I don’t want to squelch any creative ideas you may have when it comes to placing wall art in your home. If you are inspired to hang art in a specific spot, it never hurts to try it out and see how it looks.

On the other hand, if you’re new to collecting art and are looking for guidance, here’s an easy way to start thinking about where to place your artwork.

Pretend you’ve never visited your house before and take a brief tour. Start at your front door and walk through the entry, living room, and dining room to identify the ‘key wall’ in each room – the wall which is most visible as you enter the room. As you enter the bedrooms and bathrooms, identify which walls are most visible from each doorway. More often than not, these key walls are going to be good locations for your first pieces of original art. Down the line you will start thinking about placing art on your secondary walls too. But for now, if your art is strategically placed on those key walls, you probably need fewer pieces than you think to impact your surroundings.

Make a master location list of your key walls (include wall measurements) as you do your walk through. Take the list with you when you’re shopping for artwork so you know where you can place the art you will inevitably see and love.

Once you have purchased key pieces of artwork for your most trafficked rooms, then start thinking about artwork for hallways, transition spaces and secondary walls.

Prioritizing art placement in this way will maximize the impact of your purchases. Think about it, if you make the effort to buy original art but it only fits in your guest room or back hallway, the buzz you get from collecting original artwork is going to wear off faster than a New York minute. Try this approach to art placement at the beginning of your foray into art collecting. Knowing where you will put the art you love will help you feel good about your purchases. By the time your art collection rivals Herb and Dorothy’s, you can put your Motherwells on any wall you want and nobody will dare question your judgement.

Photo: Eric Plasecki