If you’re choosing art for the walls of a living room, there are literally hundreds of options available to you. Here are a few pointers to ensure that, when finalising your choice, your work looks its best.
First, decide what sort of style you want and what feeling you wish to convey, and then you’ll know which medium to work with.
Framed Prints
Fr one of the most traditional ways to exhibit prints, and especially during an official occasion. You can find all kinds of frames to suit your decor – and it won’t cost you a fortune either.
Frameable prints can be stored in plastic-lined boxes and will never be exposed to light if hidden away from illumination sources, which reduces the potential for early fading. Space restrictions can limit their depth as archival mats and mouldings are more sensitive to humidity.
Use the colours of your framed art to complement and extend the colour theme in your home. For example, if your room has an abundance of brown faux fur throw pillows and rustic decor objects, include artwork that uses these colours.
Paintings
Paintings hung on the wall, on the other hand, can offer complementary variation and interest to a living room, as an alternative to prints framed up as wall art. Go for a monochromatic piece to keep things subtle, or get bold and bright with a painting featuring sharper colours to really make a statement.
Large pieces of wall art are best placed above sofas and act as giant windows that invite people outside and into nature’s embrace, thereby stopping them in their tracks.
When choosing a wall art, consider how it adds continuity to other elements of your decor, like your furnishing. If your couch and armchairs feature a lot of dark brown and blue tones, perhaps you should choose a photo with similar shades for your wall. That way the two items will match better, instead of having a big, colourful abstract that stands out.
Original Objects
An heirloom or vintage quilt or even sculptural object can become wall art with the right frame. This works if you want the idea of the gallery wall to be less about showing off, and more about making your collection feel like yours and your space.
A grouping of decorative objects for a purpose, whether on a built-in bookcase or shelving unit, stands the best chance of looking good with odd numbers — three or five, to be precise. Stack boxes, planters and vases a treat.
A framed world map is a sophisticated statement for living room walls, and a multitude of journals and printed items above this living room’s high ceilings from designer Jenny Dina Kirschner on Chairish stand out beautifully.
Wallpaper
Draw make the living room more elegant: either by choosing a wallpaper with a busy pattern or a more simple one.
Select a colour scheme that makes sense to you, whether monochromatic, based on nature’s colours, accent colours that jazz up your basics, or nods to the colours of your furniture. Pick a variety of dots and swirls to complement mid-century modern wood furniture, or curves and angles to frame bold colours for a boho chic room.
Learning to master the scale, aspect and format of wall art is often the most difficult part of decorating. Consider the other elements of your furniture below when pinning things above your sofa.
Mirrors
A mirror is a canvass that beams out your sense of style and can make a room appear bigger and with more dimensions thanks to the reflection of the light and space. There’s a kind of mirror that’ll suit every room style and taste.
Placing several mirrors symmetrically around the room can bring harmony and calm to a living space. Either side of the mantelpiece is a good place, or in a square grid on a picture gallery wall.
Decorative mirrors make a great addition to a blank wall. Or they can be incorporated into a collection of framed prints and other wall hanging, like a collection of art. Look for frames that have some kind of pattern or texture that will work with materials elsewhere in the room.
Lights
Lights become an art object and a decorative feature when they dance upon a wall object, and so picture lights become an essential part of room decor. Picture lights are offered in a selection of materials — stainless steel, wood — and of aesthetics, in line with the rest of the room decor, in such a way as not to jar with the tone and texture of the artwork, while not overwhelming it.
A well-lit gallery will complement the space in any living area of any home. Lighting of any artwork should not only add visual appeal and sophistication to a space, it should also emphasise colour, textures and detail in paintings or photographs and reveal the artist’s aesthetic intention – or physically prevent unflattering shadows or glare on the negative or print in photographs!
