Click here for funny food wall art prints
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I think you can tell quite a lot about someone by what they choose to hang on their walls. Some people have beautiful family photographs, others have carefully selected abstract paintings, and then there are people like me who think a painting of a lemon calling someone a bitch is a perfectly reasonable addition to a kitchen.
There's something wonderful about walking into someone's home and spotting something completely unexpected. You might be admiring their furniture, complimenting the paint colour, or wondering how they manage to keep their house so tidy, when you notice a framed print containing the most inappropriate sentence you've read all week. Suddenly you've got a much better idea of who you're dealing with, and there's a fairly good chance you'll get along.
When I started creating artwork for Kauter Studios, I knew I didn't want everything to be serious. I love painting, I love colour and I enjoy making things that look beautiful, but I also have a sense of humour that belongs in the gutter. I couldn't see why those things had to be mutually exclusive. Why couldn't a painting be attractive enough to display proudly while also making someone laugh because the caption is absolutely ridiculous?
That became the thinking behind my collections of funny wall art, including rude kitchen prints, sarcastic sayings and unmotivational quotes. They're different types of humour, but they have something in common. None of them is particularly interested in telling you how to live your life, helping you become a better person or pretending that everything is sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes a beautiful picture with a terrible attitude is exactly what a wall needs.
Funny Wall Art in the UK Has Its Own Sense of Humour
I suspect that if you asked people from different countries to describe British humour, sarcasm would feature fairly heavily. We have a remarkable ability to express affection through insults, make light of disastrous situations and deliver some of our most devastating comments without changing our facial expressions.
Someone can tell you that you've done a good job and leave you wondering whether you've just been praised or publicly humiliated. We can describe a complete catastrophe as 'a bit unfortunate', and there are friendships in this country that seem to be built almost entirely around calling each other names.
I love that sort of humour because it relies on people understanding what's actually being said, rather than simply taking the words at face value. It's the difference between someone telling you they're having a terrible day and saying, 'Well, this is going swimmingly', while everything around them falls apart.
That dry, slightly miserable approach lends itself rather nicely to artwork. You don't need a long joke with an elaborate setup. Sometimes four or five words are enough to make an entire picture funny, particularly when the image and the caption seem to have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
One of my favourite examples from my own collection is "This Is Quite Nice, I Suppose." It's such a British way of expressing enthusiasm. You could be standing in front of the most spectacular view you've ever seen, witnessing the greatest sunset in recorded history, and still deliver that sentence as though you're reluctantly admitting that the experience has been tolerable.
That's the kind of humour I enjoy putting into paintings. It doesn't shout for attention or desperately try to convince you how clever it is. It simply sits there being faintly ridiculous, which, as far as I'm concerned, is an excellent quality for a piece of wall art.
Not Everything on Your Walls Needs to Be Inspirational
For years, decorative quotes seemed determined to improve our lives. There were endless reminders to dream big, believe in ourselves, follow our hearts and make every moment count. If you weren't seizing the day, embracing the journey or living your best life, your cushions and wall plaques were certainly doing their best to encourage you.
I have nothing against positivity, but there comes a point when being surrounded by motivational advice starts to feel like living inside a very enthusiastic corporate training session. Sometimes you just want to have a cup of tea without a piece of home décor reminding you that you haven't reached your full potential.
That's why I love unmotivational quote prints. They're the complete opposite of those relentlessly cheerful sayings, offering advice that is either spectacularly unhelpful or so painfully realistic that you can't help laughing. They're not necessarily encouraging you to give up on life. They're simply making fun of the expectation that we should all be constantly improving, achieving and becoming more productive.
Take "If at First You Don't Succeed, Give Up." It's terrible advice, obviously, but that's what makes it funny. We've all had moments when perseverance feels wildly overrated, particularly when we're attempting to assemble furniture with instructions that appear to have been translated through seventeen different languages.
Then there's "Seize the Day. Or Don't. Whatever." I rather like the complete absence of enthusiasm in that one. It's not telling you that today is full of exciting opportunities. It's suggesting you could do something worthwhile, but equally, nobody's going to be particularly bothered if you don't.
To me, funny motivational quote alternatives work because they're recognisable. Most of us have experienced days when we're feeling ambitious and capable, but we've also had plenty when simply getting through the afternoon seems like a respectable achievement. I think there's room for artwork that acknowledges both.
Rude Kitchen Prints and the Questionable Personalities of Food
My kitchen artwork started with something considerably more innocent than swearing. I wanted to paint food. Not bowls of elaborate meals or carefully arranged restaurant dishes, just individual ingredients with interesting shapes, colours and textures. Tomatoes, chillies, lemons, bananas, garlic, cheese, that sort of thing.
