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Homes

Front Porch: Tightwad art snobs rejoice

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published January 27, 2006

Recently, while shopping at Target, I overheard two hip, well-dressed young women admiring an abstract print on stretched canvas.

"This is really nice," one of them remarked, clearly surprised at the quality and bargain price tag.

Then, while browsing at a Marshalls store in North Florida, I - a self-professed art snob who has collected original art on a budget since my 20s - almost bought a lovely impressionistic print of what looked like Midwestern farm fields in fall.

TJ Maxx now carries an eye-popping selection of signed and numbered giclees - digitally reproduced and hand-embellished copies - of paintings by contemporary working artists.

And Target is touting its collection of modern daisy prints by the late pop-art icon Andy Warhol as well as a myriad of great-looking stuff to spiff up your walls, from photographic reproductions to Victorian-style shell prints to framed and matted copies of works by Picasso, Van Gogh and John Singer Sargent.

And the upscale and chic Anthropologie has announced it will open an art gallery this spring as part of its new Rockefeller Center store.

What's up?

"Some really incredible stuff," says Tampa Bay area interior designer Linda Lou Harrison, who recently returned from the home furnishings market in Atlanta where she tracks trends and looks for inspiration for clients at all income levels.

If you're decorating your digs on a budget or just plain don't feel like making the art-fair rounds, you're in luck. Attractive framed artwork that can create mood and pull a room together is plentiful, cheap and often framed with a sophisticated eye.

"I've shopped these discount stores for years, and the decorative art has not only improved but is now on top of the trends," Harrison says. "There's some great, mass-produced art out there that's so well-framed it can look like it cost $1,000. I even tell clients that if they get tired of the print they can put something else inside and re-use the frame and mat."

Harrison recommends purchasing the artwork first, then following up with coordinating accessories for a room that blends together smoothly.

Laura McDowell, a company spokesman for TJ Maxx, said the chain is definitely selling more art than ever - a trend tracked over the last three years - and typically stocks about 200 works of wall art per store.

"And what we're carrying varies from store to store, from Chicago to Tampa, even among stores in Tampa," she says.

So if you splurge a little on a large-scale print-on-canvas for your living room, you won't necessarily see it "hanging on your neighbor's wall."

The company's biggest sellers are prints under glass, which range from $7.99 to $49.99, but stores are also well-stocked with lithographs and snappy reproductions on canvas.

"This artwork is just as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing as originals - and if you don't have the dollars for originals, this looks just as good," McDowell says, noting that landscapes and Tuscan scenes rank the most popular with shoppers, followed by street scenes, foreign scenes and vacation art.

"There's also been a resurgence in traditional florals and black and white art, including photography," she adds.

The new trend in good-looking, mass-produced budget art has taken root thanks to the real estate boom and the do-it-yourself decorating craze.

"I help young women just starting out in their first jobs who want a great-looking home. And why shouldn't they have it?" Harrison asks. "You can have a $10,000 sofa or an $800 version from Rooms to Go, but without the art on the walls, the room just doesn't come together. And some of this artwork is so good that you have to walk up to the wall and touch it to know it's not real."

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 08:58:02]