How to leverage your existing artwork for the home décor market

Image credit: West Elm

Is your mind buzzing with ideas about what your very own home décor line could look like? It’s not an impossible dream if only you have the right tools and knowledge at your fingertips.

In fact, you are probably already half way there!

Look through your archives and find the following:

Your favorite color palettes
Your favorite icons and motifs
Your favorite prints and patterns

Now it’s time to do some virtual shopping (or real shopping if you like!) – do one of the following this week:

Take a field trip to your favorite shop (either in person or online)
Study com, apartmenttherapy.com, or designsponge.com
Look at the website of a home décor trade show like Maison et Objet in Paris. See who exhibits, and check out their websites to see what products they offer. (And if you’re really serious about this, why not start planning a trip to the next show…)

Image credit: Beyt

While you are doing that, think about a grouping of 5 -10 home products. Sketch out a few ideas from any of the home décor categories and substrates listed below.

(1) Find things you love in ONE of the following categories of Home Décor:

Furniture (sofas, dressers, mirrors, shelves and hooks, toy boxes, step stools, etc)
Dining & entertaining (teapots, glassware, plates, cups, table linens, serving pieces, etc)
Kitchen (aprons, casseroles, tea towels etc.)
Accessories (candles, votives, sculpture, wall art, clocks, frames, etc.)
Rugs
Lighting
Bed & bath
Organization (storage containers, shelving, hutches, cabinets, etc.)
Outdoor (planters, poufs, umbrellas, gardening accessories)

(You can repeat this exercise as many times as you like, each time focusing on different categories from the list above)

Image credit: Designer’s Guild

(2) Take photos or pin images to Pinterest to start creating visual ideas of what you love

(3) Take note of what the products are made of. The five most popular materials for products in the home décor market are:

Ceramic
Fabric
Glass
Metal
Wood/MDF

Can you find products made from each material? Do you see stores showing collections which feature multiple materials among the products in each collection?

(4) Take note of the embellishments on each product – do they have pompoms, embroidery, buttons etc? Make notes about what catches your eye, and what makes you perceive some products to have a higher value over others.

Image credit: Anthropologie

(5) If you care to share, we’d LOVE to see your Pinterest boards or the photos you took. Please share with us on Facebook or Twitter #MATS

Once you have done all this research, go back to your own archive and the choices you made around color, pattern, and icons, and make notes and sketches about what your own home décor collection could look like, using art you have already created. That is the power of leverage, and it is one way of extending the value of your portfolio considerably!

Want to know more about how to actually turn those dreams into reality, and pitch incredible presentations to art directors in the home décor market? Our brand new course, MATS: Creating Collections for Home Décor might just be what you need.