Definitely one large horizontal art piece over the couch and one vertical large or multiples over the console, will there be a tv in this room as that would make a difference. Your place is lovely.

There will be no TV above that console. It's just for music listening.

When you say a large horizontal...is this wider than the couch? Almost as wide as the couch?

@Idaclaire - I just love how your art is independent of your "style", but just "goes" with what you have. I'm probably not saying this correctly, but it's wonderfully appealing.

Delilah, what a kind thing to say! Thank you so much. :-)

For over your couch I would suggest slightly less wide than the couch, 4-6 inches shorter at least at either end. Make sure you don't hang it too high; it needs to have some relation to the couch.

I personally also like the gallery look where you have a group of smaller pictures for either over the couch or the console. It's all a matter of personal taste. I love IdaClaire's art in her space, but am a little more in tune with multiple pictures for some of my walls. In some areas, of course, only one picture looks just right. The most important thing of all is to choose only art you truly love. e-bay has a lot of original art that is not outrageously expensive. You have a beautiful room and you don't want to cheapen that elegant look with mass-produced art. One nice thing is that your room will look classy even if you have children because the art is mostly out of reach of little fingers.

I think it depends on the art, your style and what kind of statement you want to make. I think this is a great place to start to get an idea of some ways to fill the space:

Does ceiling height have anything to do with it? A horizontal piece close to the width of the couch will not be very tall....leaving much empty wall space above. Something square, or rectangular in a vertical orientation, will consume the empty wall space. Is this what I should aim for?

I think you have to consider it, but you don't have to fill the vertical space. You live in the 6'-7' part of the room, and mostly you will be sitting in the room, so you want it to relate in that way, unless you do a very large statement piece. I'd spend some time on Houzz and Pinterest or just google images for "art above sofa" and see what appeals to your eye.

If you look at the drawing in my other post you can see the height/width proportions; I think those would work, regardless of the ceiling height. It would look odd (imo) to go much higher than those examples, even if you have a very high ceiling. High pieces would probably appear to float up there, although there are some very creative art displays doing exactly that. But I kind of think you need to really know what you are doing to pull it off. Like this:

Here is one where you can see the art is much shorter than the wall, but it looks good:

I've also been hunting for large art to hang over my sofa. But, holy geez, art that large gets expensive fast! I'm looking for at least a 60"x40". I've been stalking art.com, etsy and icanvas looking for a good deal. Minted has beautiful art but they only have prints, not canvases, and the cost of just framing something that size is $400 to $600. Does anyone else have suggestions for reasonably-priced art?

Also, the advice I've read says to choose art that is 1/2 to 2/3 the length of the sofa and hang it 6-8" above the sofa.

Get some rolls of paper, or big pieces of cardboard and try out different sizes and arrangements of pieces you have or are thinking of getting. Tape it up and see what it looks like for balance.

Keeping the art - whether it's a single piece or a cluster of small ones - visually about the same size (give or take a few inches) as the furniture or furniture plus accessories.

The common mistakes are:

• Art work too small for size of space or furniture, looks timid and lost

• Art hung too high and looks "floaty"

• Art hung too far apart in a cluster, Looks skimpy.

• Incoherent frame or art choices in a cluster ... this one is hard to explain, but there should be a commonality that the viewer can spot in the pieces.
  Similar subjects with disparate frames, similar framing unifying disparate subjects, colors across the cluster. Sometimes it the "odd man out" - one picture is just not helping support the group.

I've also been hunting for large art to hang over my sofa. But, holy
geez, art that large gets expensive fast! I'm looking for at least a
60"x40". I've been stalking art.com,
etsy and icanvas looking for a good deal. Minted has beautiful art but
they only have prints, not canvases, and the cost of just framing
something that size is $400 to $600. Does anyone else have suggestions
for reasonably-priced art?

Consider textiles ... a quilt or woven hanging.

Or frame a panel of wallpaper or stretch pretty fabric over a home-made stretcher.

And thrift stores often have BIG frames with crap art. Buy a pair and frame up a poster you really like.

Socal, also consider two or three smaller pieces to fill the space instead of one large one.

I can't recall who it was, but I think several years ago someone on
this board found thrift store art, covered the canvas with neutral paint
and painted some of her own abstract art. If I recall, I don't think
she was an artist, but they turned out great. I mean how hard could a
Pollock be? Or think about a diy collage on canvas...or....

And keep your eyes on Craigslist - I see cheap art (for the frames) there, too.

I really like the wrapping paper idea here, for a large piece:

DIY art ideas