Art is one of the best ways to make home personal and meaningful. Paintings, prints, tapestries, plates, and the like symbolize the places and people and ideas we love just as they give us and our guests opportunities for quiet and contemplation.
But art can feel tricky at times: making confident selections, arranging on walls, and forming collections. Maybe you've noticed a room in which there were many beautiful works of art, but these were lost to your immediate glance—their qualities under-accentuated—or where, despite the quality of the art, something about its arrangement in the room looked a little awkward.
The room of my childhood, I recall, gave off a bit of this vibe. Against its deep blue walls, I hung a few prints from one of my favorite artists at the time Gustav Klimt. The art was striking and soothing to my teenage years, but my room felt akin to an art gallery, most of the prints hanging on their own without connection to the others. The only exception was a grouping of three pieces above my bed that included a photograph and sketch in addition to Klimt’s “Birch Forest.”
Thanks to Emily Henderson, an early design hero of mine, I later clarified the problem and understood the easy solution: Vary the number and size of paintings on each wall in the room. For example, on one wall, a large, single piece; on another, a set of three; on a different one, a tapestry or mirror; on another, a gallery collection. The overall combination of groupings will vary depending on the details of the room like the size of the different walls and their relationship to each other, but the rule remains: mix it up. This, I think, is key to creating a more balanced and harmonious space.
With this principle in mind, we can determine which arrangement or combination is appropriate for each wall. And this step is less about rules and more about play and relationship. Similar to arranging furniture in a room, the goal is a harmony between the space available and the pieces, a complementarity in size and shape.
A few starting questions to ask: Are there any very large walls? Are there any architectural qualities that suggest balance and symmetry? Do the various walls seem to stretch more horizontally or vertically? Do I have any pieces that will look best on their own? Do I have any that seem more like supporting characters?
In this way, styling in part depends on the qualities of the art we’re working with, but oftentimes a few different arrangements will work for any given area. However, a large wall is best suited to several pieces of art arranged in a grid or organically; aim for at least three and always an odd number! One, two, or three pieces are best for smaller walls. My preferred combination is a set of two because of the simple contrast, but whether to hang them side by side or stacked depends on the orientation of the wall—whether seeming to extend horizontally or vertically.
Designers tend to say bigger is better unless an undersized work is meant to support a primitive, minimalistic mood. I’d add that if you don’t yet have enough art for every wall, you might better appreciate what you have when you arrange it together and let the other walls rest. The blank bits will accentuate the artful ones and create a focal point.
Despite these general recommendations and excepting crazy disproportion, our discernment of which art should go where depends on a somewhat intuitive interpretation. You might perceive a feeling that one piece of art should go in a particular spot; go ahead and let you friend hold it for you there, so you can check. When crafting a combination of a few pieces, lay them out in arrangements on the floor until you find one that looks best to you.
A brief thought on curating multiple pieces for a large wall—if you have a wall that calls for one. In an interior decorating world now saturated with quick digital downloads and curated gallery walls, the pre-made is alluring and arguably more practical but starts to feel and look inauthentic. Rather than purchasing pre-curated gatherings of prints, I recommend collecting pieces over time and letting themes and colors unify most of the pieces. If, like me, you're drawn to the eclectic, add in one or two quirky pieces that barely fit: one sketch, one with a slightly different color theme, one modern piece among traditional, or one traditional among mostly modern. This step ensures a fresh and interesting ensemble.
The ultimate aim is to position our works of art so we can appreciate their beauty fully and allow them to integrate with the rest of our homes. When arranged well, they support the integrity of the entire room and the other pieces of art, inviting us to pause for a few moments, to rest.
I like reading your essays because my sense of decorating is intuitive and certainly eclectic! I fly mostly by the seat of my pants, as they say. But there is a philosophy behind the art of decorating rooms and even a kind of science that brings a room together - the colors , shapes, etc. I find that fascinating. How rest and joy come seeping into us just by sitting in a well thought out space. Thank you for opening my eyes a bit more to the science behind the art!
Wonderful article. It gives great explanation to use of art. You are right about taking the time to collect pieces with meaning.