Where should I hang my art?

While you might not have the hallowed halls of the Louvre at your disposal, the spot where you choose to hang your art is a crucial component in presenting it effectively in your home. Any burgeoning collector worth their salt will be thinking about the different styles of hanging frames available, or the best type of mount to use for their artwork, but it’s also important to bear in mind its location. Not all rooms are made equally, and chances are you won’t want to hide your latest purchase away in a broom closet — but where should it go?

In this guide, we’ll discuss some potential places to hang your different pieces. For more art framing ideas, you can also have a read of our advice on how to choose the best frame and how to hang your artwork.

Bedrooms

Cosy, personal areas are traditionally decorated with photos of loved ones — and bedroom picture frames with multi-apertures are commonplace. Large collage frames are one popular option to show off family memories or action shots in one singular format, but with space at a premium in our bedrooms, these are better off hung on the walls than crowding limited furniture surfaces.

If you want to display portraits or paintings in their full splendour, the wall space above a bed’s headboard is the ideal location. This way, your most beloved pieces will be the first thing you’ll see in the morning and the last thing you’ll see at night. There’s no better way to pay homage to loved friends, family and artists — all the while creating an eye-catching focal point for your room.

As a note, however, you’ll need to ensure the frame is hung with the correct fixings for its size and weight — and avoid wire hangings for larger pieces to prevent middle-of-the-night breakages! Perspex/Acrylic can be used for glazing to reduce the overall weight on an especially heavy frame.

For the film fanatics or gamers among you, this is also a good spot to hang any bold prints and framed posters honouring your favourite media. Your bedroom is your sanctuary, and you’re free to decorate and personalise it how you see fit — unlike common areas like the lounge that have to fit the tastes of every member of the household, meaning that signed Lord of the Rings poster might be best kept in your personal space.

Bathrooms

One slightly non-traditional picture framing idea is to hang pieces in the bathroom. While it’s not the most obvious spot for art appreciation, it’s one room in the house that receives plenty of thoroughfare from family members and guests alike, and often comes with plenty of practical wall space, with the exception of the areas that could get wet.

Nature-themed prints of landscapes, skies and other more organic subject matter go especially well in the bathroom, helping to soften the textures of chrome and tile, as well as inject some colour into a space that can sometimes end up feeling a little sterile.

However, you should only hang photos and prints here that you can later reprint, in case of any damage over time from heat and humidity. So you can feel confident to experiment and add some flair to the unconventional areas of your home, we advise that you save any valuable, sentimental or protected investment art for the safer spots of the house.

As for frame style, we recommend standard frames that are a little more understated and simple, as bathrooms tend to have less space to work with and you’ll want to avoid overcrowding the walls.

Hallways

Foyers, corridors and the connecting corners and crevices dotted around the house are ideal spots for your more dramatic or abstract pieces of artwork. Being separate from the main hosting rooms of the house, these areas often go unadorned and as a result, unnoticed — but a couple of bolder selections of art can help to embellish and personalise them. For example, placing an eye-catching piece in an entrance hallway is an effective way to create a memorable first impression.

Where you have the space, you might choose a more striking style of edging, such as a selection from our luxury frames range. These opulent styles are the best choice to accent a statement piece, and come in a range of beautiful finishes, from the rubbed gold foil of our Mandarin Frames to the distressed leaf texture of our Prague range.

On the other hand, narrower corridors and stairwells are best suited for low-profile flat frames to save them from getting in the way or being knocked down in passing. In this case, we’d again recommend steering clear of wire hangings and having your pieces securely fixed to the wall. And if you’re going up flights of stairs with your art, measure up first — make sure that your piece can manoeuvre around corners and fit the wall in the orientation it will be hung.
Reception areas
This one might seem a little obvious, we’ll grant you that — it’s only natural to hang your art in the hosting areas of the house where it can be seen and appreciated. But for effective interior design, it’s crucial to get placement right, especially if you’re working with a series of pieces that are best experienced in tandem in bigger areas like kitchens, dining rooms and lounges.

We recommend hanging art so that its middle point is around 55-60” up from the floor, along walls unused by other fixtures like appliances or TVs. This allows the artwork to be appreciated at a comfortable eye level for those of average height. For rooms with particularly high ceilings, you can be more generous and employ a slightly higher hanging point, but you ideally shouldn’t have to tilt your head up at all to look at a piece.

It’s important to be consistent in a room’s hanging point for a clean and cohesive aesthetic, and we always advise using similar framing and mounting styles when hanging as part of a series.

To assist with your interior design needs, we offer a range of framing and printing services at Soho Frames. We’ll even come and professionally hang your artwork, ensuring you get a straight install and the perfect viewing height every time. For more information about how we can help you, contact us today.