Choosing art for your home

The most common thing I hear is that a painting feels too big in the room. Almost always it is the opposite: the piece is too small for the wall it has been given.

As a loose guide, a single work above a sofa should cover roughly two thirds of the width of the furniture below it. Anything narrower starts to look apologetic.

“Buy the piece you keep thinking about a week later.”

Light matters more than colour matching. Oil surfaces change through the day, and a painting placed opposite a window will do more work than one hidden in an alcove.

And ignore the gallery convention of hanging at eye level if your rooms are lived in low. Sit down first, then decide.