Unique Wall Art Ideas that Aren’t Actually Art

Wall art in the traditional sense–like paintings, drawings and photography–doesn’t speak to everybody. If you’ve lived in a house with bare walls for months (or even years) because you just can’t seem to find the right artwork to hang, then you may very well be someone who isn’t drawn to two-dimensional representations.

And that’s OK.

Home decorating is an incredibly personal experience because you’re essentially deciding what you want to live with and look at every single day, and there’s no need to buy art simply because you feel like that’s what should go on your walls.

But that doesn’t mean you have to live with sterile bare walls either. More and more often, our clients are choosing to hang up beautiful objects, personal memorabilia, or prized collections instead, as a way to be surrounded by things that really matter to them or that they find inspiring to look at.

So what can you hang on your walls? Here are a few examples of unique wall art ideas from our recent client projects that aren’t actually art, yet make a beautiful and personal displays regardless.

A client turned a collection of large weather instruments into an original, graphic display above a sofa.

Or, how about classic Pop Art (Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans) printed on skateboards? 

Finally, a musical client chose to display a collection of antique instruments in a small wall space near a window. 

For more unique wall art ideas from our past clients, check out:

Wall Art Ideas for Your Beach House

7 Inexpensive Wall Art Ideas

Creative Wall Art Ideas from Pinterest

Or, visit our ILevel Studio page to see our selection of pre-curated art and object collections available for purchase. 

Posted by Kaitlin Madden at 3:14 pm Comments Off on Unique Wall Art Ideas that Aren’t Actually Art
Tags: ILevel art installation, professional art installation, unique wall art ideas, wall art ideas

ILevel at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House 2017

Each year we look forward to the Kips Bay Decorator show house for a number of reasons. First, of course, because it brings together some of the world’s foremost interior design talent to show off their skills under one roof, and all for the worthy cause of supporting the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. On a more personal level, we also love the show because it also gives us a chance to meet and work with some of these incredible designers and architects, sometimes for the first time. We’ve been helping designers hang artwork in their room designs for years now, and because the roster of Kips Bay Designers is different each year, so too are the people we work with. 

For 2017, we had the honor of lending a hand in the rooms of Dineen Architecture and Design and Richard Mishaan. 

Dineen was responsible for one of the bedrooms in the home, which featured a number of fun twists (like the draped curtains around the headboard and the swing between the windows) despited its sophisticated scheme. One of our favorite elements of the space: the round concave mirror we hung from Bernd Goeckler Antiques in Manhattan.  

Richard Mishaan created a stunning Turkish-inspired room that was unlike anything we’d ever seen. We loved his decision to layer artwork over the intricate, custom-made wallpaper, which underscored the collected look the designer was going for. 

The show takes place at 125 East 65th Street (Between Park & Lexington Avenues) and runs through Thursday, June 1st, 2017. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased at the Kips Bay Show House website or at the door. 

Can’t make it in person? To see more photos from the show, take a look at the Architectural Digest slideshow, here, or follow along on social media with the hashtags #kipsbaydecoratorshowhouse and #kipsbayshowhouse17.

Posted by Kaitlin Madden at 4:31 pm Comments Off on ILevel at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House 2017
Tags: ILevel art installation, ilevel new york, kips bay show house 2017, new york art installer, new york picture hanging, ny picture hanging

Tour our East Village Studio Space

A few weeks ago we had the honor of sitting down with the wonderful folks at Manhattan Sideways, a site dedicated to uncovering and sharing the unique restaurants, boutiques, galleries and studios tucked away along the city’s side streets.

We spoke with Betsy, the site’s editor, about how our owner, David Kassel, founded his business in the 1980s after working at the Guggenheim and noticing an art-purchasing frenzy that lead him to the revelation that perhaps, like the museums, all of these fine art collectors needed someone to hang their art for them as well.

We told her about the growth of our business, and how after bouncing around to a few tucked-away office spaces over the years, our team finally settled into 37 E 7th street, into a first-floor space that now also serves as our studio and a representation of the expansion of the business into both an art installer and an art curator.

If you haven’t been to our new space yet, especially if you’re a longtime client we often talk to over the phone, we implore you to come in and check it out! We’ve got work from our favorite local artists (including many of our staff), rotating exhibitions, and collections for purchase, plus a comfortable seating area where we can pore over the details of your next project.

Here are a few of Betsy’s photos of the space in the meantime.

 

It’s also definitely worth mentioning that we love the site’s mission to support the city’s thousands of small businesses, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, Manhattan Sideways is a must-read even for New Yorkers who have been in the city for decades, since so much is constantly changing in different New York neighborhoods.

And if you’re curious, you can read the whole Manhattan Sideways profile on ILevel, here.

Posted by Kaitlin Madden at 8:20 pm Comments Off on Tour our East Village Studio Space
Tags: ILevel art installation, Ilevel studio, picture hanging nyc