How to Arrange Wall Art ?
How to Arrange Wall Art ?
You’re of course free to decorate your walls however you like, but there are a couple of easy but important strategies to use in order to hang your wall art in a way that is the most aesthetically pleasing to the widest audience.
On a subconscious level, you very likely would prefer your wall art to be placed in this way as well.
So how should you arrange wall art?
A good place to start is with the advice that is generally the strongest. Hang artwork at eye level. This is almost unequivocal. You could ignore all the following advice and just stick to this suggestion and still do fine. First, you should base the height of the picture based on its center and not the top of the frame. If you’re hanging multiple pieces close together that are meant to be a set (we think Mountain View would be great for this), consider the center point between all the pictures. Second, hang your pictures at the average eye level, which is going to be somewhere between 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 meters).
The next advice we have to give is more specific to places multiple pieces rather than single pieces. This may be somewhat subjective, and to each their own, but when pieces are the same size it seems more attractive to place them symmetrically, while utilizing asymmetry may be a better strategy to use with multiple pieces that are different sizes.
Also, consider what is the subject of the set of pieces. Staggering one picture higher than another may make sense for some sets, but not for others. Use your instinct. Try to create a balance between various pieces and other furniture and design elements in your home. While it is common sense to plan ahead for where you want to hang a piece before you actually do it in order to avoid a lot of unnecessary nail holes in your wall, don’t be afraid to experiment and move pieces around until it’s just right.
Helpful tip: Trace the frame of each wall art you plan on hanging onto large craft paper and then cut it out. Then you can tape the paper onto the wall and move it around easily without damaging the wall, and you’ll be able to plan ahead really well where you want to put a piece because you’ll be able to clearly see the size.
When hanging multiple pieces, regardless of whether the pieces are all the same size or different sizes, or whether or not you are going for a symmetrical arrangement or asymmetrical arrangement, it’s better to keep the spaces between each piece the same. Our recommendation is around 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm).
In terms of what goes in which space, keep colors in mind. You don’t want to place things next to each other that clash. Colors that are complementary like purple and yellow or orange and blue often are not as attractive together as the name “complementary” would imply. So it may be better to match color elements that are adjacent in the color wheel, like blue and green, or red and purple. Neutral colors like tans, browns, and greys are usually very easy to match with other colors.
Next, consider the part of the house you’re in. If you want art for your kitchen we’d avoid pieces that are a little cliche, like anything related to food or cooking. Vintage and pop art is what we suggest, like our Kahlo portrait or our Bouquet Lady piece. For living rooms, we think you should go with Abstract art and for the office consider Motivational art.
As we touched on earlier, you certainly can organize your space and wall art in whichever way that makes you happy, but we can’t help but recommend you stick to the tried-and-true strategies for aesthetically pleasing wall art arrangement.
You’re of course free to decorate your walls however you like, but there are a couple of easy but important strategies to use in order to hang your wall art in a way that is the most aesthetically pleasing to the widest audience. On a subconscious level, you very likely would prefer your wall art to be placed in this way as well.
So how should you arrange wall art?
A good place to start is with the advice that is generally the strongest. Hang artwork at eye level. This is almost unequivocal. You could ignore all the following advice and just stick to this suggestion and still do fine. First, you should base the height of the picture based on its center and not the top of the frame. If you’re hanging multiple pieces close together that are meant to be a set (we think Mountain View would be great for this), consider the center point between all the pictures. Second, hang your pictures at the average eye level, which is going to be somewhere between 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 meters).
The next advice we have to give is more specific to places multiple pieces rather than single pieces. This may be somewhat subjective, and to each their own, but when pieces are the same size it seems more attractive to place them symmetrically, while utilizing asymmetry may be a better strategy to use with multiple pieces that are different sizes.
Also, consider what is the subject of the set of pieces. Staggering one picture higher than another may make sense for some sets, but not for others. Use your instinct. Try to create a balance between various pieces and other furniture and design elements in your home. While it is common sense to plan ahead for where you want to hang a piece before you actually do it in order to avoid a lot of unnecessary nail holes in your wall, don’t be afraid to experiment and move pieces around until it’s just right.
Helpful tip: Trace the frame of each wall art you plan on hanging onto large craft paper and then cut it out. Then you can tape the paper onto the wall and move it around easily without damaging the wall, and you’ll be able to plan ahead really well where you want to put a piece because you’ll be able to clearly see the size.
When hanging multiple pieces, regardless of whether the pieces are all the same size or different sizes, or whether or not you are going for a symmetrical arrangement or asymmetrical arrangement, it’s better to keep the spaces between each piece the same. Our recommendation is around 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm).
In terms of what goes in which space, keep colors in mind. You don’t want to place things next to each other that clash. Colors that are complementary like purple and yellow or orange and blue often are not as attractive together as the name “complementary” would imply. So it may be better to match color elements that are adjacent in the color wheel, like blue and green, or red and purple. Neutral colors like tans, browns, and greys are usually very easy to match with other colors.
Next, consider the part of the house you’re in. If you want art for your kitchen we’d avoid pieces that are a little cliche, like anything related to food or cooking. Vintage and pop art is what we suggest, like our Kahlo portrait or our Bouquet Lady piece. For living rooms, we think you should go with Abstract art and for the office consider Motivational art.
As we touched on earlier, you certainly can organize your space and wall art in whichever way that makes you happy, but we can’t help but recommend you stick to the tried-and-true strategies for aesthetically pleasing wall art arrangement.