What does art do for a property? It is your conduit. It brings the room and furnishing together. By simply placing the right piece of art in a room, all of a sudden it connects everything.

Whether you are preparing to sell your home, or wanting to update the look of your abode, when it comes to art, there are two ways you can approach your room styling – select the art first and work your room around this; or select your furnishings/accessories/colour tone and then add your art to suit.

First selection is colour.

What will connect with the furnishings or what will contrast to add something to the room?

Second is size.

How big is the wall it is going on? What pieces of furnishings are located below or near it? Are there any other distractions close by? Does the room have high or low ceilings?

Single art or groupings.

Ideally, when doing property staging to sell, single pieces work best as you want a simple non-cluttered feel to the property. Bear in mind if hanging more than one, this will require extra hanging hooks and measuring, which all takes extra time. Sometimes due to the property style and furnishings, a grouping or extra art will be necessary.

If you do not have any suitable pieces of art then purchase cheap frames from your general homewares shops.”

Frames.

Choosing art to be framed or not will depend quite often on the size. If requiring an extra-large piece, generally a canvas without a frame will work best. Two reasons – the frame will often attract the eye instead of the actual art work and secondly, hanging a framed piece of art requires more thought in the actual hanging, due to the weight. For smaller pieces, framed art looks more expensive and up to date. Choosing the right frame though is important. Try and keep it streamlined and simple, whether it is in black, white, silver or wood.  Choosing the right colour frame will depend on your wall paint colour, as well as your style of furnishings. If you do not have any suitable pieces of art then purchase cheap frames from your general homewares shops. These are usually used for photos but can be applied to any sort of prints. They come with the matting board as well.

What to put in the frames.

Remember all you are creating is a look to go with your furnishings. An inexpensive way of doing this is using wallpaper or great images from second hand books. Quite often you can collect wallpaper folders from paint shops or stores that are out of date, at no charge or a small price. If not, you may purchase a roll or a display sheet, depending on the size you are looking for.

How do you do this?

Pick your frame first, remove the mat board and place the board over the sheet with the image. Adjust it to suit the best finished image. Once you have done this place some tape to secure it on the back of the board. Then carefully cut the image along the edge of the mat board. Secure it with more tape or glue. Then place the board and image into the frame. It is now ready to hang. As the photo frames are generally a lot smaller, these sort of images are best in arrangements. Be careful placing a single small frame on any large wall. If you wish to use your new art in your next property – consider purchasing prints online and having them professionally framed.

Placing of art.

This all depends on the style of your home. In modern homes or even high ceiling homes with mantels, placing art to stand on mantels, shelving, tables or even the floor can work. It can be tricky achieving the right look with the sizing and placement. You may need to experiment and then take photos. View the photos and then make adjustments. Be careful hanging, as you do not want to have any holes in the walls unnecessarily. It is best to measure, so get someone to hold the art piece up for you and move it where you think it will look best. If you do not have any help at hand, cut some brown paper (may have to be glued together) in the size of your piece and tape this to the wall where you think it should be placed. Again take photos to see how it looks. When placing art on the walls you will need to consider how high the ceilings are and where furniture is placed. For instance, do not put art behind a chair or lounge, as when seated your head would obstruct the art. Either place it slightly to the side or a bit higher. Generally do not place art too high where it becomes lost in connecting with the furnishings.