Artwork is often one of the last things considered in a BTR project — and one of the hardest to get right. Here's how to approach it strategically.

Walk into any well-finished build-to-rent development and you'll notice the artwork — even if you can't quite say why. It creates a sense of place. It signals quality. It makes a corridor feel like somewhere rather than nowhere. And yet, for many developers, artwork remains an afterthought: something squeezed in at the end of a project, selected quickly, and rarely given the strategic thought it deserves.

The good news is that choosing artwork for a BTR development doesn't have to be complicated. It just needs to be approached differently than artwork for a private residential project.

Think in collections, not individual pieces

In a BTR development, you're not choosing a single statement piece for a living room wall. You're curating a collection that will span lobbies, corridors, amenity spaces and potentially dozens of individual apartments. That requires a very different mindset. A strong BTR art collection has a coherent visual language — a consistent palette, style or theme that ties everything together — while still offering enough variation that repeated exposure doesn't feel monotonous. Think of it less like decorating and more like art directing a brand.

Establish the brief before you look at a single image

The most common mistake in BTR artwork selection is starting with browsing. You open a gallery website, scroll through images, and try to imagine them in your spaces. This approach leads to inconsistency, wasted time, and artwork that almost works but never quite fits.

Before you look at anything, get clear on:

The colour palette of your interiors — not just the walls, but floors, joinery and soft furnishings
The character of the development — is it urban and contemporary? Warm and residential? Premium and architectural?
The scale of each space, including ceiling heights and wall proportions
Your target tenant and what they respond to aesthetically
Budget per unit and per communal area, including framing and installation

Prioritise communal spaces first

In a BTR development, communal spaces — lobbies, lifts, corridors, resident lounges, co-working areas — are where artwork makes the biggest impression. These are the spaces every tenant passes through daily, and they set the tone for the entire development. Invest here first, then extend the visual language into individual apartments with more economical print-based solutions.

Glass Bottle development, Ringsend, Dublin 4, Ireland. Photo: Jamie Hackett

Abstract and botanical work best at scale

For BTR developments, abstract and botanical styles consistently outperform figurative or illustrative artwork. They're more flexible across different interior schemes, they age better, and they tend to appeal to a broader demographic. Strong geometric compositions work well in architectural or contemporary schemes; softer botanicals suit warmer, more residential environments. Both can be scaled, varied and reproduced consistently — which matters enormously when you're outfitting an entire building.

Consider bespoke artwork from the start, not as a last resort

Many developers turn to bespoke artwork only when they can't find what they need off the shelf. But approaching bespoke as a first option — rather than a fallback — gives you far more control over the outcome.

Bespoke artwork created specifically for your development can be designed to suit your exact colour palette, scaled precisely to your wall proportions, and varied across units without losing visual coherence. It also creates a sense of place that generic stock art simply cannot. For a development that wants to stand out in a competitive rental market, that distinction is worth investing in.

Work with someone who understands both art and interiors

Selecting artwork for a BTR development sits at the intersection of interior design, project management and art curation. An experienced art consultant with a background in interiors can help you build a cohesive collection efficiently, manage production and framing, coordinate delivery across a large scheme, and ensure the final result reflects the quality of the development as a whole. It's a time-saving decision that tends to pay for itself.

Working on a BTR or residential development in Ireland?

Greet Street creates bespoke art collections for developers, from individual statement pieces to full building-wide schemes. Get in touch to discuss your project.

By Aoibhne Hogan · Greet Street · Dublin, Ireland

How to choose artwork for a build-to-rent development