Software
Houzz Logo Print
acody99

Hanging Wall Art/Sofa location

7 years ago

Hello. First off, yes, I know my curtains are too far off the ground. I'm going to fix that. So, we are about to finally hang some art on the wall after nearly a decade in our home. We have a piano in our living room and as pianos are not supposed to be against outside walls it sits against the wall that otherwise the sofa would best fit. Our sofa is sits between a full length window and a wall, with a side table and lamp. My gut feeling is I should just embrace this location and hang the art 8" above the sofa, perhaps with a bit more space between the two woodcuts than in the photo I'm sharing, and center the pair over the sofa. But I'd love to get feedback from folks with more experience than me. For the record, I took these photos at night and lightened them up on my iPhone. In reality, the pillows, chairs and lamps all compliment each other more than in these photos. I made a panoramic shot so you can get a better feel for the room, too.





Comments (10)

  • 7 years ago

    Pano shots distort scale of everything and are not more helpful. Love your lamps and would want them flanking the sofa. Have you tried the sofa in front of the left side window? My art "rule is 5-5-75: 5" above furniture or centered 5' above the floor and never wider than 75% of the width of the furniture below. Space them one frame's width apart for bigger frames or one hand's breadth for skinny frames. Try adding a flokati rug, traditional Greek, with your Greek musicians!


    Genuine Eco Friendly Wool Flokati Shag Rug White 8' X 10' · More Info


    acody99 thanked decoenthusiaste
  • 7 years ago

    Thank you, decoenthusiaste! We moved our sofa as you suggested and we really like the new location. We are a bit nervous about the lamps as we worry our kids will knock the one over near the doorway, but we are strongly considering this. As you can see, the window isn't centered in the room but I don't know that it needs to be. We want to keep the RanSu Woodcuts as a pair so they may still go on the wall where the sofa was in our original photo or perhaps somewhere else in the room. They are 20"x28" each and would perhaps be too big to hang on the right side of the window. The length from the curtain edge to the wall on that side is about 58".







  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Have you tried the wood cuts above the piano? If you get some shades on the windows and use lined drapes, you can do a "fool-the-eye" treatment that will help camouflage the off-centeredness. Break the rules by hanging the left curtain over part of the left side of the window (like the "don't" pic below) and hang the right side one like the right side of the "do" pic.This can help balance things if you can't see through the curtains and determine where the window really is. Getting longer curtains (possibly online) so they can mount near the ceiling, will help enlarge your space visually, as will matching them to the wall color (although I'd be tempted to add more of that blue.)

    acody99 thanked decoenthusiaste
  • PRO
    7 years ago


    I hope there's enough room to center the sofa under the window. If not, I would not put it there.

    acody99 thanked Business_Name_Placeholder
  • PRO
    acody99 thanked Business_Name_Placeholder
  • 7 years ago

    This is all very helpful. I'll move a few things around tomorrow and share some more photos. Thank you, everyone!


  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Here are a few photos from the latest rearranging. The only drawback I see so far is that the path from the doorway into the room is narrowed by having the sofa and coffee table pulled over to be centered at the window. The piano sits where it sits to allow access to the wall outlet but it can move to the left 10" to center it on that wall, which might help it feel less cramped near the doorway. Also, the harp player wood cuts could go over the piano but that's a lot of brown wood above brown piano on brown floor. The piano is 38" high and the wood cuts are 28" high. If I was shooting for 5' to the center of the artwork I would have 8" from the piano to the bottom of the frame, if I'm thinking correctly. Could those pieces be hung on the wall where now you see a wooden arm chair with the white cushion, or is that a no-no? The entryway is from our foyer and we would love for people to get a peek at them when they come into our house.



  • 7 years ago

    The wood cuts only need to hang 5" above the piano, one hand's breadth apart. The idea of centering art 5' above the floor applies when there is no furniture underneath it. I still think you can tweak the window treatments to "center" the window and move the sofa to the right.

    acody99 thanked decoenthusiaste
  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I would move the piano to be centered on the wall. I know this will cover the outlets you are trying leave accessible, but if you plug a short extension cord (with multiple outlets) into the wall and have it stick out from behind the piano, you will still be able to easily plug in and unplug whatever you need to. I've done this with the outlet behind the piano in our living room. By moving the piano, you will increase the width of the walkway into the room.

    acody99 thanked bac717