Decorating your home is an important part of making it a good place to live in. When a home has good decorations, it makes the homeowners feel more comfortable and cozier. In addition to that, the décor in your home also reflects your personality. It can incorporate your favorite colors, themes, and more. One of the best decorations that you can put in your home is artwork or wall art.
The pieces of artwork that you hang in your home can be an expression of who you are, what you love, where you’ve been, and the style that you desire. In addition to choosing what kind of artwork to display, which is mainly based on your personal preferences, how you display them also matters. Even if you are very handy when it comes to using a hammer to hang your favorite artwork, it is not always an easy task. It’s because you also need to plan where to hang it and at what height. Aside from that, you also need to consider how big the artwork should be.
With these considerations, most people find hanging wall art at home a challenging task, and it is often left for later, which can turn into years. But selecting and hanging artwork at home should not be daunting. To help you, here are the dos and don’ts of hanging artwork.
The Do’s of Hanging Artwork in Your Home
Here are some of the best tips that you can follow to be able to hang pieces of artwork in your home beautifully:
Paint the wall to make the artwork stand out.
Most people opt to have white walls at home as they go with most interior styles. White will not compete for attention with your art, but it won’t bring out the best in it either. Keep in mind that color begets color. This means that a colored wall will bring out the details in black and white artwork. It will enhance the detail and hues in colored pieces of artwork, too. Therefore, if you want your artwork to stand out, try painting a feature wall to display it on. This way, the pieces of artwork are surely celebrated and featured in your home.
You might be thinking about what is the best wall color to display art. The answer to that depends on the pieces of artwork you plan to hang. But in general, strong colors can make the most impact. You can choose deep shades that will match your room and will elevate the artwork.
Hang artwork in every room in your home.
If you are wondering which room is best to hang pieces of artwork in, the answer is you don’t have to choose. If there is wall space in every room of your house, then there is a chance to display something to elevate the room. You can freely hang pieces of artwork in the kitchen, bathroom, dining area, and bedrooms.
However, you need to consider the unique environment that each of your rooms has when choosing the pieces to display. For example, if you plan to put an artwork above a heater, you need to select a piece that can withstand the heat.
Go big when selecting pieces of artwork.
Size matters when it comes to wall art. Therefore, the question is, how big should a piece of artwork be? When an artwork is too small, it may look stranded. When you hang a few tiny pieces together, they can look cluttered. Scale is an important aspect when choosing art. Hanging a large piece of artwork can make a space look bigger.
If you choose to hang a piece of artwork above a large piece of furniture, such as a couch or a bed, it should be about 2/3 the width of the furniture. If your artwork is a bit small to comply with this rule, you can have it framed with a broader frame to add to its overall size and provide it with a greater wall presence.
Display pieces of artwork in different ways.
Pieces of artwork can be displayed in your home in a number of ways. You can hang it on the walls, lean it against the wall on top of furniture, or maybe use some shelves if you want to displace collections. If you are only renting the place or do not want to hammer nails into your walls, you can use removable hooks instead to hang pieces of artwork.
Hang pieces of artwork at the proper height.
Things get a bit technical when it comes to the height of the artwork. The height the artwork is hung is very important. The question here is, what is the correct height to hang art? When hanging pieces of artwork, you need to ensure that the center point is at eye level.
If you choose to hang a group of artwork pieces together, the center point of the group should be at eye level. Since people have different heights, the eye level is different for everyone. Therefore, the rule is, the center point of the artwork should be around 144 cm or 57 inches from the floor.
However, the rule can be broken if you are hanging the artwork above a piece of furniture. It will look best if it is vertically positioned from the highest point of the furniture to the ceiling. This way, the space between the artwork and the furniture is the same between the art and the ceiling.
Correctly space pieces of artwork in a group.
When there is too much gap between artwork pieces, they may look like they are cluttered on the wall. If you want to hang a group of artwork, you can keep about two inches or less between the pieces. Make sure that you are consistent with the space that you leave between them on a gallery wall.
Hang different sizes of artwork to create visual balance.
If you’ve chosen the pieces of artwork that you want to group together on a wall, avoid hanging them by size. To achieve visual balance, try to group smaller and larger pieces on a wall together.
The Don’ts of Hanging Artwork in your Home
After learning about the things that you need to do to hang pieces of artwork beautifully in your home, here are the few things you need to avoid doing:
Avoid matching the artwork to your home décor.
When hanging artwork at home, they do not need to match your decorations. In fact, it is the best way to cut loose and break away from the color scheme of your home interior. Artwork needs to look as if it has been found and chosen organically and not like it has been specifically made to finish a room.
When you hang an artwork that has a contrasting style to your décor, it will give the space an additional edge and interest. For example, you can try hanging a modern painting in a traditionally decorated room.
Do not hang artwork on every wall in your home.
Earlier, we’ve mentioned that it is a good idea to hang artwork in every room of your home. However, avoid hanging pieces of artwork on every wall that you have at home. Remember that blank walls can also help make the arty ones stand out. This can also ensure that your walls will not look cluttered. This is very important, especially in small spaces. Try to pick walls with the least number of interruptions, such as windows, and fill them with all the artwork pieces that you love.
Don’t stress yourself about matching the frames for different pieces of artwork.
Sometimes, people stress too much when they can’t find matching frames for their artwork pieces. You can surely match them all, but you are not required to. The important thing is that you are matching the frame to the artwork. Hanging pieces of artwork with random frames is actually good because matching frames can make them look like a combined statement piece.
These are some of the dos and don’ts of hanging artwork. It actually does not matter if you are investing in expensive or inexpensive artwork. The important thing is that you are adorning your home with the things that you love and make you feel happy and at home. A well-chosen and well-placed artwork will transform a room and give it some personality. We hope these tips helped you get more ideas on how to hang artwork pieces properly.