Have you ever considered buying a house portrait? If your walls are lined with family pictures, posters, and landscapes, consider adding another personal touch. And if you love your home, that's all the more reason to immortalize it through art.
With the help of talented artists, you can get a custom house portrait that can become anything from a family keepsake to a gift. Read on to learn about 5 reasons you should get a house portrait!
Looking for home decor ideas? You can make a custom house portrait the anchor of any space. And a portrait of your home provides a level of personalization that keeps your living spaces from seeming too generic.
Plus, a custom illustration or painting offers a type of whimsy that a photograph just can't quite match. When you're trying to capture an image loaded with memories, you don't always want to use a camera's more objective lens.
With detailed instructions, you can ask your house portrait artist to embellish certain textures or colors. Sometimes these small cosmetic changes can make your house look more like home.
Artists can add text to provide descriptive information, as well as other flourishes to make your illustration look good in its surroundings. You can ask for more saturated colors to create a bold wall piece that will look vivid near a gray sofa. Or you can paint your walls a stark white so your portrait's colors pop out from the wall.
A drab living room can be upgraded to match the colors and style of a portrait. Choosing home decor becomes a lot easier, too, when you have the color scheme of painting to guide your choices. Your guests will enjoy looking at the individual textures and lines of your portrait the next time they come over for a dinner party.
Choose from traditional paintings or digital illustrations to portray your home. With a digital option, you'll get an image that can mimic any painting style, plus a digital file that you can share with your family. In either case, you'll add charm to your home decor!
Another great reason to commission a house portrait is that you end up with a keepsake you can pass down to your kids and grandchildren. Heirlooms help create connections across the generations, and paintings are a perfect way to contribute to this tradition.
Maybe you have memories of hanging family ornaments during the holidays with your parents. Maybe there's a piece of furniture that dates back to your great-grandparents' first home. A portrait can become the treasured keepsake of your generation.
With a house portrait, you may want to include a label on the back or front to describe the illustration's purpose. This will help ensure that the family historians in your family tree will know that it's not a random house!
And while you can choose any size for a portrait, think about selecting a smaller size so that it's easier to hand off to future generations. After all, a painting that stretches 5 feet across might be too imposing for smaller living spaces.
Talk with your family to see who might be the right person to care for the painting when you no longer can. Without a doubt, there will be a child, niece, or nephew who wants that honor!
If you live in a historical home, it's likely gone through some physical changes over the years. Perhaps a previous owner changed the siding or painted the brick. Or maybe a new bedroom or kitchen addition dramatically changed the home's overall scale and shape.
In any case, a fun twist on the home portrait is to use a retro reference point. In other words, why not use an older photo showing how your home used to look? Doing this can be a nice homage to your home's history, particularly if it's been in the family a long time.
You don't have to dig deep into the home's history, either. Even reference photos that show your home before landscaping changes or the addition of a new bay window can work. If you have access to older images from before major renovations, you can request a painting that reflects how your home once looked.
The more different angles you have for reference, the better, too. This allows the artist to gain a better idea of your home's overall sense of dimensions. And if you can zoom in on architectural features, you'll let your portrait artist see the details more easily.
To capture your home in a different era, perhaps you'd want to go with sepia tones or black and white. Another option is to use more muted contrasts to truly set your home in a specific time. You could even place a few old vehicles or people dressed in timely clothing to help set the scene.
On the other hand, a sharp white background can help call attention to unique architectural ornamentation. Additionally, it can highlight a swooping roofline or striking turret.
This cleaner approach is a great choice if your home has a distinctive silhouette. By contrast, placing bold shapes or patterns in the background can situate your home in a decade like the 1950s or 1960s. The sky's the limit!
While you may want to stay in your home forever, it probably has some flaws. Chipped paint, overgrown shrubs, and curling shingles all diminish a home's curb appeal. The beauty of a custom illustration, however, is that you can edit out some of those flaws.
On the flip side, you can introduce new elements that aren't there. As another option, you can modify or eliminate a background setting depending on your preferences. You'll just need to work with your artist so they're clear on what an idealized portrait means to you.
Is the winter season your favorite time of year, or do you wish you lived in a place with stunning winter snowfalls? Through the magic of art, you can bathe your home in the snow. A talented artist can situate your home in just about any environment when you give them your request.
A skilled artist can make your oak tree larger or smooth out the top of your front hedges. They even can change the siding color or add that front walkway you always wish you'd had.
Sometimes career changes or other life circumstances can force uprooting from a place you love. While moving is hard, buying a house portrait enables you to remember the good times in your old home. And if you truly want to embrace the idea of rose-colored glasses, you can request a more idealized version of your home.
House portraits make superb gifts for anything from weddings to anniversaries. Any sort of milestone event deserves a unique and thoughtful gift. What better way to surprise your parents on their golden anniversary than with a painting of their first home together?
Best of all, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars on a commission. There are sizes and materials to suit every budget. And you can opt to go with an unframed or framed look to suit any room's vibe.
Giving the gift of a house portrait to someone who's moving into a retirement community is a memorable way to honor their home. Downsizing from a place you've called home for decades can be a struggle. They'll cherish the reminder on their wall.
Are you a real estate agent? Then you know how much your clients value their homes. For a valued client moving out of their starter home or leaving town, a custom house portrait is a meaningful gesture.
You don't have to stop with house portraits, either. A pet portrait, for instance, would be another fantastic way to brighten someone's day, especially if they've recently lost a pet. Original artwork is a type of gift that can't be replicated!
Purchasing a house portrait puts a unique twist on home decor that will make you smile each time you see it. You'll love seeing a visual reminder of all the memories you've experienced in your home. And if you're downsizing or moving to a new state, you'll be able to bring a piece of your old home with you.