How to arrange wall art in your home

Having artwork in your home is a great way to add life to a room, showcase a beautiful piece, or tie your décor together. Your choice of artwork can really affect your mood, so when you’re shopping for art, choose something that truly resonates with you. You might create a wall of family pics to remind you of special memories, or jazz up a drab room with some colourful statement pieces. Have a look at how colour can affect your mood.

There are so many options, and so many superb wonderful artworks and styles. Once you’ve made your choices, it can also be a little daunting to decide how to arrange your art, particularly if you’re buying more than one artwork and need to figure out how it all fits together. We’ve put together a few tips to make the art-arranging process a little bit easier for you.

Choose your wall:

Consider the size of your wall and space in the room. What pieces do you have to display? What is the size of your artwork? Consider the furniture in the room and if your piece will go with it. If you’re styling a room from scratch, then match the colours and design with your artwork, especially if it’s a showstopper piece.

Smaller spaces could be the perfect place to display your smaller artwork, and a great opportunity to create a gallery wall. Use smaller pieces between doors, windows or on a stair landing. Check out our other ideas for small spaces. For larger walls, don’t be afraid to go for one big piece or do a group of pieces together.  If these are on a larger wall, then these can be spaced out more too.

If you have a feature, like a fireplace, with a naked wall above it, a great piece of artwork above could change the room completely and make the entire space feel finished and welcoming. The same applies to the space above your couch; just remember to leave enough space between the couch and picture so that you don’t end up resting your head against your artwork or frame.

Arrangement styles:

Once you have chosen your wall and know which pieces you want to use, you need to decide how you’ll arrange the works.

Symmetrical arrangements: This is a more orderly style, traditional and formal. These pieces are best placed in a grid formation. This is normally a group of 4 to 6 pictures (two at the top with two below or three at the top with three below), with the exact amount of space between each picture. They are also generally the same size and often even have the same frames. Perfect for above a couch, fireplace or in a hallway, this arrangement creates a nice balance in the room.

Asymmetrical arrangements: This is ideal if you have a variety of different sizes of artwork or pictures with different frames. Mixing different styles and orientations allows more room for creativity. Try and have the heavier, busier pieces in the middle of your arrangement. Use this as a focal point, and then arrange pieces around this.

If you have two pictures that are not identical in size, then stagger them, by hanging one higher than the other so the top and bottom don’t match.

Plan where your artwork will go:

If you’re doing a group of pictures, then lay all of them out on a table or floor and move them around until it looks good to you. Don’t be afraid to mix things up and try something different, it may just work, but do this BEFORE you bring out the hammer or drill!

Get out the tape measure and plan where your pieces will go. If you would like to visualise the artwork on the wall, then get some kraft paper, measure the size of the artwork or framed picture, cut the exact size out of kraft paper, and stick these on the wall with a little masking tape. This way you can also get the spacing right in between each piece, and you can even make a mark on the craft paper as to where the nail should go. You will also feel more confident when hammering or drilling the nail into the wall.

A wall full of art can add personality and life to your home, and give you joy every time you see it. Don’t be daunted by the process of hanging your artwork; with these tips you can really enjoy creating your wall of memories or hanging up that masterpiece.