How to Choose the Ideal Art Size for Above the Bed

In my home staging consultations, I’m often asked how to choose the ideal size art for above the bed. There’s really no perfect answer and lots of variation to take into account when it comes to ceiling height, headboard size, and style of the room. That means there are a lot of beautiful art combinations that can look great and really help show off your bedroom to potential home buyers! I’ve compiled some general guidelines below to help you get started…

Tips for Selecting the Ideal Size Art for Above the Bed

• Wall art above any piece of furniture should span between 60% to 80% of the width of the piece. That includes art above the bed! Sometimes finding a large piece can be a challenge so it’s ok to use multiple pieces to fill the space. If you’re preparing to sell your home, take a look at this artwork we like for home staging.
• If using multiple pieces, evaluate the width of the entire art grouping as a whole. In other words, if you hang two pieces of art that are each 24” wide with 6” between them, the width of your total grouping would be 54” (24” art + 6” space + 24” art).
• Hanging art too high is one of the most common mistakes I see in homes, and artwork above the bed is no exception. The bottom of your artwork shouldn’t be more than about 6” away from the top of your headboard. Read our blog post for more tips on how to hang art like a pro.
• Keep ceiling height in mind as well as you select art. Wider pieces are often taller. Leave a minimum of 18” between the ceiling and the top of your artwork when working with large canvas prints.
• Large table lamps on your nightstands can sometimes act as a nice balance to smaller art groupings.
• For headboards with an arc or high point in the middle, it may look best to use two pieces of art evenly spaced on either side of the arc.
• If you live in a region prone to earthquakes, don’t hang anything heavy over the bed!

Ideal Art Size Above a King Bed

Most king-sized headboards are approximately 80” wide, which means your wall art should be between 48” and 64”. That’s pretty big for an individual piece! You may want to consider using a grouping of multiple pieces to fill the space properly. There are lots of options, so play around with different combinations. Here are a few we like:

Ideal Art Size Above a Queen Bed

When trying to determine the best size art above a queen bed, keep your piece(s) within that magical range of 60% to 80% of the headboard width. Most queen headboards are about 62” wide, give or take a couple of inches. So you’ll want the art above a queen bed to occupy somewhere between 37” and 50” of wall space, frames included. Take a look at these examples:

Ideal Art Size Above a Full Bed

A full size headboard is typically about 56″. Again, remember that your art should be somewhere between 60% and 80% of the width of the piece of furniture it hangs above. That makes the ideal art size above a full size bed between 34″ and 45″.

Ideal Art Size Above a Twin Bed

Twin headboards are about 41″ wide. If you’re decorating the wall space above a twin bed, keep the total width of your artwork between 25″ and 33″.

How We Can Help

If you need a hand getting your artwork “just right” to prepare for a home sale, Three Bears Home Staging can help! Take a look below at some of the ways we’re helping homeowners around the country: