This Philly-area entrepreneur matches clients to the artwork that completes their homes

“You can’t design a beautiful space with blank walls,” said interior designer Brittany Hakimfar.

But she takes it a step further — deciding what goes on a blank wall or even helping design it.

In one case, she rummaged through a client’s storage area and found a piece of needlework from her late mother: “We thought it would be perfect over the bar,” she said.

And in her own Bryn Mawr home and the homes of several clients, she has had paintings commissioned to fit the overall aesthetic of the house.

Once she sold a client a piece with the Hebrew inscription “Tikkun Olam” (”repairing of the world”) that was on a wall of Far, her Bryn Mawr studio, then commissioned the artist to do a similar one to replace it.

This is often the last step in interior design.

In many cases Hakimfar hasn’t found the perfect painting, the client wants something they have helped design themselves, or the work has to be a certain size.

She did this in her home, working through Jay Gutnick, an entrepreneur who has made a business of matching artist and client.

“I’m not an art consultant,” Hakimfar said, adding, “it takes something off my plate.”

Hakimfar and her husband, Ben, a lawyer who manages the business end of Far, wanted an abstract that would be placed on a stairwell to tie together the upper and lower floors of the home.

They picked the Canadian artist Laurie Skantzos based on her earlier work.

“The hot pink on the edge draws you in,” she said as she stood with Gutnick on the stairwell of her home looking at the abstract. “It looks like it’s glowing.”

“It’s almost like a wall sculpture,” Gutnick said.

He had spent over 15 years in the health-care industry, building a large company that provided nursing-care staffing.

Then, “right before COVID, I decided enough was enough and I no longer felt passionate about that.”

When he and his wife, Rachel, were setting up a home in Ventnor, N.J., they decided to commission a painting for it, “and something about that experience I found kind of magical. It was very energizing, It unlocked something in me.”

He looked for a company that works with clients in “concierge fashion” and found that there was nothing quite like it: “assisting the buyer in finding the right artist, introducing the artist to the buyer, discussing every aspect of the piece, and then providing ongoing progress shots and videos so the piece ends up exactly right.”

Rachel Gutnick, after graduate school at the University of Michigan, came east and she and Jay spent the next four months designing the company Teal Canvas, inspired by the Gutnicks’ love of the color.

Jay Gutnick, who grew up in Virginia Beach, says it reminds him of water.

They launched three years ago with 20 artists — friends of friends and others — and had a website in four months. The timing was fortuitous because galleries were closed due to the pandemic.

Jay Gutnick has commissioned more than 100 pieces nationally, starting with the homeowner and choosing the artist only after he has a strong sense of the buyer, including their taste and budget.

“When they walk into a room, what lifts them up?” he asks.

When Eileen Teng and her husband, Daniel, decided to buy a pied-à-terre in Philadelphia, they definitely wanted something “Philadelphia-centric” as a decorative centerpiece.

The condo they bought in 2023 nudges against the Schuylkill and looks out on the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Teng and Jay Gutnick selected the artist Antoinette Wysocki of New York, whom Teng had worked with before.

The process was a first for Wysocki. She, Gutnick, and Teng toured Morris Arboretum, which would serve as inspiration for the commissioned piece.

“Having the experience together was very different,” she said after the arboretum visit. Walking the land, trees, and organic materials spoke to her.

Teng said, “We just started taking pictures of the trees and branches.”

While Wysocki usually works in color, this painting was charcoal, gouache, and graphite. As Teng has become gradually more interested in art, she “thought a black and white painting would be spectacular.” It’s placed in a room of its own near the condo’s entrance.

Wysocki named the painting “I’ll Be Seeing You,” after a song often associated with Billie Holiday, who was born in Philadelphia and frequently performed here.

“I feel like I could walk into” the painting, she said.

Have you solved a decorating, remodeling, or renovation challenge in your home? Tell us your story by email (and send a few digital photographs) to properties@inquirer.com.