Food is brilliant to paint because everyday ingredients are much more visually interesting than we tend to notice. A lemon isn't simply yellow, a chilli has all sorts of subtle changes in colour, and a piece of cheese can have surprisingly lovely shapes and shadows. When you're concentrating on painting an object, you start noticing details that would normally escape you while you're making dinner.
But once I'd finished painting them, I started thinking about the words I could add. Unfortunately, food lends itself to an enormous number of terrible puns, and I seem to have very little resistance to a terrible pun.
The cheese collection includes phrases such as "Don't Brie a Dick," "Brie Mine" and "You're Grate." They're dreadful, which is precisely why I enjoy them. There's something rather entertaining about spending hours painting a piece of cheese and then giving it a caption that wouldn't be out of place on a Christmas cracker written by someone with a drinking problem.
The chillies are equally badly behaved. "Hot as Fuck," "Spicy Little Bitch" and "Zero Chill" give otherwise innocent vegetables a completely unnecessary amount of attitude. My lemons aren't much better, with designs including "Sour Little Bitch" and "Not Bitter, Just a Cunt."
I think what makes these rude kitchen prints work is the contrast between the illustration and the words. A carefully painted piece of fruit can look attractive and decorative, especially when the colours are chosen to complement the subject. The caption then introduces an entirely different personality. It's slightly absurd, but I like the thought of someone choosing a beautiful print because they love the painting and then discovering that the lemon has an appalling vocabulary.
Of course, not every kitchen print needs to be sweary. Some of my designs are cheeky, some are silly and others are fairly innocent. There's room for a little variety, and a decent food pun doesn't always require profanity. Although I'll admit that sometimes adding a swear word improves things considerably.
Why Do We Keep Buying Things That Look Like Everyone Else's Home?
Something that interests me about interior design is how quickly a particular look can spread. A few people start decorating their houses in a certain way, the style becomes popular online and before long it seems as though half the country has bought the same furniture, chosen the same colours and hung the same prints in almost exactly the same arrangement.
I understand why it happens. It's much easier to imagine something looking good in your home when you've already seen it looking lovely in someone else's. There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other people's spaces, either. I've seen plenty of beautiful interiors that have given me ideas.
But I do think it's a shame when people become so concerned with getting the look right that they forget to include anything personal.
A home should tell you something about the people who live there. That doesn't mean it needs to be filled with strange ornaments or covered in outrageous artwork, but surely there should be a few things that have been chosen for reasons other than matching the curtains?
Perhaps it's a painting bought on holiday, a photograph that means something special or an object that makes absolutely no sense to anyone outside the family. Maybe it's a small framed print in the downstairs loo that makes visitors laugh.
I love the idea of funny wall art for UK homes because humour is such a personal thing. Two people can look at the same rude quote and have completely different reactions. One might find it hilarious, while the other looks mildly horrified. That's far more interesting to me than creating something so neutral that nobody has any opinion about it whatsoever.
Not everything in your house has to match your personality, but it would be nice if some of it did.
A Beautiful Beach and a Completely Miserable Message
One of the more unusual combinations I've been working with is landscape artwork paired with unmotivational quotes. I love painting scenery, particularly coastal views, because there's so much you can do with colour, light and atmosphere. A sunset can be dramatic, a beach can feel peaceful and even a fairly ordinary stretch of water can become something lovely when you start exploring the colours.
Traditionally, that sort of artwork comes with an equally beautiful sentiment. You can almost picture the words about finding peace, following your dreams or remembering that the best is yet to come.
I thought it would be much funnier to go in the opposite direction.
Imagine looking at a beautiful beach print with soft colours and a calm sea, only to discover that the words across it say "High Tides, Low Standards." Or a gorgeous coastal view carrying the encouraging message "Could Be Worse. Give It Time."
The scenery is trying so hard to be lovely, while the writing seems determined to ruin everyone's mood. I find that contradiction funny, especially because the underlying painting doesn't need to change. You can have a genuinely attractive landscape, but the moment you add a completely inappropriate sentence, people interpret it differently.
There's "Beautiful Place to Have an Existential Crisis," which I think captures the experience of standing somewhere spectacular while your brain insists on worrying about work, money or something embarrassing you said in 2014. There's also "At Least the View's Nice," which feels like a perfectly reasonable response to a situation that's gone terribly wrong but happens to have attractive surroundings.
And then there's "Nothing Lasts Forever. Thank Fuck." It could be interpreted as uplifting, pessimistic or simply very relieved, depending on what sort of week you're having.
