Bringing the right fine art photographs to the right setting can make your office or home environment more visually interesting and emotionally satisfying. A single image, grouping of several images or a large mural can add color, mood, dimension and energy to any interior and provide interest to key focal points. Do you want to create the illusion of greater space, or, add “windows” where none existed and bring the outdoors in? This guide will cover many ways of arranging, displaying and lighting your wall art to get maximum dramatic effects.
Art on walls goes back tens of thousands of years to our human ancestors painting what was important to them on the walls of caves such as Lascaux. Things are essentially the same: our pictures still reflect our environment and the people who live there.
Artists, interior designers and galleries often advise people to buy the highest quality of art they love and that makes them feel good. Do not purchase art necessarily because it blends into a room, but because it makes the statement you want to make, while integrating with other interior design elements.
To ensure you and your clients and guests will enjoy your own art gallery for years to come, be sure your fine art is properly framed and preserved using fine art conservation methods and materials.
How can you figure out what wall art to display where? Here are some quick guidelines.
- Clustering small pieces together in an organic fashion creates stronger visual impact than hanging them individually in a more scattered arrangement.
- The display of your fine art is as individual a statement as the art itself. If a particular wall art piece is where you want it, so you can experience it from a certain spot or daily when you wake or walk by, then that's the place for it.
- Often overlooked places for fine art prints include: kitchens, dining areas, hallways and stair ways.
Some suggestions for the types of photographic and other wall art by room:
Entry Way, Living Room, Great Room, Reception Area
Fine art in these areas set the tone, and feeling and make the initial statement about your home or company. They should make a strong, pleasing statement and pull people into the space. Excellent choices here include: large prints of brighter, colorful subjects such as floral close-ups, dramatic landscapes, cultural subjects and events, dramatic wildlife moments and abstracts. These are also excellent places for art groupings of two or more subject related art prints.
Office Areas
The tensions and stress of the workplace can be relieved with an appropriate mixture of photo prints such as tranquil landscapes and calm wildlife scenes, florals and plants. Wall art in an office setting enhances the environment and experience both for the people who work there and their clients. Wall art that is personal in nature is often best displayed in the individual’s own office.
Waiting Rooms, Medical Offices, Hospital Commom Areas and Patient Rooms
Calming, land and sea scapes, florals, abstract patterns from nature and serene wildlife images help reassure and take a patients mind off of anxieties or pain.
Dining Rooms
Create a dramatic or calming mood with fine art nature photographs that broaden the visual dimensions of the room. Landscapes, florals, and nature abstracts are effective wall art that can compliment colors and textures in the room.
Bedrooms
Flowers, birds, hot air balloons, land and sea scapes with cooler or more neutral colors such as blues, browns and green create a calm, restful environment and open up a room bringing nature from the outside in.
Child’s Room
Bright, colorful and playful subjects are a natural for the occupants and activities here. Subjects could include: favorite animals or cars, carosels, florals and hot air balloons.
Hallways
Hallways are excellent places to show your families history and personality through photographs and paintings. The details in small prints can be appreciated close-up and photograph groupings can be very effective and grow over time. The layout of the pictures can be informal and asymmetrical.
Kitchen
Excellent location for bright flowers, images of vegetable and fruit markets and nature abstracts. Often narrow wall spaces can be filled with a column of multiple prints that tell a story about the subject.
Stairways
Stairways can be great places to show off groups of fine art photographs and a location you will go by often. Any subject type of art that reflects your life and interests is a good choice. Make sure you choose lighter-toned fine art or that the stairway is well lit.
Between two windows or between a window and a door
Narrow spaces are a natural for either long verticals or photographic prints stacked atop one another. Close-ups, floral and natural abstracts do well. When using small photos, simple yet strong graphic compositions work best.
Breakrooms and Bathrooms
Breakrooms and bathrooms are usually smaller spaces that lend themselves to delicate close-ups, such as flowers and nature abstracts. Provide adequate ventilation for bathrooms, however, as high humidity is harmful to fine art photographs and other art prints.
Scenic and nature photography is adaptable to any home or office wall decor situation. Because of the many vibrant colors, textures and subjects nature and scenic photography can relate well most interior design schemes. An outdoor landscape can relieve a dull office wall, or brighten the emotional spirits of a hospital patient. Colors can be vibrant or subdued and tranquil. Realistic or impressionistic abstracts derive beauty and graphic impact from line, color and form. Nature photographs and paintings can be appreciated by all. They create an environment that is entertaining, beautiful, friendly and dynamic.
Fine art photographs that contain a color or two in the surrounding environment will integrate well into the display space. Avoid excessive color matching like having the art, frame or mat colors all closely match a wall or couch. These kinds of matches camouflage the art and make it disappear instead of having its own prominence. Lighter toned frames generally compliment lighter toned art. The same is true for darker toned frames and art. Arete Art has chosen frames that compliment our fine art nature photographs universally, so you can concentrate more on matching to any existing styles. By using similar frame colors, new and existing pieces of fine art can be visually tied together, but this is not mandatory, especially for an eclectic look.
Photographic Fine Art Groupings
A group of wall art images should have a personality of its own and be well integrated and proportioned for the wall space and room. Grouping a number of small images together, usually works better than spacing them widely apart. Using narrower frames for art groupings can also help to pull the individual art images closer together for a greater sense of unity.
When creating wall art groupings, select frame styles that are compatible with each other and the room's décor. Using frame and mat styles and colors that are similar will help tie all the fine wall art pieces together visually.
Expanding a Room
By hanging a large landscape art print with a faraway horizon in a small room the illusion of greater depth is created. Landscapes can literally be windows to outside worlds. Large, framed mirrors can also create a greater sense of depth as well.
Next Page: A Plan for your Wall Art and the Art of Visual Balance and Alignment
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