There’s nothing new about proudly sticking toddler art to the fridge with a novelty magnet. For generations, joyful scribbles have been pinned, taped, and blu-tacked into domestic life. But right now, toddler artworks are being curated with almost gallery-like reverence, archivally framed, carefully matted, and arranged as if destined for a salon-style hang. On TikTok and in high-end interiors studios, #toddlerart (as social media has affectionately labelled it) is elevated and incorporated with intention.
It’s as if the child were a commissioned artist in the home’s permanent collection, which is an incredibly adorable concept social media users are applauding. One TikTok, called Talented Toddler Artist Creates Masterpiece for Home Decor, has racked up almost a million views, showing one parent hanging her daughter’s finger-painted abstractions across a serene, neutral-toned room. It’s playful, but it’s also an effective way of incorporating authentic storytelling and sentiment.
‘It’s so personal,’ says US-based interior designer Mary Kathryn Wells. ‘I’m a big believer that every member of a household deserves to feel seen, known, and celebrated in their home, and that includes the children, who often make up half the household. Their artwork carries such unfiltered joy and honesty. When you bring that energy into a space, it instantly makes a home feel more human and more alive.’
Few spaces reflect this newfound value in artwork made by toddlers more exuberantly than Wells’ Nashville home. In every room, bold florals, graphic stripes, and curated vignettes meet moments of pure, unfiltered imagination, often by artists aged three and under. Across her living spaces, framed finger paintings hang confidently alongside contemporary canvases; a blue dog rendered in marker pen becomes a focal point above a curved dresser; a loosely sketched bouquet, scrawled in neon felt-tip, sits in a gilt frame on a hallway console. The result isn’t chaotic; it’s characterful.
Once inside Wells’ home, the most striking thing is not simply that children’s artwork appears throughout, but how it has been treated. Rather than being relegated to playrooms and pinboards, these pieces hold their own. ‘Treat it like real art (because it is). Frame it beautifully, just as you would any fine artwork,’ she says. A natural linen mount gives the compositions room to breathe; a classic timber frame instantly elevates their status. The gesture matters because it signals that these pieces are intentional and valued.
This is also why she feels strongly that children’s artwork shouldn’t be confined to bedrooms. When hung in more public spaces, over a fireplace, between gallery pieces in a dining room, or anchoring a living room vignette, the effect can be surprisingly sophisticated. Their expressive looseness injects colour and spontaneity into otherwise orderly schemes. In Wells’ hands, a splashy, marker-drawn dog becomes the focal point of an elegant dresser; a cluster of crayon swirls softens the symmetry of a mantelpiece arrangement.
Scale, too, has a dramatic impact. ‘My favourite approach is to blow it up,’ Wells says. ‘Take a drawing made on a standard-sized sheet of paper and scale it to several feet wide, and suddenly it becomes this bold, graphic, abstract focal point.’ Within the layered maximalism of her home, these amplified pieces feel entirely at home, and the instinctual movement of young mark-makers feels like contemporary abstraction.
In her dining room, she takes that philosophy even further, commissioning Nashville wallpaper studio New Hat to turn her children’s doodles into a custom wallcovering – a sprawling, layered tapestry of scribbles, shapes, and colour. Amid cane seating, floral arrangements, and gilded candelabras, the effect is almost startlingly elegant. ‘It became the centrepiece of our home; it’s not just a design choice, but a family legacy,’ she says. ‘Children’s art connects us to the heart of what home really is, a reflection of the people who live there,’ she adds. ‘It’s not about perfection or polish; it’s about personality and story.’
That sentiment sits within a broader movement: at a time when algorithm-approved aesthetics are everywhere, homeowners are craving something more authentic. Wells believes this cultural pivot is fuelling the trend’s momentum. ‘It might be trending online right now, but honestly, it’s timeless,‘ she says. What’s changing, she argues, is our collective desire to rebel against restrained palettes, tidy symmetry, art chosen for its investment value rather than expressive energy. ‘What’s shifting is that people are becoming braver and moving away from the idea that homes have to look a certain way or follow ‘grown-up’ rules.’
There’s something refreshingly sincere about the presence of toddler art, a young one's rainbow scribble beside a mid-century print. It interrupts the script, reminding us what homes are truly for. ‘What a joy to live surrounded by those reminders of their imagination and the moments that shaped our family,’ Wells says. And beyond nostalgia, children’s artwork has a curious design superpower: it disarms. In a room layered with collectible pieces and serious furniture, a child’s drawing softens the mood instantly.
Designers have long known that art sets the tone of a room, but children’s artwork is more alchemical because it grounds a space in life. These pieces become tiny time capsules and, as the years pass, their edges soften into memory. Wells notes that children reach a kind of creative ‘sweet spot’ at around age two or three, before learned rules temper instinct.
‘Their sense of colour and movement is instinctual, not overthought,’ she says. This is when scribbles become compositions, sweeping, gestural, unrepeatable. Crucially, she favours toddler art or older children's work that is conceived independently, not teacher-directed templates or holiday handprints. ‘I love choosing pieces that children made completely on their own and born purely from their imagination. Those are the ones that tell their story.’
‘We’re craving homes that tell our story and reflect our people, not the algorithm. Displaying your children’s artwork fits right into that. It’s personal, joyful, and completely one-of-a-kind,’ says Wells.
