Prints for your walls

A decorative print is not chosen the way a portrait is. There is no photo to supply, no preview to approve: the artwork already exists, and what is left to decide comes down to three things, the size, the finish and the wall. Here is how we suggest settling each one.

The rule that works: a print on its own takes up about two thirds of the width of the furniture it hangs above. Above a 120 cm console, 50 × 70 cm is right; above a bedside table, 30 × 40 cm is enough. 40 × 50 cm is our most ordered size because it suits a bedroom and a hallway alike. If you are hesitating between two sizes, take the larger one: the most common mistake is a frame that is too small, lost in the middle of the wall.

Textured matte Fine Art paper, framed, comes closest to a gallery: the grain breaks up reflections and softens the gradients. Canvas stretched over a wooden frame needs no glass, throws back no reflection and stays light, which makes it the safest choice in a child’s bedroom. The acrylic print, for its part, gives deep, glossy colours: it suits high-contrast works, such as the mineral strata or the single-seater, and copes better with a damp room.

The centre of the artwork sits at eye level, roughly 145 cm from the floor in a room where you are standing. Above a sofa or a headboard, go lower: leave 20 to 25 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the frame, so the two read as a single whole. For two prints side by side, ten to fifteen centimetres apart is enough.

Every artwork can carry a text: a first name, a date, a word. You move it across the image with your finger, you set the typeface, the size and the tilt, and it is exactly that placement which goes to print. It is what turns a print into a gift, at no extra cost.