Beyond the Gallery: A Guide to Displaying Art in Unlikely Spaces in Your Home
"Dancing with Daisies" - 15" x 30" - Acrylic, oil, oil stick on gallery wrapped canvas with painted sides
Decorating with contemporary art is one of the best ways to express personality, enhance your living space, and evoke emotions in your home. But when it comes to where to display art, it’s common to focus on more traditional spaces—living rooms, dining areas, hallways, and offices. However, many overlook the opportunity to display art in more unconventional spots throughout their homes. These unexpected locations can bring art to life in creative and inspiring ways.
In this guide, we’ll explore the essential tips for displaying art and how to transform unlikely spaces into mini art galleries that elevate your everyday living experience and better connect you with nature, others, and yourself.
Lighting: Bringing Art to Life
Lighting is crucial when Lili creates a painting, so it should be equally important when a collector displays it. Finding the right balance of natural and artificial light is essential for showcasing a painting’s vibrancy and details and ensuring its preservation. By carefully managing lighting in your home, you can enhance your paintings’ visual impact while protecting them.
Which is Better? Natural vs. Artificial Light
Natural Light: Maximizing Daylight While Avoiding Damage
Natural light can beautifully enhance the colors and textures of a piece of art, making it appear more dynamic throughout the day as the light changes. However, prolonged exposure to direct sunlight can harm paintings, causing fading, discoloration, and material degradation over time.
To safely incorporate natural light into your art display, use:
Indirect Natural Light
Position paintings in areas where natural light enters the room but doesn’t hit it directly, which helps to avoid UV damage while still allowing the room to feel bright and open.
Window Treatments
"We All Roll On" - 12" x 28" - Acrylic, oil, oil stick on canvas
Use sheer curtains or UV-filtering window films to diffuse harsh sunlight without entirely blocking natural light. These treatments can reduce the amount of UV exposure, preserving the vibrancy of your artwork.
Artificial Light: Enhancing Your Art After Dark
Artificial lighting is vital to the visual appeal of your art in spaces with limited natural light or during low/no-light times of day. The goal is to provide consistent illumination that highlights the painting's beauty without creating glare or uneven lighting.
Track Lighting and Adjustable Fixtures
Track lighting is ideal because the individual fixtures can be angled to shine light directly onto the art. These lights are handy in hallways or bathrooms with minimal natural light.
LED Lighting
When choosing artificial lighting, opt for LEDs. These are energy-efficient, emit very little heat (which can damage artwork over time), and provide an indirect and consistent light source. LED lights also come in several color temperatures, allowing you to choose warmer or cooler tones depending on the mood you want to set.
Color Temperature
The color temperature of the lighting can significantly impact how a piece is perceived. Warmer light (around 2700K–3000K; the K stands for Kelvin) can create a cozy, intimate atmosphere and complement earthy tones, while cooler light (around 4000K) enhances bright colors and sharpens details. Balance is essential—choose lighting that enhances but doesn’t overpower the artwork’s natural tones.
Avoid Heat and Glare
Ensure your lighting setup doesn’t generate excessive heat, as high temperatures can damage paintings. Recessed lights or fixtures with dimmable settings are great options for controlling the intensity of the light. Avoid placing spotlights too close to the artwork, as intense light can cause glare and hotspots that detract from the piece’s visual impact.
Finding Balance
By balancing the benefits of natural and artificial lighting, you can create an optimal viewing experience that brings out your art's full depth and beauty while protecting it from potential damage.
Distance and Placement
The space between your art and the viewer, or the height at which you hang it, can dramatically change its effect. Whether you are trying to create a cozy, intimate atmosphere or showcase your art as a focal point, these decisions can significantly impact how you and others experience a painting. Art should feel balanced in its space—not too high where it’s disconnected, nor too low where it seems awkward or becomes prone to damage. Thoughtful placement can draw the viewer in, allowing them to appreciate every detail, while poor placement may diminish its presence or even cause discomfort.
At Eye Level
The general rule of thumb is to hang artwork at eye level, about 57-60 inches from the floor; a standard for viewing art in most settings that aligns with the average human eye level, creating a natural viewing experience. To clarify, "eye level" refers to the center of the painting and not the top.
However, if you hang art above a piece of furniture like a sofa or mantel, the key is to create balance. You should hang a painting six to twelve inches above the furniture, still ensuring the center of the artwork is close to that eye-level mark but adjusted for the height of the furniture. Proper placement ensures the artwork doesn’t feel disconnected from the furniture below and maintains a harmonious relationship between the piece and its surroundings.
For oversized or tall pieces, it’s also essential to consider the height of the artwork as a whole, but centering the middle of the piece is the standard method for hanging at eye level.
Grouping Pieces
If you're working with multiple pieces, experiment with different layouts. Gallery walls or grids can add texture and complexity to the space while placing smaller pieces in a vertical line can make a room feel taller.
