Living with art: How to choose it, display it and enjoy it

Do the words "art niche" strike terror in your heart? What responsibility, what a challenge. What will we put there?

Do you think all paintings, prints or photos look better displayed on white walls?

And how do you define art, anyway?

Toni Sikes, founder of The Guild, an art retailer that sells artisans' work through a catalog and online, has written a book to help you decorate with art.

Perhaps most importantly, every page illustrates these principles with color photos.

And as you might expect from someone who has been marketing and selling art for more than two decades, she knows her stuff.

"Some people paint, some people sculpt. I arrange. And rearrange. And rearrange once again," she said in "The Artful Home: Using Art & Craft to Create Living Spaces You'll Love" (Lark Books, $24.95).

If skimming through this book doesn't inspire you to move a painting, get rid of clutter, paint a wall or visit a gallery, your home decor juices could be in trouble.

Don't expect lots of wild, artsy rooms.

Contemporary -- some times even minimal -- is the theme of the book, even in spaces with traditional architecture.

Contemporary touches give the spark of surprise to traditional decor, said the author.

Encouraging people to buy artwork can only help her business, but Sikes says that's not why she wrote the book.

"I have found that people are not always completely confident and comfortable in bringing artwork into their homes," said Sikes, who lives in Madison, Wis.

Besides giving ideas on using, displaying and living with art, she wants to expand the definition of art -- which many people think are just the paintings hung on walls.

Art can be a quilt on your bed, the handmade coffee mug you use for breakfast or even the chair you sit on.

The Guild -- which works with more than 1,200 artists, several in the Chicago area -- has been successful because it makes it easy to buy art and if necessary to return it.

And buyers know it has all been juried -- at least some indication of quality.

"I know there are many people who rely on their designers to select their artwork," said Sikes in an interview. "They are missing out on a lot of the fun in life. This is the most exciting purchasing there is -- selecting the things that you love."

And unlike some art aficionados, she doesn't see anything wrong with picking art to go with a room's color scheme.

"You've got to start some place."

And here's another important tool.

"Intuition is hugely important in selecting things you live with every day. It really works," she said.

For Sikes, art treasures and antiques are like a personal journal.

Like you, she needs to incorporate things she got from her grandparents, items collected on travels and at art shows and gifts from her sisters.

"It's an aggregation of all of these wonderful things, making them work together. It's an important part of what creating a home is all about."

And of course you're not going to throw out everything in a room just because you found a painting you love.

"A huge part of it is just having the creative ideas to display these things in ways that are interesting."

And not surprisingly, she has learned many of her display tricks from artists.

For example, she collected antique purses for years, but when she walked into an artist's home and saw 10 arranged in a pattern on a bathroom wall, it changed her whole concept of the collection.

"Pair objects nonchalantly with paintings. Trust your instincts, and put all of your artwork with a common color theme together on a series of shelves," Sikes said in the book.

"With practice, chutzpah and a little luck, insights are gained and wonderful things happen."