5 Top Tips On Getting The Size Of Your Artwork Right
When buying an artwork for a room, it definitely is a case of Size Matters! We see it time and time again, where a collector will buy an artwork that is too small for their wall, and feel disappointed. That’s why we have put together our 5 Top Tips on getting the size right, to help you Go Big and Go Bold!
1) Bigger Is Better:
Always go as big as you can, you won’t regret it, after all, you are investing in a WOW factor for your room! There is nothing worse than buying an artwork , hanging it, and stepping back only to see that it looks lost on your wall. You want your artwork to make a statement, so be bold!.
2) Consider The Room:
Take a look at the size of the room. Do you have high ceilings? What is the room used for? Do you have furniture to take into account? Don’t be put off by thinking your room is small, a big artwork makes a room seem bigger!
Measure your wall and then mock up an ‘artwork template’ out of paper to give you an idea of the size to look for. Ideally, the artwork should take up ⅔ to ¾ of the wall space. again, go as BIG as you can!
3) Orientation:
How you hang your artwork depends on your ceiling height and whether you want it to go over a piece of furniture or in a dining room.
Rooms with high ceilings and tall, narrow walls will favour portrait (vertical) artworks, to echo the wall shape. An artwork hung on this wall will draw the eyes up towards the ceiling and is more of a visual full stop.
Rooms with lower ceilings will work best with long landscape (horizontal) artworks, for instance above a sofa or along side a dining table, and will draw your eye along the room. This is particularly usefull in a hallway.
4). Get The Positioning Right:
The positioning of an artwork also determines the size. The most important rule is that an artwork is hung with the center of the artwork at eye level. This applies to artwork hanging in a dining room too, except that the eye level is lower as the artwork will be mostly viewed whilst sitting down.
A rule of thumb for an artwork hanging over a sofa should be ¾ the width of the sofa and hung approximately 15-30cm above the back of the sofa.
5). One Verses Many:
There are other ways to fill a wall if you don’t want to go with the one big wow factor artwork, although BIG definitely brings WOW! You could have a diptych (2) or triptych (3) artworks by the same artist hanging together on the same wall. These would be hung horizontally, or if going for more smaller artworks, could be grouped together and hung grid style to form a portrait or landscape orientation (as a big artwork would).
We hope that these 5 Top Tips have given you some things to consider when you next buy an artwork. don’t forget, Go Big and Go Bold! Why not check out the wow factor large lartworks by our artists Rod McIntosh, Fintan Whelan, and Stephen Whatcott now!