prints tend to look best in more modern interiors. If you enjoy architecture, you can display Vedute in your home as examples of your favorite architectural styles. A painting of Rome is a more effective demonstration of your love for the city than a sign that says “I heart Rome.”

Similar to other Realism paintings, Vedute can be used most anywhere in the home. Use the building shapes as inspiration for pairing with complementary accessories or lamps.

Still Life

Still life paintings and prints are a longstanding staple of home decor. The restful composition of fruit, flowers, or vases invites the viewer to focus on simple, everyday beauty. Still life art can also inspire a color palette that you can use for decorating an entire room.

Large still life pieces can hold their own on one of your main display walls. Smaller still lifes can be used anywhere else. Since this art style tends to depict objects on a flat surface, you could display a small still life on a bookshelf as a playful visual pun.

Choosing one or two items from the painting and displaying their three-dimensional counterparts in front can draw interest to the painting, and vice versa. But don’t overdo it. Recreating the entire still life in front of itself would be a little weird!

Old Maps

Old maps can make great pieces of art for your home. Street maps give an overall sense of texture when viewed from far away. Antique world maps (or reproductions) are works of art in themselves. Usually they are precisely rendered, sometimes accompanied by technical notations and full-color illustrations.

Maps work especially well in a study or office. Their functional and work-like nature bring a masculine energy to their craftsmanship. In a living room or dining room, they might be better suited to a secondary wall, rather than as the main display. I wouldn’t recommend them for the bedroom.

Try this at Home!

Do any of these art styles appeal to you? Curious about consignment stores now? They can be a great source of beautiful art pieces. Search for locations near you and plan a visit. Happy exploring! And you can find more ideas on how to fill your empty walls in my videos here and here!