Selection and placement of paintings: 10 secrets by the interior designers

Almost no room is not considered as complete without decorating the interior with paintings, engravings, art panels or photographs. Interior with painting is a whole image of every room.


This seemingly simple element of decoration adds the space needed focus, energy and sets the tone. But it can be only with proper selection and placement on the wall! For your attention some designer’s secrets of creating highest harmony in interior through paintings. They will help to solve arising in this case two important issues: how to choose a picture? and how to hang it?

The secrets of correct picture selection:

How to hang a picture?

If you select painting, you stayed on the canvas with large picture or just large, it is very important to consider that these canvases guarantee the best view due to the distance of a few meters. Besides, performed in bright active colors large canvas is quite able to change the perception of the interior as a whole. This picture is perfect for spacious rooms (e.g. for living room of too overall bedroom), as it can help to reduce the space visually.

When choosing a picture, you should also pay attention to horizontality or verticality of its performance. Elongated horizontal pictures, art panels have the visual ability to elongate walls, while the vertical pictures increase the height of ceilings. Horizontal canvases look organically over the bed, the sofa in the living room or commode. Vertical canvases are perfect for narrow walls.

If the wall you intend to hang the picture has too impressive texture of the surface, or bright painting, place the canvas in the wide-brimmed passe-partout. Its broad fields will play in important «protective» role: fine artwork details, soft color transitions will not be lost on the background of speckled patterns or active textured wall.



The secrets of correct placement of the picture:


How to hand the picture vertically?

There is a universal technique of the placing pictures on the wall. For proper hanging horizontal pictures visually a parallel line, passing at 2-3cm above the bottom age of picture (not the frame, and the picture!), and place the picture on the wall to this line was at a glance.

The same principle works in the case of vertical pictures with the high ceilings. If the ceilings are low, the parallel line should be a little bit higher – 6-7cm from the vertical edge of your vertical picture.
As the rule, large and medium format pictures look great in the interior, if you place them so that the center of picture was at an eye level of the standing human. The optimal height is 1,6m from the floor.

Photographs, etchings, engravings, small pictures on the wall should be just below the eye level, approximately 1,5m from the floor. Try to place such illustrations so, that it is easy to consider them from a close distance (no further than 1m).

An important aspect of determining optimal distance for viewing pictures is also a technique of its performance. For example, an impressionistic painting (written in large strokes) requires compliance with the certain rule: the largest side of picture, multiplied by 3, - that should be the minimum distance from the viewer to the picture.

Some pictures (usually this applies to painting, written in the classical technique, framed in massive frame) require special attention. You must have a large enough space to hang such picture, as she, most likely, will not benefit the neighborhood pieces of furniture or other art paintings.

If your chosen interior pictures are small size and the wall in room is big enough, it is best to arrange them around most liked. Be sure to match group of «related» pictures, similar in theme, color scheme or style of writing. So, it could be easily a combination of painting, performed in watercolor technique and oil that have one color scheme and theme.

For group consisting of various pictures, it is undesirable to hang large paintings over small painting. Otherwise, the top pictures will «suppress» the pictures below visually with their mass.

In any case, do not place pictures on the wall in order of decreasing or increasing their size, so to speak «for growth» – this is the sign of bad taste. For pictures of the same size is quite interesting, when they are hanging on the wall on different levels. However, if you doubt in your design abilities, you can use the simple solution – hang the pictures in a row on the same distance from each other.

In the group of three pictures, it is necessary to consider that one should be the main attracting attention in the middle. All known old-fashioned method of grouping – the so-called tapestry hanging, when the whole wall completely packed with pictures. This placement often choose for photographs. Remember, whatever grouping you chose, begin to make composition on the floor. The «floor» result will appreciate – carry your picture «gallery» on the walls without fear.