That's what I enjoy about these designs. The landscape is still the main visual attraction, but the words introduce a completely different mood. Instead of asking you to reflect on the beauty of nature, the painting quietly acknowledges that you might be having a bit of a rubbish time.
Funny Art Prints Can Be Proper Artwork Too
I think there's sometimes an assumption that humorous artwork is somehow less serious as a creative undertaking, as though making something funny automatically means less effort has gone into producing it.
I find that a strange way of looking at art.
A painting doesn't become less carefully made because you decide to add a ridiculous caption. The colours still need to work, the composition still matters and the subject still has to look the way you intended. In fact, combining words and images introduces a few additional challenges because you have to consider how the two elements interact.
When I paint a piece of food, I'm thinking about the shape of it, the shadows, the different tones and the background colour. I want it to look attractive before I even start thinking about the wording. The fact that I might later put a terrible pun underneath doesn't mean I care any less about how the painting turns out.
It's the same with the landscapes. I wouldn't deliberately make a boring painting just because the words are supposed to be funny. I want the image to have something worth looking at, regardless of whether somebody appreciates the joke.
I think a successful piece of funny wall art should offer both. The humour gives it personality, while the artwork gives it something beyond the initial laugh.
There are plenty of things we enjoy because they're entertaining, and we don't usually expect them to justify their existence by being profound. Nobody insists that every comedy programme must contain a life-changing revelation. Sometimes we just want to watch something amusing after a long day.
I don't see why art should be any different.
Where Would I Put Funny Wall Art?
Obviously, kitchens are a natural place for food prints, especially when the subject itself fits the room. There's something wonderfully silly about decorating a space where you're preparing dinner with paintings of the ingredients you're using, particularly if those ingredients have developed foul mouths.
But I wouldn't limit funny artwork to kitchens. I think bathrooms and downstairs toilets are brilliant places for unexpected prints because people tend to notice the details in smaller rooms. You're also slightly more likely to get away with something outrageous in a room where visitors can't immediately turn to you and ask why you've put that on the wall.
Home offices are another interesting option. Not everyone wants an inspirational quote reminding them to work harder when they're already surrounded by unfinished tasks and increasingly demanding emails. An unmotivational print that says "One Day This Will All Be Someone Else's Problem" might feel rather more appropriate above a desk.
I also like the thought of mixing funny art with more conventional pieces. There's no reason a rude print can't sit alongside a traditional landscape, an abstract painting or a family photograph. In fact, I think it can be funnier when it does, because there's less warning that something inappropriate is coming.
You could have an otherwise perfectly respectable gallery wall containing one small print that says "This Is All Pointless." It's the sort of detail that someone might not notice immediately, which makes discovering it part of the joke.
The main thing, as far as I'm concerned, is choosing artwork that you actually want to live with. You don't need to fill an entire room with jokes just because you've bought one funny print, and you certainly don't need to make your home look like the inside of a novelty gift shop.
A little well-placed nonsense can go a surprisingly long way.
The Trouble With Being Too Tasteful
I've never been completely convinced that good taste is the most interesting quality a person can have. It's lovely to appreciate beautiful things, of course, but there's something slightly restrictive about the idea that every object we own must pass some invisible test of sophistication.
It seems particularly odd when you think about how much of our everyday lives is shaped by humour. We share jokes with friends, laugh at ridiculous things our families do and spend considerable amounts of time discussing situations that would be deeply irritating if they weren't so funny.
Yet when it comes to decorating our homes, we're often encouraged to choose things that are calm, tasteful and unlikely to provoke a reaction.
I think that's a missed opportunity.
Some of the best conversations happen because someone has noticed something unusual. A strange painting, an unexpected photograph or a completely inappropriate quote can become the starting point for a story or a shared joke. It's difficult to have that sort of exchange about an entirely forgettable piece of decoration, however nicely it matches the sofa.
Of course, I'm not suggesting everyone should abandon their personal taste and start hanging profanity above the fireplace. If you prefer elegant, understated artwork, that's perfectly reasonable. But I do think people should feel comfortable choosing things simply because they find them amusing.
There's no rule that says adulthood has to involve surrendering your sense of humour. You can pay a mortgage, understand how your boiler works and still find it hilarious to own a picture of cheese telling someone not to be a dick.
Although, having said that, I'm not sure understanding how a boiler works is a realistic expectation of adulthood either.
Choosing Funny Wall Art Without Buying Something You'll Be Sick of Next Week
One of the things worth considering when buying humorous artwork is whether the joke will continue to make you laugh after you've seen it a hundred times.
