Where should you hang artwork at home? 5 placement ideas that can transform your interiors

Your walls don't need more expensive paintings! You just need to follow placement rules.

As homeowners, there's a constant desire to find art pieces that can beautify your home. Walls may feel bare and empty without artwork adorning them, but simply putting up the right piece can transform the space. A dull room can gain a renewed sense of depth and personality. That is the power of art!

But its placement is equally important. Otherwise, even a beautiful piece may look out of place or mismatched with the furniture. Suumit Arora, founder and CEO of Ariture, an art platform, shared five art placement ideas to help every piece complement its surroundings and make the place shine.

We asked Suumit about the art placement mistakes people commonly make that prevent even a beautiful piece from creating the desired effect in its surroundings.

He shared a couple of reasons: “Beautiful painting hung too high, or lost on a wall three sizes too big for it, or squeezed into a corner nobody looks at, stops doing its job. Most homes do not have an art problem. They have a placement problem.”

The next obvious doubt would be how to understand if you are placing your art in the correct spot. Suumit shared some basic parameters that you need to know about art placement: “All that is needed is to understand what height, proportion, and light a piece really needs, and that will be the key.”

Here are some placement spaces Suumit suggested:

1. Above the sofa

• The wall over the sofa is the ideal place for hanging an artwork.
• A common mistake most make is that they hang the artwork too high, making it appear as though it is floating above the sofa.
• To avoid this, align the centre of the painting with eye level and position the artwork approximately 15-20 centimeters above the sofa.

Go for the abstract artwork for interesting conversation starters. By entryway, go for a bold piece!

2. In the entryway

• The entryway is the first impression of home, but often it is left bare or cluttered with keys, clocks, and other everyday items.
• A thoughtfully chosen artwork can both decorate this space and give it personality and design sensibility.
• Choose something bold, something that captures attention.
• The right piece leaves a lasting impression from the moment someone enters the home.

3. Facing the bed

Place a calming nature artwork in your bedroom.

• Mostly, the wall above the headboard is used to display calming artwork, but do not ignore the wall facing the bed.
• This is the wall homeowners wake up to see in the morning, as well as before falling asleep.
• Go for artwork that has soft colours and soothing tones that can calm the mind rather than energise it.
• The headboard wall may be what guests notice, but the wall facing the bed is what the homeowner lives with every day.

4. Up the staircase

Make sure all the artworks are well coordinated and go well with each other.

• The staircase wall is one of the most underutilised spaces in Indian homes. It is often either left blank or decorated with pictures placed at arbitrary heights.
• Since a staircase's nature is to move, creating a sense of upward movement, the artwork should also follow the same direction.
• Arrange multiple pieces along the incline of the staircase so that they rise in accordance with the steps.
• Maintain consistent spacing between the artworks to create a balanced and cohesive display.

5. In the dining room

Warm and rustic vibes get accentuated with a landscape artwork.

• The dining room is where interactions happen the most, so keep artworks at eye level.
• Since people sit most of the time, art should be hung lower than in the living room.
• The choice of pieces with warm colours and inviting composition contributes greatly here. The ideal art becomes a subtle and long-lasting component of each meeting at the dining table.

One principle connects all five ideas. As parting advice, the expert recommended hanging art for the people who use the space, positioning it at their natural eye level and keeping it proportional to the furniture beneath it. When these three elements are well factored in, the artwork looks coordinated and thoughtfully placed and complements its surroundings well.