SoloWorkStudio

If you enjoy having a beautifully decorated  home, you've probably felt frustrated when confronted with a large blank wall that, as yet, still stands undecorated. Where do you start? Pieces of cherished art wait nearby, bright and beautiful but sadly unused. Take heart, there is a right way to hang art.
How high should a painting be hung on the wall? What colors should I use as accents? How do I decide what goes where?

Artwork, in general should be hung so that the center point of the painting or group of paintings is approximately at eye level for the average person. Most people hang their artwork too high on the wall. Some situations make it impossible to follow the “eye level” rule, but it's still a good guideline to keep in mind.

Try to relate the size of the art to the size of the wall. Choose smaller paintings for narrow walls and larger works for big wall spaces. If you have a large space to fill and own many small pictures you can also create a grouping to fit the scale of the wall.

Think about relating the size of the artwork to the size of the furniture in your room, the scale of each individual piece should work together with all the other pieces. When hanging a painting over a piece of furniture, it should not generaly be longer than the width of the furniture. Try to keep art size within 75% of the size of the furniture piece that it hangs above. Hang artwork so that it reads as part of a grouping, relate artwork to the furniture below it. For example, when hanging a painting over a table, the bottom of the frame should sit approximately 4-8" above the tabletop
 
Use lighting to highlight artwork so that you can see it. It sound like such a simple concept, and it is. Illuminating your artwork by using track or spot lights gives it importance, and makes the art collection or painting that much more dramatic.

Use the art shelf option. Art shelves are an economical way to add interest to a wall while taking up very little space. Artwork can be hung on the wall over the shelf or placed directly onto the shelf with other objects d’art.

If buying artwork to place in a mostly finished room, pick paintings that are in keeping with the mood and theme of your room's decor.
Evaluate your space, is your decor vibrant, or neutral? What is the style of your furniture, casual, formal, modern, or traditional? These can be clues that will help you to find the type of artwork that will compliment the color and style of your room. If you have a flair for decorating it is possible to successfully mix styles to create contrast, but there must still be some common element that ties the objects in the room together.

Look to art as Inspiration. If your are looking for a starting point for a room,  find paintings that inspire you and use their themes and colors as the foundation for choosing other decorative elements in the room.

Landscape art is a great way to visually open up a smaller space. The view of a distant horizon acts as a "faux window" giving the impression of a faraway vista on a n otherwise windowless wall.

Be sure to hang paintings securely using picture hooks rated for the weight of the artwork or object to be hung. Attach heavy pictures to hooks that have been installed into wall studs or with specialized drywall hangers. If you are unsure about picture hanging hardware or its installation, ask for advice at the hardware store. Nothing ruins a work of art quicker than falling of the wall.

A pair of pictures is always visually pleasing. To harmonize a set of pictures, be sure to have some aspect of the paintings similar to each other, be it subject matter, style, size or framing. This brings unity and flow to the decor, to many dissimilar items in a room can appear “junky” or mismatched.

A useful picture hanging technique is to group paintings together, such a grouping would be thought of as one unit. Try to arrange the paintings by laying everything out on a large surface, reconfigure combinations until you find one that works. It would also be a good idea lay them out on a large piece of paper, you can then trace around each object to determine where picture hangers should be installed. Tape the paper on the wall as a template for picture hanger locations.
 
When it comes to hanging art in your own space the above guidelines should be considered as a starting point. Look at professionally decorated rooms for ideas on how art can change the look of a space. Home decor magazines are a great source for inspiration. When all is said and done the key is to start with great art....that’s were I come in :-)