Canvas Art Designs' Top 10 Tips For Decorating with Canvas Prints

1) Complement the Mood or Theme of Your Room:

It is important to understand a room's purpose and attributes before choosing a canvas print. Is the room used for relaxing or performing tasks, or is it just a hallway? Is the room private, or is it used to entertain guests? Is the room large, narrow or tall? These are clues that will help zero in on the type of canvas artwork that complements the color and scale of a room. While finding the ideal print or style can be challenging, Canvas Art Designs has over 2 million images so you are sure to find that perfect print.

2) Understand the Psychology Between Vibrant and Neutral Colors:

Vibrant colors bring excitement to a room, while neutral colors are more calming. For example, you might choose neutral beige and mellow green colors for a quiet retreat room or a doctor’s office, lively yellow and orange colors for a children's room or art studio, and brilliant blue colors for a fast-paced office.

3) Open Up Small Spaces with Landscape Art:

Landscapes, sunsets, and canvas art depicting distant horizons are a good way to visually open up a smaller space. The view of a horizon acts as a sort of "window" giving the impression of a faraway vista, and makes a small room appear much larger and more comfortable.

4) Print Size Should Depend on Wall Size:

Choose smaller canvas prints for narrow walls and bigger canvas prints for large walls and spaces. A small canvas print on a large wall makes the room feel disproportionate and empty, while a large print on a small wall makes the print feel overwhelming and the room smaller. One way to test the appropriate size is to tape paper on the wall that is the same size as the print to see how it looks in that position. Another technique is to use painters tape on the wall to demonstrate outside boundaries of a print.

5) Furniture Pairings Should Drive Canvas Print Selections:

The size and theme of your canvas print should be based on the furniture you plan to hang the print next to. When wall art is hung over a piece of furniture, the print size should not be longer than the width of the furniture. A general principle is to choose art that is about 75% of the width of a piece of furniture. Additionally, the genre of canvas art to buy depends on the room’s furnishings, such as formal, modern, traditional or casual decorations and furniture. For example, abstract art and grunge prints are a great fit for modern furniture, flower prints and nature art are great for a casual room, wine art and prints of food are great for a traditional kitchen, and images of famous landmarks are great in any room!

6) Know How You Want to Use Your Canvas Art in Order to Choose the Best Canvas Print for You:

The most popular canvas print types at Canvas Art Designs are standard wrap, gallery wrap, black sides, framed prints and triptychs. While each canvas type is excellent, the choice of which one is best for you depends on numerous factors.

	STANDARD WRAP The printed art image wraps around the print’s side stretcher bars, which are 0.75 inches deep, resulting in the printed image continuing on the sides of the print product. This results in the printed image being viewable from all angles, and comes ready to hang on the wall right out the box. The Standard Wrap option is great for most prints, especially for those where the main focus of the image does not extend close to borders so to ensure that important components of the piece do not get stretched onto the sides.
	GALLERY WRAP (Our Most Popular) The printed art image wraps around the side stretcher bars, similar to the Standard Wrap. However, the gallery wrap canvas stretcher bars are 1 ½ inches thick, resulting in an art gallery type effect with greater depth perspective when hanging on a wall. This option is perfect for most canvas prints, except for those that have critical parts of the image close to the borders, as such important components of the image that could get stretched off on the sides, top or bottom of the print. And with thicker stretcher bars, more of the image is stretched on the sides than the Standard Wrap.
	GALLERY - BLACK SIDES The overall print product size and depth is the same as the gallery wrap, with 1 ½ inch stretcher bars, however, the image is not stretched on the sides, and instead the complete printed portion is on the front and the sides are printed black. This option is great for when the image would lose some key aspects if wrapped, or when the black sides augment the image itself, such as for black and white prints.
	STANDARD - BLACK SIDES The overall print product size and depth is the same as the standard wrap, with 0.75 inch stretcher bars, however, the image is not stretched on the sides, and instead the complete printed portion is on the front and the sides are printed black.. This option is great for framing the canvas print yourself (because standard size with 0.75 stretcher bars fits most frames) or if you prefer the sleek look of black on the sides.
	FRAMED We offer a sleek matte black frame that is perfect for framing canvas prints. The molding is 1 5/8 inches wide and 1 3/8 inches thick. It will be delivered ready to hang on your wall straight out of the box. This option is perfect for if you want a canvas art print framed but do not prefer to add expensive custom framing afterwards.

TRIPTYCH One large image is divided into thirds and printed on three separate gallery wraps 'with black sides' that are hung next to each other. This creates an outstanding effect by extending the length of a hallway or wall, and visually appears as if you are looking out of a window at the image. Triptych is perfect for hallways or large rooms where you want to extend and separate a single image (such as a cityscape) to occupy more wall space but still maintain a sense of continuity among prints.

7) Shelves and Mantles are Great Ways to Display Art:

Not all canvas prints must be hung above furniture or stand alone on a wall. Art shelves and mantles are also a great way to present art. Canvas prints can be hung on the wall over the shelf or mantle, set on the shelf or mantle-top and leaned against the wall (such as above the fireplace), or set onto a shelf with other decorative objects.

8) Canvas Print Arrangements Add a New Dimension to Decorating:

One common arrangement method is to line up several prints in a row to fill up space across a wall. Typically, these prints share a similar motif or design pattern for a consistent theme. For example, one might line up three pictures of animals, or group by a similar color scheme.

• Horizontal Arrangements: Hanging wall art in a horizontal line tends to be calming and can give the illusion of width in a narrow room


• Vertical Arrangements: Hanging canvas art in a vertical line adds to the feeling of height in a room


• Diagonal Arrangements: Diagonal arrangements, such as prints hanging down a stairway, add excitement to the composition

9) Decorate with an Odd Number of Prints:

An odd number of prints create a symmetrically appealing design with both central and peripheral focal points. The key is that you balance the artwork to fit the size of the wall and the room. In many instances, one large canvas print is big enough to cover a wall and enliven a room. However, if one print is not big enough for a large wall, or if you prefer the look of multiple prints on a wall, then choose 3 medium-sized or 5 small-sized prints to hang.

10) Hang Art at an Optimal Height to Increase Viewing Pleasure:

Canvas prints should be hung so that the center point of the picture or grouping is at eye-level for the average person, which is approximately 60 to 65 inches from the floor. However, there are other considerations when choosing height:

• Purpose of Room: If people will mainly be standing in a room, then hang your print on the wall a bit higher than the 60-65 inch starting point. If people will mainly be sitting down, such as a dining room or office, hang the pictures a bit lower so that they can be enjoyed at a lower viewing angle.


• Print Size and Orientation: If you are hanging a tall vertical canvas print, you might want to position the print so that the top 1/3 area of the image is at eye-level. Additionally, a large canvas print or grouping of small prints that are placed over a sofa should be hung so that the bottom of the print is 6-12 inches above the top of the sofa.


• Children’s Wall Art: Canvas prints should be lowered when decorating children’s bedrooms and playrooms so that the artwork is hanging closer to eye-level of the children.

Sources: 4th and 5 Publishing; about.com