Help! I Have Nothing On My Walls!
Ok, so picture the scene (no pun intended!): it’s been years since you’ve painted the living room and you still haven’t hung a thing on the walls. We see this a lot - AND we see many mistakes (picture an 8x10 hanging on a wall with ten-foot ceilings….yikes!). So we’re here to give you some quick, inexpensive, DIY ideas with a bonus guideline at the end about scaling everything properly! Read on for some great ideas, all of them Bee approved!
CLASSIC PAINTING
Of course, the obvious is hanging a classic painting. Have a favorite painting that’s been in the family for years? Build the space around it! Love going to vintage markets? Start shopping for that perfect piece! There are so many different kinds of mediums and colors, the options are endless. The trickiest part is getting the size right (see the end of the article for tips and tricks!) We have some favorite artists that we can always turn to, including Liz Ricketson and Kelly Mason Brookes - check out their work below!
Art by Kelly Mason Brookes
Art by Liz Ricketson
BOTANICALS
You can NEVER EVER EVER EVER go wrong with botanicals - whether as a gallery wall or a single statement!
MIRROR
Another great idea is to hang a mirror. A mirror can help reflect natural light and infinitely brighten a space! Grab a mirror with an interesting frame and paint it a fun color and BOOM! An inexpensive and easy facelift!
GALLERY WALL
It’s time to get out those family photos and start showing off your kiddos! A gallery wall is a great way to do this: try unifying them by printing them all in black and white, or doing a similar frame! Or maybe you have a collection of paintings that you’ve always loved - create a gallery from there!
ARTWORK FOR THE COMMITMENT-PHOBE OR APARTMENT DWELLER
Need some art, but not ready to put a nail in the wall? Or living in an apartment that you simply aren’t allowed to hang anything? Here are some great ideas for you - no nails needed! Try leaning the art against a sideboard. Place a small piece on a bookshelf. Or try layering different sizes above your mantel. There are infinite possibilities!
HANG A MAP OR OTHER MEANINGFUL PHOTOS
Love to travel? How about hanging a vintage map of the places you’ve been or your favorite escape? Or in the photo below, our client framed photos of Washington DC’s famed cherry blossoms, which were meaningful to them - and the pops of pink are oh so pretty with accents sprinkled throughout.
SHOW OFF A TALENTED FAMILY MEMBER
Got a budding artist in the family? Show off their work!
BRING OUT AN ACCENT COLOR
Bring out an accent color with artwork! Check out these examples, the artwork makes quite a color statement!
DETERMINING SCALE
One of the hardest parts of hanging artwork or anything on your walls is the very first step: determining scale. How big should everything be? Well, here are some great tips from The Nest:
Determine your available space: if you have a huge wall, you want to work around your furniture. There is a general rule of covering 2/3 to 3/4 of that area with art. If you have a smaller, bare wall (with no furniture), you can keep the space a bit more open (move on to the next step!).
Do the math: Leave 3/8 of the width of your art on each side of the wall. Say your space is 36 inches wide - you want to look for art that’s 20-21 inches wide. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, as my six-year-old says!
Hang it up: when you get out your hammer and nails - don’t start putting holes in right away! Measure twice, nail once! You want to make sure that your art is approximately at eye-level in most open spaces (average of 60-65 inches from the floor). In your dining room and living room (where you are mostly sitting), hang the art a little lower - still keeping the bottom edge of the frame 6-12 inches above the sofa, table top, or chair rail.
Group it properly: Hanging one large piece can attract your attention (especially if you’re trying to add a pop of accent color to the space!). But if it’s just too empty on the wall, you could hang a gallery of images (vertically if it’s a narrow wall!). Groupings of three or five create a natural center, so start there. To unify them, keep the space between the pieces equal, even if the frames are different sizes.
We hope this inspired you to get our your own hammer and nails! Go shopping! And enjoy the process!!
Got any other ideas for future blog posts? Let us know in the comments below! Many of these articles are inspired by clients, so let us know what burning questions you have! You might just be featured in our next blog post!