A year ago we moved into a new house, and I went from barely any walls space to several huge empty walls.  Of course, as you can imagine I have literally thousands of pictures of my kids and family sitting on a hard drive just begging to be free.  This year, I am excited to finally work on our new walls!  Basically there are two options when putting up wall art, there is art with a frame (including matted prints, basic prints, and even framed canvas prints) and art without a frame (Canvas Prints, and the like).  So, how do you decide what to put where?

 

 

Here are 5 considerations to keep in mind when deciding: Print or Canvas?

 

 

Wall space

 

Do you have big spaces of blank wall or do you have nooks and crannies? Modern homes tend to have large walls with lots of light while older homes have more hallways, little rooms and corridors.  Houses built in the 90’s and early 00’s tend to have a mixture of both.  It’s important to remember that prints in general have more size versatility, so if you are not sure, then it’s best to go with a print.  That way, if you put it on the wall and it’s too small, you can always put a mat on it, or go with a bigger frame. If it looks too big (and lets just be honest, this is rarely the case) you can get a thinner frame, or a frame that doesn't stand out as much.  For a canvas, bigger is always better! If you are tossing two sizes around in your head, always go with the bigger size, especially if you’re putting just that one image on that particular wall.  A canvas that is two small will just look odd over your couch or in your hallway.

 

 

 

11x14? Kinda small...

 

20x30? Much better...

Combination? Amazing!

 

 

 

Location 

 

This brings me to location.  A canvas would be a good choice for a living room or nursery (especially  since you wouldn't have to worry about glass) but a canvas is more fragile because the image is only protected by the layer of lacquer on the actual piece.  A kitchen where grease is always floating in the air and spaghetti sauce is flying off of your toddler’s plate is not the ideal location for a Canvas, and neither is a playroom filled with paint and flying toys.  Keep this in mind too—canvas prints over your newborn’s changing table are a good idea in theory, but you’ll quickly find that baby boys can get some distance during a diaper change!

 

What's There Already?

 

As your family grows, have a mental image of what you want to do with your walls.  Don’t be afraid to leave some blank spaces for big prints!  Do you want to do all canvas? All print? A mixture of both? Any of the options can look beautiful, if you make a plan for your walls!  Prints are easier to switch out of their frames, where as Canvas prints may want to be something that you leave up all the time (newborn portraits, baby portraits, Wedding pictures  and Senior portraits to name a few).    

 

The Image Itself

 

Some images lend themselves better for a certain media.  For example, a portrait with a focus on the faces of the subjects with not much going on in the background would be gorgeous printed either way, but it lends itself well to a canvas or wrap because the constant background will wrap around a canvas beautifully.  At the same time, if an image has rich colors, those colors may be intensified by the right mat and/or frame surrounding it.

 

Your Preference 

 

This may be the most important thing to remember! If you love canvas prints, then by all means ignore everything above and fill your home with canvas prints! If you hate mats, then don’t even think about buying one! In the end, it’s whatever brings those memories to life for you.  A house is a house, but a home is built on memories, and the walls of your home should fill you with the joy of each and every one of your memories.

Do you have any suggestions? leave them in the comment section!