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Guidelines for Choosing an Appropriately Scaled Work of Art

Any interior decorator will tell you that hanging artwork on your walls—whether it’s an original painting, a framed print, a canvas print, or a collection of photographs—can give vibrancy and personality to your house. But it’s not always easy to figure out how big a new painting should be and where it should go. As someone who makes paintings to order, I’m often asked, “What size painting should I buy for my wall?” I’d like to answer this question and assist anyone who is considering making a similar purchase. To help make your search for the perfect piece of wall art a little less daunting, and a lot more enjoyable, here is a guide to determining the ideal size for your space.

The Place

Bigger is better when it comes to picking artwork for a room. The architects and homeowners who hire me are the best! You can get help determining the ideal frame size from any home decorator. Nonetheless, every once in a while when I get a great snapshot from a homeowner showing me my artwork hanging in their room, I notice one common design blunder. The majority of individuals make the mistake of hanging artwork that is too tiny for the space. You wouldn’t want to spend money on artwork, hang it up, and then feel like something is missing from the space. It’s important to think about how much furniture there is in a room when purchasing artwork because a large piece will dominate the space in the same way that furniture would. Consider the height of your ceilings and whether or not they lend themselves to large, magnificent Canvas Paintings or whether a lower canvas height hung in landscape orientation would be more appropriate. Just remember that playing it safe means going broke. If you’re looking to make a bold statement with your purchase of modern or contemporary art, go big.

And then there’s the wall, which you’ll inevitably think about and perhaps even measure once or twice. Besides the obvious consideration of the wall’s overall proportions, you need also to give some thought to the direction in which the wall will be erected. Like the design of the wall itself, artwork hung on a tall, narrow wall should be portrait or vertically oriented, whereas horizontal wall spaces are better suited to landscape art. Depending on the total wall length and width, your coastal artwork Paintings should occupy between two-thirds and three-quarters of the available wall space.

Third, above fireplaces or other large pieces of furniture – when people ask me to recommend artwork for their house, they frequently include images of the wall in question. How exciting! Once I have their measurements, I can immediately recommend the ideal canvas size for their wall. When clients send me images of my artwork displayed in their homes, I sometimes find myself wishing they had consulted me about size choices before making a purchase, as the gorgeous 30″ painting they just invested in appears lost over their 8-foot couch. When draped over a piece of fixed furniture such as a sofa, table, fireplace mantel, etc., follow this general guideline: The artwork should be hung 6″-12″ above the top of the piece of furniture, and it should be 3/4 the width of the piece of furniture. That’s how simple it is.

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