It’s not just about how beautiful the art is – how you hang and arrange it on the wall can double its visual value.
Apartments present a particular set of challenges for pulling off amazing art displays due to their architectural features and compactness.
That’s why we’ve produced this tailored guide for apartment dwellers.
If you don’t know where to begin in your effort to decorate an apartment with wall art, read on and prepare to be enlightened from start to finish.
Use a door frame like a picture frame
Some apartments have pointlessly short hallways, but this opens up an opportunity to view your art through a different lense.
If you have yourself a short hallway with a blank wall at the end of it, try to display a piece that matches the dimensions of the door frame.
This way, your wall art has an additional frame or border – one that changes depending on where you are standing, which gives you a unique perspective of the works.
Use quiet colors for those oversized pieces
Small to medium sized pictures and paintings can be as bold and colorful as you like, but not so when it comes to wall-sized art.
Apartments are fairly confined spaces and so it doesn’t take much to overpower the scheme and throw everything off-balance.
The bigger the piece, the more muted its colors should be.
Go with the direction of travel
It shows good design sense to hang artwork in a manner that complements the flow of the space.
Those long hallways that run down the side of the apartment? Grab a lengthy art piece and hang it horizontally.
Why? Because doing so will make walking down the hallway an aesthetically pleasing experience.
If you’re in the market for a handsome hallway mirror, the same rule applies.
Arrange in rows for a formal look
There are two main reasons why you don’t often see a row of artwork lined up perfectly along apartment walls.
Firstly, it’s expensive and quite time-consuming to gather art in the exact same frame size. Secondly, it requires more precision to hang them properly.
That’s probably why rows are more common in stately environments, as they have the resources to achieve this really classy look.
Fill dead space with wall art
A lot of people seem to forget that art takes up a considerable amount of visual space and very little physical space.
This means you can display your favorite pictures, paintings and photographs in awkward, tight spots without affecting the sense of space.
The area above the kitchen sink is a perfect example, what with many apartments having windowless kitchens.
Stagger art to create extra interest
Two pieces of art hung side by side are at risk of being read as one piece, especially when the subject matter is similar.
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to ensure both pieces attract the individual attention they deserve.
By hanging one piece lower or higher than the other – a method known as staggering – you take the eye in different directions which makes the whole arrangement more interesting.
Hang art over furniture for some segmentation
Chances are your apartment is open-plan, which means you don’t have the privilege of designated rooms for every task.
Usually it’s the dining room that’s missing from the floor plan, and so you’re left eating at the table in a sea of open space.
By decorating the dining table with similar-sized wall art, you help to carve out a designated space for eating and the table no longer looks or feels lost at sea.
Throw in some leaning art
There’s no rule that says artwork must be hung flush on the wall at all times, you know?
Getting in the habit of leaning art is a great way to expand your decor styling repertoire, not least because it’s elegantly casual.
If you want the best of both worlds then lean a small piece against a larger wall-hung piece.
Bookend your bed
It’s long been documented that symmetrical faces are deemed more attractive, so it’s no surprise that symmetrical art arrangements are also easy on the eye.
The bed is one of the best places to put some symmetry into practice because everyone loves matching bedside tables.
By hanging matching art pieces on both sides, you effectively bookend the bed and enhance that wonderful symmetrical effect.
Put together a randomized gallery wall
Doing things without rhyme or reason requires very little skill or effort. But that’s precisely why the gallery wall is as popular as it is!
If you have a random assortment of artwork at your disposal then you have everything you need for a successful gallery wall.
It’s the perfect solution for decorating a large volume of wall space and the result is always the same: a beautifully organic focal point.
Intersect a shelf
A clever way to garner attention for your art is to give it the appearance of gatecrashing the aesthetic.
Maybe you have a number of shelves on the wall, in which case you could intersect them with an art placement that breaks up the lines.
Keep in mind that shelves left bare will have heightened impact, as the eye isn’t distracted by other decor pieces.
