We all know finding things for your walls is so important to personalizing a room.

Of course if you have an unlimited amount to source art, you can acquire whatever speaks to you from art dealers and at auction houses and galleries.

But here are 5 places to source great, unique pieces even if you don’t have a museum level art budget. 

Your own home

Look to family photos, children’s artwork, travel mementos, and heirloom needlework for possibilities.

Custom framing, while not inexpensive, can elevate almost anything to fine art. From family photos to sheet music covers, we’ve had a zillion different pieces framed for our clients walls.

I have framed and hung countless gallery walls for clients over the years with family photos…some to tell a story of the ancestral history of the family, some to showcase children and/or grandchildren. But family photos are, by default, always meaningful.

I like to collect art from travels to preserve the memories AND have personal art for my rooms!

I have these framed watercolor prints and a poster from a trip with a school choir tour to Italy when my diva was in high school and had a solo in the concert. I begged a copy of the poster and dragged it home and had it framed. Such a fond memory of a proud mama moment.

I had one client with four children and he had me frame and hang about every picture and art project they did until we ran out of walls, but it was a completely personal home!

I have many precious pieces of counted cross-stitch in my home done by my mom.  She is amazing and so precise at needlework - the back always looks nearly as neat as the front!  

I love having these on my walls.  They all have a story, and they say something about me as well as about her and make me smile every day. Here are some of them hung alongside vintage prints and plates in my dining room.

Local original art from emerging artists.

There is no shortage of art talent in the world. Check local gallery shows and shops and search on IG with hashtags.

Some artists will do commissioned work if you want a particular subject matter or color palette. Some offer limited edition prints of their work as well.

We had a watercolor portrait of my parents house of 57 years done for them by local artist, Patty Nigro, when they downsized to their new apartment.

She worked from several photographs I sent her and included my mom’s beloved gardens in bloom.  it is a meaningful piece to have on their new walls.

My friend Pamela Copeman is an amazing designer-turned-artist in the Boston area that has beautiful pieces and does commissioned work as well.

Vintage, antique, and thrift shops

This is another one of my favorite ways to source unique pieces.  There are no guarantees at these sorts of places, of course, but the thrill of the hunt is part of the fun! 

We just hung these vintage Venice prints for a current client we are helping transition to their new condo in a converted cathedral.  The TV niche was just begging for a gallery wall arrangement!

They acquired these prints from various different shops over many years and they all work together so perfectly.  

I am currently on the hunt for a piece for my own newly refreshed kitchen - it currently has a piece I stole from the dining room wall (that is pictured above with the needlework), but I’d like to put that back where it belongs!

Reproduction prints and calendar pages

We framed a series of Audubon prints for a client's living room years ago that we sourced by purchasing a vintage calendar that contained them and taking it apart. 

Old fashioned calendars are a great way to get a series of pieces when you need a large grid of art that is all the same size, theme, and character.

Online sources

And there are, of course, a million places online to find art.  These are some of my favorites for good stuff though. 

Please note: I’ve provided affiliate links to the ones mentioned for your convenience, just click on the highlighted text. This means I may earn a small commission on any purchases at no additional cost to you, and helps support this blog.

EBay, Etsy, and 1st Dibs all have a variety of framed and unframed new and vintage pieces so you can find one of a kind choices here, often at a discount. 

Minted has both original art and art prints with framing options and is an easy website to navigate and sort by preferences.

There are plenty of other options that allow you to scale to a variety of sizes like Great Big Canvas that we used for the large triptych in this project, and  art.com and several websites for affordable murals as well, like the one we used for the feature wall in this bedroom project. 

For our full service design projects, we also have several trade vendor sources for unique and customizable artwork pieces.

Art should ideally be unique and reflect the personality of the home and the family that lives there.

Here’s to Walls that Spark Joy!

Other posts you might enjoy:

Do’s and Don’ts for hanging art

Styling secrets for decorating walls

Can I decorate with words on the wall?

Creating a gallery wall: what you need to consider