Some jokes are hilarious the first time you hear them and considerably less entertaining by the twentieth. Others have a familiarity that becomes part of their charm, particularly if they remind you of something or someone.
I think the best funny prints are those where you enjoy the image as well as the words. If the artwork is visually appealing, it still has something to offer after the initial surprise of the joke has worn off.
That's why I put so much emphasis on the paintings behind my designs. I want someone to be able to enjoy the colours of a food illustration or the atmosphere of a coastal landscape, rather than relying entirely on the caption to make the piece worth having.
The type of humour matters too. If you're someone who rarely swears, a print containing particularly enthusiastic profanity might not be something you want to look at over breakfast every morning. Equally, if your sense of humour is extremely dry, you might find a subtle sarcastic quote funnier than something designed to be shocking.
With my own collections, I try to offer different levels of cheekiness. Some designs are almost sweet, others are sarcastic and a few probably aren't suitable for displaying during a visit from the local vicar.
Although I imagine that depends on the vicar.
The point is that the artwork should feel like something you'd enjoy having around, rather than something you've bought purely because it's funny at that particular moment.
Supporting Independent Artists in the UK
One of the things I've enjoyed most about developing Kauter Studios is being able to turn my own slightly odd ideas into actual pieces of artwork.
I'm an independent artist based in Essex, painting original acrylic artwork and developing prints from my designs. That means the things you see in my collections have usually started with me deciding that a particular subject would make an interesting painting, whether that's a landscape, an animal or a piece of fruit with an alarming personality.
I like being involved in the creative process from the beginning, and I enjoy having the freedom to make things that don't necessarily fit into one tidy category. Sometimes I'll work on an emotional painting, sometimes I'll explore an idea connected to society or relationships, and sometimes I'll spend far too long deciding whether a piece of cheese would be funnier with one caption or another.
It's a peculiar mixture, but it's mine.
Buying artwork from an independent UK artist is also a little different from picking something off a shelf because you recognise it from a dozen other houses. There's a person behind the work, with their own ideas, interests and sense of humour.
That doesn't mean you need to buy something simply because it's made by an independent artist. I think you should buy artwork because you like it. But it's nice to know where a design came from and to discover that someone has created something that appeals to your particular taste.
Even if your particular taste involves swearing at vegetables.
A Sense of Humour Makes a Home Feel More Human
When I think about the homes I've enjoyed visiting most, they're not necessarily the grandest or the most beautifully decorated. They're usually the ones where you get a strong sense of the people who live there.
There might be books everywhere, strange things collected on holidays, a painting that everyone in the family has a different opinion about or a photograph with a story that gets told every time someone asks about it.
Those little details make a place interesting. They give you something to notice and they make the home feel lived in, rather than simply arranged for somebody else's approval.
I think funny wall art can do exactly the same thing. It can be a small addition to a room, but it introduces personality and gives people something to react to. It doesn't need to dominate the space or make some enormous statement.
Sometimes all it takes is a modestly sized print with a completely inappropriate sentence.
And there's something rather comforting about being surrounded by things that reflect your own sense of humour. We spend enough time navigating other people's expectations without feeling that our homes have to conform to them as well.
If you enjoy beautiful scenery, hang a landscape. If you love food illustrations, put a painting of a lemon in your kitchen. And if you think that lemon would be considerably improved by calling someone a cunt, I happen to agree with you.
You can appreciate attractive artwork without being terribly serious about it.
Funny Wall Art UK: Find Something That Makes You Laugh
When I started Kauter Studios, I didn't set out to create a collection that would appeal to absolutely everyone. I wanted to make art that interested me, experiment with different subjects and create things that I would enjoy having in my own home.
Sometimes that means producing something thoughtful or emotional. Other times, it means making rude quote prints, sarcastic kitchen artwork and beautifully painted landscapes featuring the least encouraging messages imaginable.
My funny wall art collections bring those ideas together. The food prints take everyday ingredients and give them cheeky, sarcastic or sweary captions, while the unmotivational quote prints combine attractive scenery with wonderfully unhelpful observations about life.
They're different styles, but both reflect the same belief that artwork can be visually appealing without taking itself too seriously.
If you're searching for funny wall art in the UK, whether that's a cheeky print for your kitchen, something sarcastic for your office or an unmotivational quote that makes you laugh every time you read it, have a look around Kauter Studios.
I can't promise that hanging one of my prints on your wall will improve your mood, make your life easier or transform you into a happier, more productive person. That seems like an unreasonable amount of responsibility to place on a painting of a chilli.
But I can promise that I had a good time making them, and I hope you have a laugh looking through them.
And if you don't find anything you like, well, as one of my prints so helpfully points out, "You Can't Have It All."