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Wall Art Dos and Don'ts: How to Hang Artwork
The most enjoyable part of decorating your home is the finishing touches. You’ve finished the plastering and painting, you’ve chosen your colour scheme and furniture, and now it’s time to bring everything together with home accessories. Contempee’s favourite finishing touch is wall art. Plain walls can look boring no matter how beautiful or bright the paint colour. Although it can be daunting to knock that first nail in and get hanging your wall art, nothing else has quite the same impact. Not only does wall art bring a space to life, it’s an opportunity to express yourself and your personality - and that’s what home decor is all about!
Contempee has a stunning artwork collection, from wall prints and framed canvases to ready made gallery walls. But before you choose one for your space, we’re sharing some wall art dos and don’ts to make sure you make the right choice and no mistakes.
Do: Map out and Measure
Once you’ve chosen the space where you want to add art, it’s important that you map out and measure. Wall prints come in many different sizes, and mapping out will help you decide which size works best for your space. To do this, we recommend cutting a piece of card or paper to the size of the print that you are considering and placing it on the wall (you can use masking tape or blue tac to secure). This helps you to envisage how the print will look and gauge whether you need to go a size up or down. As a general rule of thumb, artwork should take up 60-75% of the available wall space. If you’re opting for multiple prints over just one, bear in mind that you should leave a minimum of four inches between frames to avoid an overcrowded look.
Don’t: Go too Small
It can be easy to air on the side of caution and shy away from large artwork pieces, but this is a mistake. As mentioned above, wall art should take up 60-75% of the available space and if you choose something too small, it can look lost (and a bit silly!) Anna from our_home_style demonstrates this perfectly with artwork from our stunning framed canvas collection. Featured in the video is our Boho Inspired Canvas No.1 and No.2, both available in three sizes. I’m sure you’ll agree, they make quite the impact!
@our_home_style_ Here’s how to instsntly elevate your home! #homedecor #hometips #stylingtips #interiordecor #interiorstyling ♬ original sound - evie
Do: Plan Gallery Walls
Gallery walls are a fun, creative way to add prints to your home and create an eclectic look, but they can be quite hard to get right. If you have a large, plain wall gallery walls are a great choice as they fill the space without looking basic. It’s important to plan your gallery wall, especially if it will be made up of lots of differently sized prints. We recommended mapping out as mentioned above, and play around with the layout to make sure it’s exactly right. Conveniently, Contempee have a selection of ready-made gallery walls to choose from with 3-print or 5-print options. Of course you don’t have to hang them exactly as we have, but we think it’s how they look best. Using the guide of our layouts saves you time and stress as we’ve done the hard work for you! Shop our gallery walls by theme, we have neutral, green, scandi and more styles to choose from, all available with our without frames. Featured below is our bestselling 'Line Art Inspired' Gallery wall.
Don’t: Be too Basic
It is daunting to hang art on your fresh, plain walls but don’t let this hold you back and risk being too basic. It’s not that big and bold is always better, but when it comes to wall art small and simple just has less impact. The best way to avoid this is by using our tips above to make sure you don’t go too small or by using a collection of prints to form a fun, eclectic gallery wall. If your style is maximalist, you can even opt for our gallery walls without frames and instead mix and match your own funky frames for more depth and dimension.
Do: Choose a Focal Point
Every room should have a focal point, a place that naturally draws the eye. This can be the centre, but isn’t always, and you can actually use prints and artwork to create the focal point. A great example is above the fireplace! So, when choosing artwork for your wall include one choice that will feature as the focal point and naturally draw the eye. Opt for something eye-catching - this can either be a contrasting colour to your wall or a piece that encompasses the whole colour scheme and ties it all together.
Don’t: Hang too high
Another common mistake we see is hanging artwork too high. We’ve all sat at the front row of the cinema and got neck ache from having to look up at the screen. You don’t want to create this same problem with the artwork in your home! So, hang your art at eye level. Think about where the artwork is and where you will be when looking at it. For example, if you’re hanging artwork opposite a seated area, you can position it at seated eye level. If you have a particularly large artwork piece, the centre of the print should be at eye level.
We hope these tips have been helpful. Choosing artwork can be difficult, but doesn’t have to be! If you follow these dos and don’ts you’re sure to select a piece that elevates your space in all the right ways.
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