Art is one of the layers we love curating.
When we’re designing a home, we aren’t necessarily looking for artwork that perfectly matches the sofa or fills a particular amount of wall space. We’re looking for pieces that add something to the room, a sense of history, personality, texture, color, humor, or simply a reason to look a little closer. Sometimes this process takes a little longer, but the pay off is always worth it.
That same philosophy guided our latest Art Edit at KED at Home.
The collection brings together petite European landscapes, atmospheric cloud studies, botanicals, vintage-inspired canine sketches, quiet works on restoration paper, and a few pieces that simply made us smile. On their own, they’re quite different. Together, they reflect the way we like art to feel in a home: collected rather than coordinated.
We look for art with personality
A beautifully designed room shouldn’t feel so composed that there’s no room for surprise.
That’s why you'll find pieces like Bee-Hind, c. 1900 in the collection—a loose sketch of a pup looking back at the tiny bee hitching a ride on his tail. There’s Two Dogs on a Chair, c. 1930, along with a classic Labrador study and the wonderfully fluffy Valais Blacknose Sheep.
These aren't pieces we would use to create a “dog-themed room.” Quite the opposite.
We might place one among landscapes and abstracts in a gallery wall, tuck another into a library, or hang one somewhere unexpected like a mudroom or powder room.
That little bit of wit keeps a beautiful room from taking itself too seriously.
Small art can have a big role
Some of our favorite pieces in this collection are also the smallest.
The Petite Scapes include views of the Danube, Italian olive trees, mountains at sunset, and atmospheric cloud studies dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Sales Order -Celadon Art - 0000…
We love this scale because it encourages a different approach to art.
Not every piece needs to be centered over a large piece of furniture. A petite landscape can sit between books, hang above a bedside table, fill a narrow stretch of wall, or become the smaller counterpoint in a larger grouping.
These slightly less expected placements are often what make a home feel as though its art collection developed naturally over time.
Sometimes texture is enough
Then there are the quieter pieces.
Our Restoration Paper works pair restrained white imagery with aged paper, allowing subtle markings, tonal variation, and imperfections beneath the artwork to become part of the composition.
We’re drawn to them for the same reason we love plaster walls, linen, natural wood, honed stone, and hand-applied finishes: the interest comes from variation and texture rather than excess.
In a room with beautiful materials, artwork doesn't always need to introduce another strong color or pattern. Sometimes it simply needs to add another layer.
Art can suggest a place without becoming a theme
We design many lake and vacation homes, and one thing we’re conscious of is creating a sense of place without making the interiors feel overly literal.
Artwork is particularly good at this.
Runabout Silhouette hints at summers spent on the water. St. Anton, Austria II, c. 1955 has the nostalgia of a European ski holiday. Olive Trees at Tivoli quietly transports you somewhere entirely different.
None needs an entire room built around it.
Instead, these pieces can become subtle references to places someone loves, experiences they’ve had, or simply the feeling they want their home to evoke.
The goal isn't to match. It's to connect.
Perhaps that's the biggest consideration when we select art.
Your collection doesn't need one subject, one palette, or one style.
A landscape can live beside a botanical. A loose dog sketch can sit near something abstract. An antique-inspired work can be completely at home in a contemporary room.
What connects them can simply be you.
The pieces you pause for. The places that mean something. The colors you continually return to. The artwork that makes you smile.
That’s when art begins doing something much more interesting than filling a wall.
Explore the Art Edit at KED at Home in Barrington and discover the pieces we’d use and live with ourselves.
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