Michelle Woolley Sauter is an art consultant based in Raleigh, NC. She provides art acquisition and art placement services to clients across the globe.
Hi there!
My name is Michelle Woolley Sauter and I am a Professional Artist and Interior Designer. I am passionate about my work and I have clients from all over who look to me for Art Consulting Services consisting of but not limited to, art acquisition, custom commissions, Interior Design consulting and art placement! I have great relationships with my clients and I am so happy to share my knowledge and expertise regarding art and its place in home and office. My clients enjoy the fact that I can provide in-home or virtual consultations by the hour for design, art acquisition, purchasing and placement. Being both a painter and color expert, I am uniquely qualified to help you strike just the right balance of beauty and symmetry in your spaces and make a statement you can be proud of!
The selection of your artwork should never be an afterthought. As a matter of fact, as an Artist and Interior Designer, I use the artwork that my clients and I select as the focal point of a room and to be our palette for the color scheme of the entire room! Maximizing the art placement so that your entire room is visually and cohesively pulled together literally means that wall art is what will matter the most when it comes to choosing your color scheme. This art placement opportunity should not be missed!
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a well-curated space speaks volumes: about history, about culture, about the personalities that live there. In one fell swoop, you can communicate everything you need to say – and a handsome frame only adds to the allure.” Mario Lopez-Cordero
Choosing a color palette can be very intimidating for most people… just look at the hundreds of thousands of colors options available at your color paint store. It can make a person just start grabbing at colors that look appealing in the store but when you go to swatch, trying small amounts on the wall with a brush, all of a sudden the color looks ‘harsher’ and, well, less ‘romantic’. As a matter of fact, did you know that your wall color should be chosen… gulp… last?
Yes, you read that correctly. I find the best strategy is to leave those paint chips behind and get the art and it’s placement along with your room layout going, that way you will have so many choices as far as wall color goes because your focal point is now steering the ship. You will find the colors you want to see on your walls will show up already in your choices for artwork! Because you already love them and they are ‘your colors’…choosing a wall paint will become very intuitive!
Based on your own requirements, space and personal taste, I will make suggestions on:
- WHAT KIND OF ART… you (or we) should select in terms of size, color, style, and medium. It’s important to have a harmonious mix of sizes and mediums, whether you like a lot of color, a tone on tone look, large modern paintings, wall sculpture or gallery walls full of traditionally framed original paintings. Deciding what the focal piece should be and its placement in the room will help us navigate the design and feel of the room and this is but one of many reasons why art placement services are so important.
- WHERE TO LOOK… for great jumping off points to help me help you discern what direction we should take when curating your walls so that they coordinate beautifully with your current furnishings and also the ones we will fold in as your design scheme evolves… this is where art placement is so vital.
- WHERE TO PLACE ART… it’s important to have different types of work whether they are original works on canvas, 3-D wall art, mixed media pieces under glass or black and white photography framed and layouts of art placement throughout your space, some single large paintings as well as groups of smaller paintings, and they should all be properly proportioned to the walls and hung at the correct height… so that they are all ’talking’ to each other.
A really great attribute of art consulting services I provide is assiting you in putting the artwork first! It helps you stay focused and equipped with the knowledge that you are not only adding texture to your walls with your art placement but the addition and focus on your artwork will help the room to look ‘finished.’ Think of the last time you saw a room that didn’t feel finished. You probably subconsciously thought that it didn’t look like a professional had done it.
You and your chosen artwork are going to be together for quite a while so whenever you look at it, you should feel good! When I work with you, I help you hone your look and keep your art placement from being the last piece in a puzzle…it should be a statement about your lifestyle!
‘Michelle is a master at taking what you have and making it wonderful! She knows color so well, she was able to come into my home and help me not only select new colors for our walls but look through the artwork pieces we had already collected, reframing some, and adding new pieces that she created just for us to create a whole new look that is ours alone. She ended up rehanging everything and now we feel like we live in a magazine!’
– Susan Mills, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
I find that a one to two-hour art and interior design consultation is a great way to kick start my clients’ art placement projects. This is often one of the Interior Design elements, making that appointment, that is most important yet most often paralyzes most clients. I listen to my clients for cues and clues so that from custom framing, design, color consulting and best of all to art placement, a short consultation is a great solution to help my clients gain confidence to get the ball rolling and embark on what becomes a wonderful journey into the beautiful world of art and design!
Note: For virtual appointments, Michelle and her assistants will need photos and dimensions prior to the appointment. Please contact us and we can provide a detailed list of required information.
Available for residential or commercial design projects.
This site has artwork parked at 3 different websites, click on the art and it takes you to that site’s shopping portal. (Saatchi Fine Art, Charish, Etsy and Houzz)
