The difference between decorating with regular-sized art and larger artwork is that while the former serves to enhance your space, you can often plan your room around the latter. Large scale original paintings, photographs, sculptures, and fine art prints can easily stand by themselves and serve as the centerpiece of the room.
By the same coin, they can also create unexpected outcomes. Because large scale art tends to have an outsized influence on its surroundings, it’s a good idea to put some thought into the kind of artwork you choose, where you install it, and how you showcase it. If you’re considering buying a large piece of artwork for your space or looking for tips to install it, this blog is an excellent starting point for you.
Installing Large Scale Art: How to DIY
If you’re researching how to install a large scale painting or sculpture by yourself, it’s easy to get inundated with confusing advice as well as overlook some crucial things. Here are some basic tips to get you started on the right foot:
Find the Correct Level
Ensure you find the right height to hang your art before you begin boring holes into your wall. There are some tried and tested metrics you can follow for this. Ideally, your large scale art should be hung so that its midpoint is about 60 inches above the floor. If it’s going to be hung in the bedroom or sitting room, leave 8-10 inches between the bottom of the artwork and the headboard or the back of the sofa. Hang it around six inches above the surface of the mantel — unless you intend to place it on the mantel have it lean against the wall.
Use a measuring tape to determine the right height to place your fixings. Mark off your drill spots with a hard charcoal pencil so that it’s easy to erase. Use a step ladder so that you’re stable throughout the process and to ensure you’ve made your markings correctly.
Use a Stud Finder
It’s important to understand the structure of your walls when you’re installing large scale art. They may often have water pipes and electricity lines running through them. In modern homes, these are usually channeled around the edges of the walls, but this isn’t always the case for older houses. If you drill in the wrong spot, you might end up puncturing a pipe or nicking an electric cable.
A stud finder is a device that helps you locate the studs in your walls. Studs are heavy wooden beams that serve as a frame for your whole structure and are better equipped to support heavier objects like a large scale painting.
Pay Attention to Fixings
When hanging any kind of flat artwork, it’s always recommended to use double fixings on either side of the painting, rather than a single, central fixing. This helps prevent your artwork from leaning forward or moving every time someone brushes past.
With large scale art, it’s better to employ slightly bigger fixings than you might think necessary. A couple of screws on a simple plaster wall aren’t likely to support a large painting for very long.
If you’re looking for professional advice to correctly install your new artwork, the art consultants at Marcus Ashley Gallery will be delighted to help you out.
Decorating with Large Artwork
Large scale art is more than just a painting or a sculpture that happens to be oversized. It’s meant to command a space and be an immersive experience. When you’re displaying it, you’ll want to ensure that there’s harmony between the art and its surroundings, so that it’s an intriguing presence rather than a jarring one. The last thing you want is to splurge on a piece of art and display it in a room with a number of other distractions that take away from the effect of your largest showpiece.
Consider some of these ideas when choosing and displaying your new artwork:
Enhance an Accent Wall
An accent wall is often the perfect backdrop for large scale art. It can elevate the effect of an imposing painting or sculpture and together serve as the star attraction in your home. Depending on how impactful your accent wall is to begin with, you could try adding in a minimalistic canvas with neutral hues and large brushstrokes for a timeless feel. You could also use it as a backdrop for a white marble sculpture, using the contrast to accentuate the artwork.
Over the Fireplace
This is a favored place for most people to hang a large scale painting or photograph. It works quite well since a fireplace is often the focal point of a room, especially a sitting room. It can create interesting conversation among your guests, allowing them to appreciate it together. In fact, it’s a great way to ensure that a stunning piece of art doesn’t go unnoticed. Everything from landscapes to abstract artwork and mixed media originals work well for this setting. You could also try placing it on the mantel and lean against the wall for a more eclectic, laid-back vibe.
Above the Sofa
This is another excellent spot in your living room to hang large scale art. If your sofa is set against a blank stretch of wall, try framing it with a large painting. Choose complementary colors paired with pillows and drapes to retain a uniform aesthetic throughout the space.
Against a Stairwell
Have a long stairwell? Give it some character with a large scale painting. Try adding something with narrative or movement, such as a period piece or a mythological depiction, so that your guests can appreciate it better as they’re moving across it.
Over the Bed
This is perhaps the ultimate way to indulge your individuality with large scale art. Since not everyone has access to your bedroom, what you display there has special meaning. Don’t hesitate to be bold and expressive in the artwork you put up — perhaps an imposing portrait or photograph or something that’s personally meaningful to you.
Centerpiece for an Open Space
Sculptures and other large scale art creations are the perfect way to add some character and focus to a big empty space, such as a building’s lobby, your home’s foyer, or a massive hallway in your home. It’s an ideal setting to showcase a sizable sculpture, since people have 360° access to it, with plenty of space to move around and admire all the little details the sculptor would want them to notice.
Explore Large Scale Art at Marcus Ashley Gallery
Marcus Ashley Gallery hosts an extensive collection of large-sized artwork from a range of talented artists. Browse through some of their work below and on our website.
Aleksandra Rozenvain
Aleksandra Rozenvain is a contemporary impressionist. She creates stunning cityscapes and landscapes that showcase some of her favorite settings from around the world. Her art is an interesting mix of a very structured technique and experimentation with her medium of work. She lives in Toronto with her husband Michael Rozenvain, also an established artist featured at Marcus Ashley Gallery.
2Wild
2Wild is a collaborative collection from the brother-sister duo of Barak and Miri Rozenvain. Inspired by their rural upbringing, they’re both drawn to natural and wildlife-oriented themes. Much like their parents, Aleksandra and Michael, they too like to combine unconventional mediums in their artwork. However, their experimentation is much bolder and results in stunning mixed-media large scale art that is a joy to decipher and appreciate.
Jon Paul
Jon Paul’s nature photography is breathtaking in its scope and impressive for the technical skill it showcases. He uses a large format photo film camera to capture his panoramic images and blends it with images from a small digital camera to highlight smaller details and nuances. His large scale art photos are available as both aluminum and paper prints.
Mackenzie Thorpe
Mackenzie Thorpe is an internationally renowned artist from Middlesbrough, UK. His work expresses a range of human emotion, often centering on themes of love and friendship, which he considers the most important thing in the world.
He creates both paintings and sculptures. The latter, in particular, are excellent examples of large scale art, sculpted with metals like bronze and stainless steel.
Boris Kramer
Boris Kramer creates exquisite figurative sculptures that are often larger-than-life. He uses mediums like bronze, steel, copper, and brass. Kramer is fascinated by human relationships and his work often showcases human-like figures engaged in exuberant dance routines, always evoking intensity and dynamism. His large scale art sculptures are perfect additions for open private and public spaces.
Learn More with Marcus Ashley Gallery
If you’re keen on decorating with large artwork, reach out to our art consultants today for help in finding the perfect piece for your space. With our gallery, you have access to a number of services, including home previews and private art shows to give you a sense of what your new large scale art might look like in your space. We also offer excellent financing options as well as annual certificates of replacement value for all your artwork.
