4 September 2026 · 7 min read
How to Choose Art for Every Room in the House
People usually choose a picture and then look for a wall. It is far easier the other way round. Once you know what a room is for — sitting, sleeping, working, passing through — the size, height, palette and even the subject narrow down almost by themselves.
This is the practical version of advice normally given in vague terms, drawn from hanging work in the houses of people who bought it.
Living rooms: one anchor, generously sized
The living room is the wall people look at longest, so it wants a single strong piece rather than a scattering. Size it to the furniture below: about two thirds of the sofa's width, centred at 145–150 cm from the floor, with 15–25 cm of clear wall between the sofa back and the frame.
Because this room is usually the brightest in a house, matte paper matters and so does UV glazing on a sun-facing wall. Architectural studies and large landscapes both work; what does not work is a small print floating in the middle of a big wall.
Bedrooms: lower contrast, softer subject
A bedroom picture is seen last at night and first in the morning, so its job is to be restful. Dusk and night scenes, still water and quiet architecture all have low internal contrast, which lets the eye stop rather than scan.
Above a double or king bed, use a single print of 70–110 cm or a matched pair of 40–50 cm sheets, centred on the bed rather than the wall, with 20–30 cm above the headboard.
Home offices: detail you can live with
In a working room the artwork has two jobs — the wall you face while thinking, and the wall behind you on camera. In front of you, choose detail: a drawing with visible construction lines gives the eye somewhere useful to go between two sentences. Behind you, choose one clear shape, because a camera flattens depth and turns clusters into noise.
Hang the facing piece at seated eye level, roughly 120–130 cm to the centre, and keep the mount narrower — 4–5 cm — so more picture fits the same wall.
Hallways and stairs: sequences, not statements
Corridors are read in motion, which makes them the one place a group genuinely belongs. Three prints of the same size, 8–12 cm apart, all on a centre line at 150 cm, will look considered in almost any hallway.
On a staircase, run an imaginary line parallel to the handrail and centre every frame on it. Keep the sizes identical; mixed sizes on a diagonal look accidental rather than relaxed.
Kitchens, bathrooms and awkward corners
Small rooms take small work: 20–30 cm, hung away from steam, splash and direct heat. A bathroom will happily carry a single coastal study; a kitchen suits something with a bit of humour or movement.
Awkward corners — the space beside a door, the wall under a slope — are best treated with one square print rather than an attempt at symmetry.
The test that saves a bad decision
Before ordering, cut the framed dimensions out of newspaper and tape the shape to the wall for a day. Walk past it. Sit under it. Almost every sizing mistake announces itself within a few hours, and it costs nothing to find out.
Then choose the drawing. The archive is browsable by collection and by individual work, and each sheet is made to order in a range of sizes, so the wall can decide and the picture can follow.