Decorate your living room with art: what size painting, and how high to hang it

01Why an original work changes a room

A poster decorates, costs little, and there is no shame in owning one. But it stays a flat image, printed in the thousands, and after a week your eye slides right over it.

An original work does something else. Texture, first: the thickness of the paint, the trace of the brush, a grain that catches the light and changes with the hour. Uniqueness, next: nobody else has that one at home. And a story: who made it, the day you met them. That is what you tell your guests, and what turns a painting into a piece of the house.

02What size painting for your living room?

The most common mistake is choosing too small. A 40 × 50 cm painting above a two-metre sofa floats there, lost, and the wall seems to be waiting for something.

The simplest rule of thumb: the work is about two-thirds the width of the furniture beneath it. A painting above a 210 cm sofa will therefore be around 140 cm wide, on its own or as a group. Above a 120 cm chest of drawers, aim for 80 cm.

• A big empty wall calls for a big format. If the budget won’t stretch, three or four small works hung close together fill the same space.
• Measure before you buy: masking tape on the wall in the dimensions of the work, two days to look at it, and you know.

03How high to hang a painting?

The centre of the work at eye level, roughly 145 to 150 cm from the floor. That is the height most hanging follows, for professionals and at home alike. A practice, not a law: if the painting is mostly seen sitting down, go a little lower.

Above a piece of furniture, the work belongs to the furniture, not to the wall. Leave 15 to 25 cm between the backrest or the top and the bottom of the frame. More, and the painting seems to drift away; less, and you knock it when you sit down.

For a group of works, the centre of the group sits at eye level. Before you drill, hold the work against the wall with someone and look from the doorway.

04Light and place: what damages a work

An original work lasts for decades, unless it hangs in the wrong place. Three enemies, always the same.

• Direct sunlight. Colours fade, paper yellows. The sunniest wall in the living room is the worst place for a canvas, even if it is the prettiest.
• Heat. Not above a radiator, never above a stove or a fireplace in use: hot air dries the paint out and cracks it.
• Damp. Bathrooms and cooking areas warp paper and stain canvas. If you really want a work there, choose it small and behind glass.

For anything on paper - drawing, watercolour, photograph, print - a frame with glass is the rule. It keeps out dust and fingers, and UV-filtering glass protects the colours too.

05Room by room: what goes where

Original art for your living room isn’t chosen like a work for the bedroom. One tip per room.

• The living room: the largest format the wall can take, above the sofa or facing it, where your eye lands when you sit down.
• The bedroom: calm colours, a landscape format above the headboard, or facing the bed, for when you wake up.
• The hallway: a small, strong piece, at the eye level of someone standing. It is the first thing guests see.
• The study: a work in your field of vision, not behind the screen. Something for your eye to rest on between two emails.
• The kitchen: away from the hob and the sink, small, behind glass. A work on paper does very well near the table.

06Match without matching

The most common fear: that the work “won’t go” with the rest. It doesn’t have to go with anything. Two routes work, and they are opposites.

• Pick up a colour that already exists in the room - a cushion, a rug, a chair - and find it again in the work. The room looks considered, without effort.
• Go against it. A room all in beige and wood carries a bold work, dark or bright, very well. The work sets the tone, the rest becomes the background.

Frame or bare canvas? A canvas on a deep stretcher can go without a frame: its edges are part of the work. A thin frame, pale wood or black, gives it weight. One large piece or a wall of several? One large format calms a room; a wall of several tells more, with the same gap everywhere, 5 to 8 cm, and a single type of frame.

07Start small, and buy direct

Your first original work doesn’t need to be the biggest or the most expensive. A small format in the hallway or the study teaches you how the light falls at your place, and what you never tire of.

And buy direct, from the person who made it. You meet the artist, you see the real colour and the real size before you pay, and you go home with the work under your arm. No screen replaces that.

That is what arvel organises: a gallery for every Belgian artist, original works, and a handover in person. The price you see is the price you pay, and the artist keeps all of it. The client’s money is held until the handover, and refunded if the work doesn’t match. Art doesn’t travel: we meet.

arvel isn’t open yet. Today the site lets you take your place on the waiting list, nothing more. We would rather write it than let you guess.