Moving in with someone means merging two sets of belongings, and two ideas of what a home should look like. Furniture can be negotiated: you need a sofa, and one sofa will do. Art is harder, because it is personal. One person's favourite picture is another person's eyesore.
The usual outcomes are bad ones. Either one person decides and the other lives in a home that isn't theirs, or nobody decides and the walls stay bare for years. There is a better way, and it doesn't require either of you to give up what you like.
Start by finding out what you each like
Most people can't describe their own taste. They know it when they see it. So look at things together.
- Each of you picks ten pieces of art you would hang. Don't explain, don't veto.
- Lay the two sets side by side.
- Look for what they share. It is almost never nothing.
The overlap is usually found in one of three places.
- A colour. You both keep choosing blue, or you both avoid anything orange.
- A subject. You both like landscapes, or animals, or cities.
- A mood. You both pick calm things, or you both pick dramatic ones.
You might love cyberpunk and they might love watercolour landscapes, and you could still both be choosing deep blue pictures of places at night. That shared ground is where the living room art comes from.
Divide the home
Not every wall has to be a joint decision.
- Shared rooms need agreement. The living room, the hallway, the kitchen, the bedroom you share.
- Each person gets a space of their own. A desk, a study, a corner, a wall. No vetoes there.
This takes most of the heat out of the argument. The loud piece one of you loves has a home, above their desk or in their games corner. It doesn't have to go over the sofa to be in the house.
Rules that help in shared rooms
Both people have a veto
If either of you really dislikes a piece, it doesn't go in a shared room. That sounds restrictive. In practice it means everything on the shared walls is something you both at least like, and nobody is living with a picture they resent.
Aim for like, not love
You are unlikely to find a piece you both adore. Look for one that one of you loves and the other likes. Then make sure the next piece goes the other way.
Take turns
One of you chooses the piece for the living room, with the other holding a veto. The other chooses for the hallway. It is simple and fair.
Choose together, in person
Look at options at the same time, on the same screen. Art chosen by one person and presented to the other for approval tends to go badly.
Pieces that bridge two tastes
Some art sits between styles, and that makes it useful in a shared home.
- Between sci-fi and landscape: Starlight Cityscape, a city on a curved horizon under a starry sky and a ringed moon, all in deep blue. It is imaginative enough for one of you and serene enough for the other. See our closer look.
- Between fantasy and nature: Lost Forest Magic Portal, a ring of light in a misty wood.
- Between bold and calm: Black Hole, in silver on black. Dramatic and minimal at once.
- Between modern and traditional: a single animal portrait, such as Frost Owl. Animals appeal across almost every taste.
- Between everything: Blue Mountain Fog. Very few people dislike a misty forest.
Make different pieces look like they belong together
If you each choose pieces and they end up on the same wall, a few things will tie them together.
- The same frame colour. Matching black frames make almost any group look like a set.
- The same size. Two very different pictures at the same size, hung as a pair, read as a deliberate contrast.
- A shared colour. If both pieces contain blue, they will sit together whatever the subjects.
- A gallery wall. A mixed group is the natural format for two tastes. Each of you contributes pieces. Even gaps and matching frames do the rest. See mixing formats on one wall.
Common clashes, and ways through
- Bold versus calm. Put the bold piece where you gather and the calm one where you rest. Or choose one bold piece and keep everything around it quiet. See neon art in a warm, neutral room.
- Dark versus light. Dark art on a light wall, with white or pale furnishings, gives both of you something.
- Lots versus little. One wall full, the rest empty. The maximalist gets a gallery wall and the minimalist gets three clear ones.
- Colour versus neutral. A neutral room with one colourful piece. See the 60-30-10 rule.
The bedroom
This is the room to be most careful with, because you both need to sleep in it. Agree on calm. Dark, cool, quiet art suits nearly everyone at night, whatever they like by day. Keep the lively pieces elsewhere. See bedroom wall art that still lets you wind down.
For housemates
The same principles apply, with one difference. Shared rooms in a house of friends are best kept fairly neutral, and each person's own room is where their taste goes. Agree on one or two pieces for the living room, by the veto rule, and leave it there. Use removable fixings, so nobody argues about the deposit.
If you still can't agree
- Buy small first. A poster is a cheap experiment. Live with it for a month.
- Lean it, don't hang it. A picture on a shelf can be swapped without a hole in the wall.
- Rotate. Your choice for three months, then theirs.
- Let it rest. A bare wall for another month is better than a picture one of you hates.
A home that reflects two people is more interesting than one that reflects one. The aim isn't to find the single style you both love. It is to make room for both. Browse the canvas and framed poster collections together.