Adjusting for Unconventional Spaces
Placing the art slightly higher for areas like a foyer or kitchen where space might be tight can prevent accidental damage and create a visual impact.
Scale: Matching Art to Room Size
"Patience in Blooming" - 36" x 60" - Acrylic, oil, oil stick on canvas
Choosing the right-sized painting for a room is essential for creating balance and ensuring the piece enhances rather than overpowers the space. The key to successful art placement is to match the scale of the artwork to the size and feel of the room. Small pieces in a large room may feel lost, while a large piece in a smaller space can feel overwhelming. Striking the right balance will ensure your painting is harmonious with the room’s dimensions.
Large Art in Small Rooms
Feel free to place large artwork in smaller rooms! A bold, oversized piece can create a focal point that draws attention and adds depth to the space, making it feel more expansive. The trick is to ensure that while the piece dominates in a positive way, it doesn’t overwhelm. Leave enough breathing room around the artwork to allow it to stand out without cluttering the space.
Smaller Pieces in Large Rooms
For larger rooms, single small pieces can get lost on expansive walls. Instead, opt for multiple smaller pieces arranged in a cohesive gallery wall or groupings that fill the space adequately. These arrangements can add depth, texture, and personality to large, open walls. Alternatively, you can choose a substantial piece that commands attention and centers the room’s design.
Scale for Furniture
When placing a painting above furniture, like a sofa or bed, the size should correspond to the furniture’s proportions. A helpful guideline is to ensure the painting’s width is about two-thirds the width of the piece of furniture below it, which creates a balanced and connected look. For instance, when hanging art above a couch, make sure it doesn't extend beyond the edges of the sofa.
Aesthetic Matching: Creating Harmony with Your Interior
Art has the power to amplify, complement, or contrast with the design elements in your space, and careful curation ensures a cohesive and visually pleasing result. How a painting interacts with the room’s overall aesthetic can significantly influence its impact. An original painting should enhance a room’s design without feeling out of place.
This doesn’t mean everything must match, but instead, think about how the artwork can blend seamlessly with the room’s color palette and theme or act as a bold statement piece that introduces an element of surprise. Sometimes, a custom painting is the best option for a particular room or area to ensure the artwork feels like a natural extension of the room.
While you may select a painting to match the colors and tones of a room, don’t hesitate to introduce contrast. Vibrant, contemporary abstract paintings can bring energy to a neutral room, while a more subdued, nature-inspired painting will calm a busy space.
Art in Unlikely Spaces
Now, let’s talk about where to break the rules and explore unconventional spaces for your art collection. These areas often get overlooked but can benefit from a creative touch.
Art in the Kitchen
"The Fortune of Family" - 19.5" x 23.5" - Oil on canvas
It’s not often you think of the kitchen as a space for artwork, but incorporating it here can add personality and warmth to the area where many of us spend so much time. Choose spots away from the stove or sink where steam, grease, or spills could harm the art.Art doesn’t always have to be on the wall. Place smaller pieces against the backsplash or on open shelves for a less conventional look.
Bathing with Interest
Bathrooms often get overlooked when decorating, but they offer a unique canvas for art that can enhance the space. Like kitchens, bathrooms can experience higher levels of moisture. Opt for water-resistant frames and materials. Since bathrooms are often places for relaxation, consider art that evokes calm or joy. Simple line drawings or nature-inspired prints work well.
A Welcoming Painting
A foyer is the first space guests see, so it’s the perfect spot to showcase something impactful. Use bold, eye-catching pieces in the foyer to create an inviting atmosphere. Since this is a transitional space, large-scale pieces have an immediate visual impact. Foyers often have tall ceilings, making them great candidates for vertically oriented works or multi-piece gallery arrangements.
Embrace the Unexpected
When you step outside tradition by displaying art in unconventional places, you transform your home into a curated, personalized sanctuary. Unexpected placement in spaces like the kitchen, bathroom, or foyer adds charm and intrigue to your living environment, making it feel more intentional and alive. A colorful painting in your kitchen can inject energy and inspiration into your daily routine, while a sophisticated piece in the bathroom elevates it into a personal retreat. Your foyer, as the first impression of your home, will make a bold statement with the right piece of art, welcoming guests with style and personality.
The key to successfully showcasing art in these unexpected places lies in thoughtful planning—considering lighting, placement, scale, and how the artwork interacts with the surrounding design. With a careful approach, your painting collection can transcend the traditional gallery setting and become an integral part of your home’s aesthetic, changing the most overlooked spaces into focal points of creativity and beauty.
Are you ready to bring a touch of the unexpected into your home? Explore Lili's gallery of original paintings, where you'll find an inspiring collection of contemporary abstract paintings to suit any traditional or unconventional space. If you have a unique spot in mind, fill out a commission form and let Lili create a custom piece tailored for that particular, often-overlooked corner of your home. Bring art into every part of your life, and let it inspire your everyday living.
