Kate Hart

Selecting and hanging art in a room can be fun or frustrating, depending on how you look at it. Art doesn’t have to be expensive, and I like to mix up the “originals” with other items to add texture and feeling to the walls. Here are some tips for hanging your favourite “art” pieces.

• Lay out your art pieces on the floor and arrange them until you are really satisfied with how they flow.
• A mirror with an interesting frame makes a great art piece, adds texture to the wall and reflects light to brighten the space.
• Beautiful plates of different sizes and shapes can create a welcoming touch to an empty wall. Use plates in the same colour against a darker wall for a more dramatic effect.
• Hang multiple pictures in the same frame style and size. The pictures can be different subjects, colours or sizes. Simple black frames are a great choice when using this technique.
• Add a piece of iron, a wall candle holder or other interesting object into the mix.
• Use negative space.... the place you don’t hang a picture. This can be matching the distance between the pictures or empty spots in a collage that are the same shape and size as a framed picture.
• Mimic the shape of the wall. If you have a narrow, tall space, hang multiple small pictures in tall rows or two tall pictures beside each other.
• Mount a shelf or a plate rail and layer objects and pictures to create a unique display. Lean some of the pictures against the wall and each other. Create little displays in sets of three or 5, but don’t overcrowd the shelf.
• Hang a row of pictures horizontally to create a casual feel and widen the look of a room. Make sure that the top of the pictures are all at the same height.
• For a formal look, hang larger pieces close together and vertically on the wall. This increases the visual height of the room.
• Make sure your art is hung so there is a comfortable viewing height. This is generally considered to be 5’-6”, or “eye” height.
• For a modern sleek feel, hang art low on the wall with the tops at the same level. This has great visual impact when the pictures are simple black and whites framed all the same.
• Frame an interesting child’s art piece from school in a decorative frame and add it to the mix.
• Light it up with picture lights or directional lights from the ceiling.
• To add to a casual feel, hang two pieces beside each other at different heights.
• And don’t forget to hang real art in your washroom. Washrooms deserve some glamour too.

Be creative with whatever art you hang. It doesn’t need to match each other or the colours of the room. It just needs to be hung on the wall.

Toronto-based interior designer Kate Hart has designed the insides of Northerners' homes, picking the right colours, cupboards and tables.