Color coordinate to tie the room together
Lots of different objects contribute to a room’s color scheme, and that’s a good thing, but only if they’re contributing colors of similar tones.
Unless you want your apartment to look like a venue for children’s parties, it’s time to establish a color theme to make the space feel cohesive.
Look around and you may find that there’s already a commonality of color which you can build upon with your choice of wall art.
Go crazy with different colored picture frames
A judicious approach to picture frames, at least from a color perspective, can help emphasize the qualities in your pictures.
But not everyone has time for that, especially if you’re decorating your apartment walls with large groupings of art.
In this case, feel free to be somewhat whimsical with the color of your picture frames, as they don’t carry much visual weight and therefore there’s no risk of hurting the color scheme.
Unify a two-tone wall
The two-tone wall is very divisive (no pun intended) but when done well it can win over hearts and minds with its traditional charm.
As for how to arrange art on two-tone walls, it depends on where the colors meet.
If the boundary line occurs anywhere near your natural sight line when stood up, then it’s wise to place your art on the boundary so you know it’s not hung too high or too low.
Punctuate a striped wall
Unlike two-tone walls, a striped wall is likely to feature a block of color that runs through your sight line.
This means your art placement becomes more obvious.
Select a piece that stands out against the stripe, place it neatly between the lines, and just like that you’ve added heaps of dimension to the scene.
Run it vertically to show off a tall ceiling
When getting the measure of the size of a space, we tend to look at floor space rather than room height.
In fact, in everyday life we look around us way more often than we look up, which is a shame if you are fortunate to have an apartment with tall ceilings.
You can use art to call attention to how high the ceiling is. Simply hang it vertically so that the eye is naturally drawn upward as it studies the piece.
Try out a mix of decor
Ensembles of wall art such as gallery walls can make a big impact. But there comes a point where adding more art doesn’t add to the aesthetic.
If your gallery wall runs out of mileage, look to other forms of decor for a touch of diversity. Mirrors are great as you can throw in a round design to offset those straight-sided picture frames.
Better yet, have a go at obstructing the aesthetic with a swing arm wall light in a contrasting color, and enjoy the sense of depth and dimension that follows.
Use furniture for a sense of scale
Maybe you’re in possession of a true work of art, but it’s not quite large enough to succeed as a focal point.
The trick is to display it near furniture so that the viewer can make a size comparison.
And given that you want your masterpiece to appear as prominent as possible, use a small piece of furniture underneath to create a top-heavy look that flatters the art.
Get a grid going
If you don’t understand the hype around gallery walls, your tastes are probably better suited to a clean-lined arrangement.
It doesn’t get much more clean lined than the grid format, and the results speak for themselves when you stand back and find that the shape of the pieces work together to create a bigger invisible shape.
Jump in with a triangle formation
Putting groups of three into a triangle shape checks lots of boxes.
The lack of clean lines means you can get away with utilizing pieces of different sizes. And it’s essentially an extension of the staggered effect we talked about earlier, so each piece sticks out on their own merits.
All this combined makes triangle formations a seriously beginner-friendly option for decorating your apartment with wall art.
Create a waterfall of wall art
Everyone else hangs art individually – put your apartment in a class of its own by raising the stakes with how you display wall art.
In other words, hang multiple works together (or join them up to give the impression they are).
The end result is a spectacular art display with a unique cascading effect that’s sure to get people pointing and talking.
Use door frames as a reference point
Yet again, doorways can play a key role in how you hang and arrange art on your apartment walls.
When placing art next to the door, make sure the top of the artwork is level with the top of the door frame.
Not only will this create an element of continuity in terms of lines, it’s guaranteed to set your art at a comfortable height.
Hang art low to warm up a large space
You can also rely on wall art to transform an overly spacious apartment into a warm, friendly and sociable setting.
The main thing is to not let your art distance itself from you otherwise it will look untouchable, which isn’t a friendly quality.
Rather, the art should be hung low and close to key floor-standing furniture like armchairs and sofas to bring about that snug feel we all crave.