Guide
The best framed art for a living room
Most living rooms have one wall that everyone faces: the one behind the sofa, over the fireplace or across from the windows. Whatever hangs there sets the tone of the room, so it is worth choosing for that wall rather than buying something you like and finding a place for it afterwards.
This guide works from the wall outward: size first, then subject, then frame. Every picture mentioned is a framed print you can order here, and each one links to its own page with sizes and prices.
Start with the size
The simplest rule is two-thirds. Over a sofa, a picture (or a pair) about two-thirds the width of the sofa looks anchored; much smaller and it floats, much wider and it crowds the arms. On an open wall, use two-thirds of the wall's width and keep the picture's long side under about half the wall's height. The wall size calculator does the arithmetic for your sofa or wall and shows works at the size it recommends.
Hang the bottom of the frame roughly 8 to 10 inches above the back of the sofa. On an open wall, put the centre of the picture near eye level; most galleries use about 57 to 60 inches from the floor. Our sizes are named by the long side of the printed picture, and the frame adds its own width on every side, so allow a little more wall than the number suggests.
Two-thirds of a typical 84-inch sofa is 56 inches, wider than a single Large print. One Large picture still works there, with a little more wall around it, or you can hang two Medium prints side by side with a 4-inch gap, which comes to 52 inches.
| Size | Long side | Framed, shipped | Works offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large | 36 in | $300 | 935 |
| Medium | 24 in | $150 | 1,128 |
| Small | 20 in | $100 | 1,140 |
A big landscape over the sofa
Wide nineteenth-century landscapes were painted to be looked into, and they hold a big wall better than almost anything else. Albert Bierstadt's Sunrise, Yosemite Valley and Frederic Edwin Church's The Heart of the Andes both run wide, with a deep view and a lot of sky, which suits the long, low space over a sofa. Thomas Cole's View on the Catskill, Early Autumn is gentler and warmer, and John Constable's The Hay Wain swaps mountains for an English farm and a cart in the river.
These prints are made from museum scans of the original canvases, so at Large the brushwork and the small figures painters tucked into their scenes stay part of the picture. There are many more in the Hudson River School and mountain paintings collections, and across all landscapes.
The sea
Sea pictures suit a living room because their horizon echoes the long line of a sofa or a mantel. Winslow Homer's Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) is all wind and sunlight on a small sailboat. Ivan Aivazovsky's The Ninth Wave is the opposite mood: survivors clinging to a broken mast after a night storm, under a gold sunrise. Fitz Henry Lane's Boston Harbor, Sunset is calm and glowing, and easy to live with.
Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise, the painting that gave Impressionism its name, is softer and more intimate, and it is as good on a narrow wall or a reading corner as on the main one. More in ships and sailing, beach and coast and the beach house gift guide.
Photographs for a modern room
In a spare room with clean lines, a black-and-white photograph can sit better than an oil painting. Lunch atop a Skyscraper, taken in 1932 high above Rockefeller Center during its construction, is the classic, and its landscape shape suits a sofa wall. Berenice Abbott's Manhattan Bridge is tall and graphic, better on a narrow wall beside a window or a bookcase.
For colour without paint, NASA's Earthrise from Apollo 8 is square and Hubble's Pillars of Creation is nearly square, so both work as a single picture over a console or between two windows. See the New York City photographs, Earth from space and Hubble and Webb collections.
Pairs and series
Two or three pictures side by side fill a wide wall without one huge print, and they look intentional when they belong together. Thomas Cole painted series meant to be seen in order. The three paintings of The Voyage of Life offered here, Childhood, Manhood and Old Age, hang well as a row at one size.
Two seascapes by the same painter, or two Yosemite views by Bierstadt, make an easier pair than two unrelated pictures. Keep the frames the same, hang them at the same height, and leave about 4 inches between them so they read as one piece.
Choosing the frame
Every print comes framed, in one of two styles. Black Metallic, the default, suits photographs, space images and modern rooms, and it lets an old painting look contemporary. Wood Ornament is an ornate antique-gold frame, the kind these paintings hung in when they were new; it suits a traditional room, or one with warm wood and brass. If you are unsure, black goes with more furniture.
Each piece is printed on matte cotton paper and framed to order, with free shipping within the US and delivery in 14 to 21 days. Works are only offered at sizes their files print sharply, so a few smaller scans stop at Medium or Small; the print-big guide shows how large the best-known paintings go. For help with the numbers, read how to choose a print size.