Have you ever wondered how to hang your artwork? Have you ever brought home a nice piece of art from the store and you hang it on your wall only to find it looks lost in your space?
Have received a lovely art piece as a gift? You find an available spot on your wall but it does nothing… absolutely nothing to enhance your space? In fact, as you look around your home, your space feels slightly cluttered and your not sure where to look? When you look at magazine pictures you are not sure how to achieve such a cohesive look? Can you relate?
As I go into many homes for consultations, I notice many little pieces of art cluttering up the wall. Usually hung too high and too small on the wall. Lol, yup I rhyme;).
Our eyes can easily get overwhelmed… and then our house feels messier than it is… and really, who wants that when keeping a clean house is difficult enough?!
Art should serve a purpose to enhance your space, not create more clutterClick To Tweet
Our homes should be a place of peace and rest. We should hang art on the wall that we love. Here are a few simple steps to hang your art the correct way.
How to hang your art
Focal points
Every room must have a main focal point. The surrounding walls should support the focal point to create balance in a room.
Create your main focal point
To create a focal point in your room, look around your room. What is the first wall you notice when you walk into the room? Is it a fireplace wall? A window wall? Your bed wall? Maybe it’s a large blank wall? Make that your main focal point.
On a fireplace wall; your fireplace will be the main focal point for the room. This will need a larger piece of art to draw your eye to the fireplace such as a mirror or art. If it’s a large wall where your sofa or your bed are placed, you will need a larger piece of art above your bed or sofa to draw your eye to the main focal point. This also creates balance to support the furniture below.
Assess what size is the focal point area? Is it square or rectangular? Use a square or round piece in a square area. Use a rectangular piece in a rectangular area.
Place your art on the center of the wall in the space
Before
The artwork feels too small for the wall, leaving it feeling lost and unintentional on the large wall. It makes it difficult for your eye to know what to look at.
After
By bringing the 2 pieces of art together with a couple inches apart, it creates a focal point. We didn’t add any other pieces to that section of the wall so your eye knows where to look. The scale of the art is still a little small for the space but it was a good way of using what we had. We didn’t need to purchase new pieces creating a focal point to the area.
Here are some examples of larger art pieces creating a focal point for the room making the space feel cozy and inviting;
Create your supporting focal points
Secondary larger walls in your room should support the main focal point to create balance. This may be a large wall with your sofa in your living room or the wall with your dresser in your bedroom. Keeping the same principles as above, create an area of interest with similarly styled artwork.
To create balance for your room you need to create areas of interest on the supporting walls as well. It doesn’t need to be as demanding, but enough to support and balance out your focal point wall.
Around the areas of interest, give some breathing room. Do not hang anything on smaller walls (2ft or smaller) or beside your focal points. This gives your eyes a resting place so you can really take in and enjoy the beautiful pieces of the room.
Be intentional when hanging artworkClick To Tweet
Here are some examples of the supporting walls;
Color
The artwork in your room should relate to the colors and style in the space. A collection of themes or colors connect the dots in the room, helping pull the space together.
Keep similar feeling colors and art in one room.
The artwork above a piece of furniture should connect with similar colors to the piece below it to create a balanced area of interest.
This is a focal point I created in a dining room. The frame around the mirror relates to the color of the knobs. It also matched the dark dining table we had in the room to bring a balance of color throughout the area
This piece of art connects all the dots to the colors in the space. It may be a little on the small side, but it still works well to create a focal point in the room. I left breathing space on both sides of the fireplace so the real rock star of the room could shine:)
I have the right scale and color for my artwork but it still does not look right… what is wrong?
Height
Your artwork should not be hung too high on your wall. Height is very important as your artwork can quickly appear like its floating or lost if it’s hung too high.
Bringing your artwork down a few inches can make all the difference to making your space feel cozy and invitingClick To Tweet
Before
After
Artwork should have something below it to keep it from feeling like it is floating and to create a focal point or area of interest
Artwork should be hung roughly around 5″-10″ from the bottom of the art piece to the top of furniture below it so they make a visual connection. It should have similar colors to the furniture below to make a connection creating a focal point.
The piece on the wall should be roughly 60- 80% of the size of what is below it. Lamps or decor on either side of the artwork can also fill in the space for more scale and balance creating a beautiful vignette.
This piece of art works well as it ties in with the bedding on the bed. It is only a few inches higher than the bed frame to connect them together creating a focal point for the room.
This wall was large and needed a significant piece of art to fill the space above the sofa. We placed it only a couple of inches above the sofa. The colors connect to the space around it as well.
If you hang art with no furniture below, it needs to be large enough for the scale of the wall to support itself.
Your art should be large enough for the shape and the scale of the wall to stand alone. Remember the 60-80% rule. It helps if the art is a larger piece or a collection of pieces, hung lower to keep the room feeling cozy and the art from feeling lost and floating.
Your art should be hung roughly 6′ to the top of your art from the floor. If its a larger piece, it may be hung slightly higher than 6′ to the top of your art. If its a smaller piece, it may need to be slightly lower than 6′ to the top of your piece.
Before
After
How to hang your artwork correctly
- Create a focal point or a vignette with your art piece considering the size of the wall
- Use art that relates to the other colors, furniture, and artwork in the room
- Hang your piece roughly 6′ high from the floor to the top of your art piece on your empty wall or 5″-10″ from the piece below it to create a cozy inviting space
This piece of art is scaled large enough for the wall. Hung at the right height creates a focal point all on its own with similar colors to the rest of the space creating balance.
Rearranging your art doesn’t have to be expensive. If you have a wall that is too large for any of your pieces, sell a few old ones on a moms swap page. Use the money to go buy a pretty big new piece that works in your space. Or you could get creative with a fun DIY by painting your frame to freshen it up. Matt and frame your fav piece to make it larger. Just by hanging your existing art at the right height with the similar colors will make all the difference in your space.
Sometimes just by switching around what you already own can give your home a fresh new feelClick To Tweet
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