How I Use Art to Shape a Home: A Personal Art Tour (that still needs to be completed)

Art has always been more than decoration to me. It actually shouldn’t be décor. It should mean something.

It’s memory.

It’s emotion.

It’s storytelling through shape, shadow, and texture.

Over the years, I’ve built a personal art collection that reflects not just my taste as a designer, but also my travels, relationships, and evolving perspective. Some pieces were collected on impulse; others took years to find. Some are by emerging artist friends, and others are quiet treasures I picked up on vacation or inherited from family.

In this post, I’m inviting you into my home not just to show you where the art lives, but to share why it lives there. Room by room, you’ll see how each piece contributes to the overall feeling of the space and how I use art in interior design to create rhythm, balance, and personality—even in the most functional corners.

It’s still ongoing, but here’s where we’re at:

Kitchen

Hanging next to the patio door is a map of Italy showing the cheeses and wines from each region. It’s actually a mapina (dish towel in Italian) from my Nonna—one of many she never used. Every Italian nonna has a stack of these, and most have this exact one.

I had it stretched and framed locally, with a frame made in Italy. It’s simple and sentimental, a small reminder of where I come from. Proof that anything meaningful can become art, and that personal pieces often have more impact than anything purchased from a store.

Family Room

This is where my version of a gallery wall has taken shape. There was no big plan—just an intuitive mix of scale, colour, and materiality. Different frames and mediums feel cohesive, giving the room a collected, colourful, unpretentious charm.

Some favourites here:

• Several pieces hand-painted by one of my best friends for our wedding stationery and a view from her window in Lebanon.

• Nicolò’s first artwork.

• A few long-admired prints by Fabrizio Sclocco (I’ve followed him for years and finally added his work to our home).

• A mirror for balance.

• A poster by Picasso for an exhibition of his pottery in 1948

• A colourful print my sister brought me from the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakesh • And the “Smoking Nun,” the very first piece of art I ever bought.

It’s a wall of memories layered with design intention—exactly how I love to approach art placement in a home.

Hallway

My first commissioned piece—and maybe the star of this whole tour—is the Ceila Lees painting I worked with her on earlier this year. Her colour has this unbelievable ability to hold softness, depth, and vibrancy in the same stroke. I’ve wanted something of hers for years and feel so grateful to finally own it.

Further down the hall, I used vertical wall space to turn an awkward corner into a wall full of memories. Simple wood frames hold personal photos of family, friends, and the kids. It brings me joy every morning when I step out of the bedroom. If anyone ever says you don’t have enough wall space for art, send them this.

To round out the hallway, I recently picked up the Standing Split Vase by one of my favourite local florists, Carmel Floral. It can sit on a surface or hang on the wall, which I’ve opted for. I love how it faces the Ceila Lees painting—delicate against bold, each highlighting the other.

Principal Ensuite

Our wedding song (Celentano – L’emozione non ha voce), printed on linen and framed in an antiqued silver-leaf mirror, found its home in our principal ensuite. Something just for us—something to reflect on and cherish every day in a space that’s ours alone.

My art collection is ever-evolving, much like life itself, and that’s what makes it meaningful. In the end, the art that makes a home isn’t just what hangs on the walls. It’s what speaks to you—quietly and unmistakably—every single day.