Everything to Know About Choosing Art for Your Home

Whether it’s canvas prints of friends and family, traditional art, or you’re showcasing a collection of things you’ve acquired on your travels, what you put on the walls of your home is important. It can be overwhelming to decide on art and photos, however. 

The following is a guide to everything you should know about bringing the walls of your home to life. 

Why You Need Art at Home

Maybe you think you don’t need art in your home, but if so, you might not have thought about everything it can bring to your life. 

Art brings your home to life, as mentioned above, especially if you invest in an original piece. When you have an original or a few originals hanging in your home, you can think about all the time and effort that the artist put into creating it. You might have a few special pieces that you had the opportunity to meet the artist of, which is always exciting as well. 

When you hang art on your walls, it lets you express yourself in unique ways in your home, and if you often entertain, it can also create dialogue. You’re showcasing your personality and even your values based on what you put on your walls. 

Art has the ability to evoke strong emotions as we look at it. It can serve as an inspiration, uplift us, or even help us feel comfortable in difficult times. 

Empty walls, by contrast, tend to be associated with depression and even anxiety. When your walls are empty, it can keep your mind closed off to the possibilities of the world, and it might not leave a good impression on your visitors. 

Other reasons to have things on your walls include:

• What you have on your walls becomes the focal point of your rooms. Focal points are key in interior design, and everyone room needs a focal point that’s the first thing that catches the eye comes into it. 
• Not having things on your walls can make your home seem unfinished or incomplete. 
• Rather than looking at art as an afterthought in your home design, if you put it at the forefront of your planning, it can help you create the color scheme for the rest of the room. 
• If you work from home, ensure your office walls have things that are inspiring to you as well because they can encourage productivity. 

Different Types of Art

It’s intimidating when you first start thinking about the walls of your home because there are just so many available options. 

When you’re starting out, consider all the different forms of art. Paintings on canvas, original and reproductions of prints, photography, sculptures, tapestries, or woven wall art are all good options. 

Other things you can use on your walls include:

• Maps
• Posters
• Your children’s art and crafts
• Personal photos
• Calendar pages

General Wall Décor Ideas

Aside from what we might typically think of as far as art on our walls, some other wall décor ideas you can explore include:

• Use large-scale art. Large-scale art is just an oversized piece that can be a true focal point and set the tone for the rest of the room. Oversized art is striking and makes a big impact, particularly if the rest of your interior design style is otherwise minimal. 
• Curate your own gallery wall. Gallery walls are a beautiful way to fully showcase your style and interests, and they can add personality and color. If you’re more eclectic in your style, let that show on your gallery wall. You can have pieces of all different styles and sizes, and you can frame them differently as well, as long as there’s a general theme tying them together. If you’re someone who likes things more orderly and symmetrical, you can also design your gallery wall as a grid. If you bring your gallery wall to the ceiling, it’ll make your space seem larger. 
• Accent walls are a unique way to do something bold in a space. An accent wall can be painted, or you can use wallpaper or a mural. Accent walls can make a big space feel warmer and cozier, or they can be more impactful in a smaller space. You can paint your own mural on a wall or have someone do it for you. 
• Mirrors can be a good addition to a wall because they can make spaces feel bigger, brighter, and more open. 
• Use shelving to display framed not only art and canvases but also three-dimensional pieces, like sculptures. 
• If you have plates or fine china that’s special to you, show it off on the wall with wire plate hangers. 
• A relatively new trend is using plants and greenery as well as art. You can use wall-mounted planters for dimension and vibrance. 
• Basket walls are bohemian, and they can add life to a negative space. Mix it up with baskets of different sizes and textures. 

Proportions and Grouping

When you’re buying art or anything that’s going to go on your walls, you want to think about where you plan to hang it and how it’s going to work with the rest of the space, particularly in terms of grouping and scale. 

One option is something we’ve discussed above—you can use one large piece in a room to be a focal point. Another option is to divide your walls into areas, which works especially well if it’s a big, open room. Then, you can cluster pieces of art into groups. 

You might, for example, choose a bigger piece to be an anchor in each cluster and then have medium and smaller pieces around it. They should all complement one another when they’re in a group.

Some people like to group their clusters of art or images based on a common theme. Maybe the theme is the location. For example, if you took a trip somewhere and you’re using photography only from that trip in a cluster, that’s your theme. You can also use pieces with similar tones or subjects. 

You can align your pieces horizontally, vertically, or in rows. 

For proportion, there are a couple of simple rules that can help you choose the right sizes. 

Wall art should ideally take up anywhere from 60% to 75% of the available wall space. Wall space is whatever isn’t covered with moldings or furniture. You can measure the width and height of a wall and then multiply those by 0.60 and 0.75, which will give you an idea of the canvas or art size that might work well. 

If you’re hanging a piece over a piece of furniture, you should aim to make it something that’s 2/3 to ¾ of the width of the piece of furniture. 

With art, bigger tends to be better. If your proportion is off and you choose something too small, it’s going to be swallowed up by the wall. If you have small pieces you do want to display, go back to the tip above, which is to use them in a grouping. 

When you’re hanging your pieces, you should try to have the center of the canvas or piece at eye level. If you’re hanging something above furniture, put it anywhere between 6 to 12 inches above the top of the furniture. 

Choosing Art By Room

The types of art you choose to display can vary depending on the room. 

In your bedroom, you might want things that are more special to you and that you feel an emotional connection to. Since you primarily relax in your bedroom, you don’t want anything that’s going to be overwhelming. 

You want your bedroom to be a nurturing space, so think about art or photos with natural colors like blues. Soft abstracts and landscapes work well in a bedroom, whereas anything with energizing colors like orange and red isn’t ideal. 

In your living room, you can mix it up. You might want to include different subjects, and you can vary your mediums as well. You can have a combination of photography, watercolors, and oils, for example, in different types of frames. 

Above your sofa is the perfect place to hang an oversized piece that you love. 

If you go with a high-gloss piece, which might include coated canvas or a print under glass, it’s also great in a living room because the light plays off it so beautifully. 

In the kitchen, your biggest focus is practicality. You don’t want to put anything up that’s going to be ruined by water or cooking grease. A framed canvas above a range hood is unique, and when you frame it, it can protect it. 

Finally, if you want to be especially bold, you might reserve it for your dining room. Dining rooms can be made to feel dramatic and even a bit over-the-top since it’s a space you don’t spend as much time in. You can take risks here, if anywhere. Plus, when you use bold pieces in your dining room, it’s great for sparking conversations when you’re having dinner parties and entertaining. 

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