New Year-New Art: Tips on placing new art additions in your home
So the new year is fast approaching, and with it the packing away our Christmas decorations to reveal our homes beneath the festive cheer. Now is the perfect time to make some changes to your home and give it a fresh new look and a great way to do so is to add a little art in the right places to completely revitalise your rooms.
Living room
Mantelpiece
In the interior design world vignettes are the small areas/displays around your home which house a collection of items beautifully arranged to create a homely and lived in look. Art is an ideal choice to add to your vignette as it helps to give an initial colour scheme to the display, as well as a key focal point.
To add art to these displays a great idea is to prop up your art against the wall/on the mantelpiece to avoid a uniform look- this works well for both individual and multiple pictures. If you are looking to place multiple pieces, consider layering them over one another this helps adds to the lived in look.
Top Tip: Don’t forget to pick your feature colour and work the objects you choose to accompany your art from there.
Sofa
The first consideration when hanging pieces above your sofa is height. As a standard rule if you want it to be seen, hang it at eye level, so in a living room with sofas and seating you want to hang lower down than normal, try hanging 1 hand width above the top of the sofa.
Getting the balance right: if looking to hang multiple pieces above your sofa look to create a balance, if you have a mixture of sizes, hang your largest piece in the bottom left hand side of your layout, if you have an equal amount in the majority of size create a symmetrical look by putting the largest piece in the centre of your layout.
Top Tip: as a general rule look at having artwork around two-thirds the size of the sofa.
Kitchen
When people see art of food or drink they often straight away think it should be in the kitchen/dining room but often its the vintage and more traditional art which works the best in the kitchen and dining environment if you’ve gone for a more standard style. If however your kitchen is on the contemporary side look for bright and bold prints.
Top Tip: Think carefully when hanging art in the kitchen; you want to avoid anywhere where it can be subjected to heat/water damage so avoid sinks and oven areas !
Bathroom
The bathroom isn’t exactly the first place people think of to hang artwork as its not a communal room, however art in the bathroom done properly can add an extra bit of interior style.
In the bathroom obviously its important to hang something which you don’t care about getting damaged. In a bathroom art, whether it be a painting, print or photo will be subjected to humidity and condensation and general water damage.
Whatever you choose to hang its an idea to choose something which would be easy to get a replacement for e.g. a copy of a photo or print version of your favourite art piece. If you don’t feel like investing in these consider purchasing postcards and framing them instead. Whatever you choose try to ensure that the frame is a tight and secure fit to minimise the amount of water which can get inside and cause damage.
When hanging art in your bathroom consider one of the following places to position your art; first on the wall directly ahead as you walk into the room, that way you guarantee people will see it every time they enter. Alternatively if you have multiple pieces and a traditional bathtub (minus the shower) then a great idea is to hang your art on the walls surrounding your bath, whether that be directly on the wall or whether you want to install shelves in your bathroom to prop them up.
Bedroom
Your bedroom is a place to focus on yourself and of course sleep. Calming, personal, landscape and dreamlike art all works particularly well in the bedroom to help pull you into a more relaxed state. Rather than cluttering your walls with multiple pieces of art, look at creating one central piece which takes centre stage in the room (other than your bed).
The two main places to look at hanging art in your room are 1) above the headboard of your bed- this only works if your headboard in itself isn’t a piece of art. If hanging a piece of art above your bed, look for a big piece which will help to anchor your bed. Alternatively you could hang art on the wall directly ahead when entering the room.
No matter the room:
Lighting- pay close attention to how lighting hits your artwork as shadows and highlights created can cause art to look completely different.
Height- Think about the best height to hang your pictures, if in a room where passing people will predominantly be standing, hang at head height. If in the living room for example where people will be sitting look at hanging art much lower to roughly seating head height.
Grouping- If you have multiple frames and are looking to create a grouping of hangings, first draft out the layout to size on a large sheet of paper. Then stick the to the wall to ensure that you get hook holes in the right place and your layout looking neat.
Be Selective- Don’t simply look to hang all the art you have, be selective and choose based on the room you have, colour schemes and styles. Not every space in your home needs to be filled and sometimes that one small piece of art in that big empty space is all it needs.
