Lack a knack for arranging art so it feels composed not cluttered? Antiques dealer and design consultant Tori Jones suggests sticking to a theme. Wallpaper inspired these layered botanical and floral finds. Color—here, it’s pink—also pulls art pieces together. A sleek white frame mixed with gilt ones freshens the grouping, and a handcrafted paper plant becomes part of the composition.
by PETRA GUGLIELMETTI photos DYLAN CHANDLER
PRODUCED BY: MONIKA EYERS
Master Class
Art has a way of pulling a space together under Tori Jones’ guidance. The New York design consultant’s eponymous firm and shops in NYC and Block Island, RI, are known for their collected aesthetic that incorporates art in fresh ways. What’s on walls flows with surrounding architecture and decor. “I create vignettes that I treat like little rooms within rooms,” Jones says. She shares tricks for welcoming art into just about any space.
To underscore large art, prop smaller artworks and treasures on a shelf or table below it, left. “Keeping the row of collected items neutral lets the piece above be the star,” says Jones, who likes the push-pull of a modern painting in an antique frame. “The look is all about layering old and new, graphic and classical.”
An herbarium (framed dried plant specimens) creeps around windows in Jones’ seasonal Block Island shop, above, proving that a collection of small art can make a statement even when wall space is limited. In fact, creating a gallery wall in a confined space or around architectural features is easier than on a big, blank wall because windows and trim can establish boundaries and guide placement.
PHOTOS: (ABSTRACT ART VIGNETTE) TORI JONES, (KITCHEN SHELVES) CY KARRAT
Treat your kitchen shelves as still lifes by artistically grouping dishware and letting a few pieces of framed art make a cameo. “Kitchens can feel so clinical and cold,” says Jones, who “ruthlessly” edits her Manhattan kitchen’s ivory, gray, and black goods and mixes in items of varying shapes and heights. Tucking a few pieces of art into shelves works equally well in other utilitarian spots that might lack wall space, like a small office.
Let a mirror be the backdrop for personal mementos, below. Tuck or tape photos and ephemera into the frame and on the wall behind it. “It creates a frame within a frame, one that also reflects people and experiences that matter to you— like a scrapbook you don’t need to open,” Jones says.
“ARTWORK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN ANY INTERIOR. IT SAYS SO MUCH ABOUT WHO LIVES THERE AND WHAT THEY VALUE.”
—TORI JONES, art and antiques dealer
Be honest, bibliophiles: Most books don’t get pulled off shelves often, so hang art right on the bookcase, left. “Books add warmth, and combining them with art is inviting,” Jones says. A twist she uses: Remove a shelf from a built-in to create a recessed space to hang a large piece of art.
Framed art draws the eye inside this 19th-century cabinet-turned-bar, above. “I love to hang art in overlooked places,” Jones says. “It ’s delightful and surprising.” Other spots she seeks out include the back of a door, above a doorway, and over the sink in a powder room.
PHOTOS: (MIRROR) TORI JONES, (BOOKSHELVES) CY KARRAT