There is only one rule when starting your own private collection, according to the experts - and that is to go with your gut feeling about a picture. "Buying art is a highly personal thing," says interior design consultant Dorcas Barry, "but it has to be something you adore the moment you set your eyes on it."

Many of Dublin's new galleries pride themselves on their accessibility. You can view the Lemon Street Gallery's collection of over 50 Irish and international artists from the comfort of your own home by visiting their web site, www.lemonstreet.com or by dropping into the gallery, which lacks any pretension or formality.

According to gallery manager Lea O'Flanagan, Lemon Street is "very open for people to come in, browse through the artists' work and ask questions" - all to the strains of mellow background music.

The gallery specialises in prints - produced when the artist works not directly on to paper but on to a wood block, a metal plate or a slab of stone. Not to be confused with reproductions, prints have a number of editions and once these are sold, the artist destroys the plate, thereby increasing the value of the work if the artist hits the big time.

People often begin with prints when building a collection, says O'Flanagan. "You can pay as little as £90 for a small framed Stephen Lawlor print or as much as £1,200 for a large work by Brazilian artist Ana Maria Pacheco."

You don't always have to pay on the spot - most galleries allow customers to to pay for a work in instalments after an initial down payment.

Like Lemon Street, the Original Print Gallery offers a framing service and is happy to advise customers on appropriate frames. "We normally advise that people go for light frames made of natural wood that don't take away from the painting," says Carmel Campbell, who works in the Temple Bar gallery. "Some people don't like to frame or put glass over a picture but we recommend it for preservation."

For those who want to dive straight into the big league, Paul O'Kelly, curator of the Oisin Gallery in Dublin's Westland Row advises that essential reading for novices is the Buyers' Guide to Irish Art, published by Ashville Media and the Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists by Peter and Linda Murray, from the seventh edition onwards.

Once you've purchased that print, watercolour or oil, the next step is finding the right setting to show it off. There can often be a dilemma over whether the picture should blend in with the decor or vice versa. "That has always been a bone of contention," says Paul O'Kelly. "The artist wants the painting to reign supreme but the collector often wants it to fit in with the drapes."

He advises that as a general rule of thumb, the end result shouldn't look "too hand in glove. "

"You can hang a stark modernist painting in a Georgian or a Victorian house or a Pre-Raphaelite in an austere apartment and it can look absolutely fabulous," he says.

According to Dorcas Barry, while it comes down to "what you like" when displaying a picture, the existing decor in your home can curtail your options.

"If you a have a room with a neutral background then you will have a lot more scope to play with; if the room is very stylised or busy with lots of colour and pattern, you will have to pay attention to that."

Her personal preference is generally to steer clear of co-ordinating the furnishings and decor to the dominant colours in a painting. "I'm not into the matching thing unless you've got a piece of modern art that has cream and another colour in it; put in a cream room, that can look good. But if there is green and blue in a picture and you paint the room green and blue, then it can take away from the painting and dilute its affect. The trend now tends to be towards a clever mix of looks and feels."

Attention should also be paid to the dimensions of the room.

"If it's a long, narrow hall, you probably wouldn't put in a row of pictures because it would only accentuate the narrowness. If it's a more spacious hallway then one large wall ethnic wall hanging can look great or a piece of fabric stretched over a frame. The hall is a good place to hang pictures because there's often little else in them and without pictures they can look bare and bleak." She admits to being informal in her tastes, often preferring unframed canvases with no protective glass. Artificial lighting is also a "no-no" because it doesn't lend itself to a domestic setting.

"I can't bear artificial light on a picture; it can give a gallery feel and there's nothing relaxing about that. It's more boardroom than domestic. I like how a painting looks in natural light, how it can look different in the different lights of day and evening."

ONE tradition she will stick to is that of hanging art above the fireplace.

"The sittingroom is a focal point so it's a nice place to have pictures. It's the one room where you really get to look at a painting. In other areas of the house, you often just see works of art in passing."

Paul O'Kelly has noticed the age of the average art collector drop in recent years. "We get a lot of young females aged from 25 to 35. If it's a tough work with violence or eroticism, women tend to be less squeamish and they always have the final say about a painting."