Professional Chat: Walk on the Wild Side With Animal Art

Animal art isn’t just for children — though, admittedly, one of those examples shown here was created just for them. However from Warhol to wild horses, there are a great deal of sophisticated functions that can complement the design of almost any room in your home.

Incorporated

Make it pop up. This piece was in the owner’s private collection and is a first Andy Warhol zebra print. “Because it was such a precious piece, we placed it prominently in the living area and used it color inspiration, pulling out tones for the pillows and accessories,” says designer Gabriel Benroth of Incorporated. “The proprietor chose this piece because of its more subdued colours when compared to hot pinks and aqua blues of other Warhol zebra prints.”

Dona Rosene Interiors

Allow serendipity to strike. “We had difficulty finding the right piece for this area,” says designer Dona Rosene. “Initially, the client didn’t believe the distance was important, and she had a limited budget for this. Then 1 day she walked to Domain in Fort Worth [Texas] and immediately fell in love with this painting along with its dimensions. She says it was a psychological response and purchased it within five minutes regardless of the purchase price.”

Rosene’s client told her, “It was intended to be that we ended up having a prominent image of a horse in which my daughter eats her breakfast every morning. She had been born horse mad, was on horses since she was 18 months old, also was taking riding lessons for over a year now.”

Tara Seawright Interior Design

Play sophistication. For this beach house design, Tara Seawright wanted to make items that the customer’s two little children could relate to. “It began with a cloth in the living area that’d turtles swimming on it it was something adults would like too — and critters just started appearing in objects, lamps and artwork,” she says.

“However, if you walk into the house, it doesn’t feel like an animal kingdom. It is more of an unconscious, lively type of item, and this piece by Jeffrey Rothstein fulfilled all my needs because it was complicated but’d fish. It was not too literal, and it is a beautiful piece — bright and approachable,” she adds.

Momoko Morton

Climb every mountain. The following prints by Joe Andoe were purchased in the Julie Nester Gallery in Utah. Momoko Morton of Naka Designs, who made this distance together with spouse Robert Fitzgerald, states, “Our goal was to create a contemporary mountain appearance using traditional mountain imagery, finishes, textures and colors in an updated manner.”

She adds, “Our clients, who have been Chicago physicians, wanted the space to become modern, crisp and white. However, after a number of years of designing in the mountain towns of Colorado, we have learned what people want and expect when they come to see, and we wanted to make sure our clients’ condo/part-time rental house would be highly coveted. We met in the middle and created a space that is sudden, luxurious and warm.”

The images by Andoe “were an ideal addition to the distance,” she states, “with all the unexpected punch of color compared to the cool gray paint and Paul Smith for Maharam headboard cloth.”

Jenna Wedemeyer Design, INC..

Pick up a souvenir. For this family room, Jenna Wedemeyer took inspiration from the homeowners. “I really like this piece as it is a work the clients bought on a trip to Antwerp [Belgium],” she states. “it is a constant reminder and manifestation of the life experiences rather than a reflection of me as a designer or something impersonal or store purchased. It gives the room its soul.”

Jarlath Mellett

Create a personalized work. “We created three wallpapers with animal prints for three boys’ bedrooms,” says designer Jarlath Mellett. “Each has a different motif — jungle, ocean, desert — and we took images of creatures and then created custom wallpaper by scanning fashion and interior cloth patterns to color in the animals.”

He adds, “Each wallpaper is meant to be a piece of timeless art for those children to grow into and has been based on their unique interests. It supplies them with a whole world to live in and spark their imagination.”

Marie Burgos Design

Embrace the components. These homeowners are animal and nature lovers, and designer Marie Burgos felt it was important to select art that created them happy and comfortable. This work by Patrick Wright is known as “Passing By.”

“I utilize the principles of feng shui in all of my designs no matter whether I’m adopting a contemporary, eclectic, contemporary, tropical or rustic appearance. To be able to apply feng shui, I utilize the bagua, which is an energy map. It gets applied to the ground plan, and I set the emphasis on having a excellent open layout for your chi power to circulate freely. I also utilize both opposite forces of yin and yang to create equilibrium, as well as the five natural elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) to create stability,” Burgos states.

“Animal art is a means to integrate a pure component in a fashionable way. In this case, the horses, which are a noble animal with great energy, bring a spirit of openness and liberty,” she adds. “In this family room, I opened the wall on either side to make the room flow better but wanted to keep the first brick wall to get more texture and authenticity. The horses give this room life and a unique character.”

Kimball Starr Interior Design

Supersize it. “It is important for me to demonstrate each homeowner’s personality in an interior,” says designer Kimball Starr. “For this client, his cats are his family, so that I wanted to honor that by providing them prominence. I had their portraits photographed and supersized and exhibited their faces where he could enjoy them daily.”

Kimball Starr Interior Design

Be sure to have fun. Here’s another area by Kimbell Starr that is really in her very own home. “Those bristle-brush creatures would sit on my desk and always make me smile,” she states. “So I chose to show them as if they were museum pieces. I called the donkey Donkatella along with the pig Spork, also wrote their names on the walls, how a museum would exhibit genus and species of an animal, but in my very own modernized, lighthearted way.”

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10 Design Strategies for Art Lovers

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