How to build a feature wall

A feature wall isn't a bigger version of hanging one print. It's a small act of composition. Get the bones right and three pieces can hold a room; get them wrong and twelve will just look busy. Here's how we'd approach it.

Start with one anchor

Pick the piece that does the most work, usually the largest or the one with the strongest colour, and place it first. Everything else hangs in relation to it. On a typical wall the anchor sits a little above eye level, with its centre around 145-150 cm (57-59 in) from the floor. Resist the urge to centre it on the wall; centring on the furniture below it, a sofa, a console, the bed, almost always reads better.

Decide: grid or gather

There are really two feature walls. A grid, matching frames with even gaps hung in clean rows, is calm and architectural; it suits related prints at the same size. A gather, mixed sizes clustered with a consistent gap, is looser and more collected. Choose one and commit. The one to avoid is the half-grid, almost aligned but not quite, which just reads as a grid that went wrong.

Matching frames, the easy way

A grid lives or dies on the frames matching exactly, and this is where ordering the pieces already framed earns its keep. Our framed prints share the same moulding and colours across all three framed sizes, so three black Classics arrive matched, glazed and ready to hang. One decision, no frame shopping, and the grid can go up the afternoon the boxes arrive.

Keep the gaps honest

Whatever the layout, hold the spacing between frames constant. 5 to 8 cm (2 to 3 in) is the range that feels deliberate without crowding. Lay the whole arrangement out on the floor first and only commit to the wall once it reads. Cutting paper templates the size of each frame and taping them up is ten minutes that saves an afternoon of nail holes.

Mix sizes with intent

Every print shares the same 3:4 portrait shape, so different sizes stack and align cleanly however you combine them. A reliable three-piece gather: one 60×80 cm (24×32 in) as the anchor, with a 45×60 (18×24) and a 30×40 (12×16) orbiting it. For a grid, pick a single size and repeat it. Three 45×60s in a row is hard to get wrong.

Let the light do half the job

A wall that gets soft, indirect daylight will flatter a print all day; one in harsh direct sun will wash it out and, over the years, fade it. If the wall is dim, a single warm picture light or a nearby lamp does more for the work than another frame would. Test one print against the wall for a day or two before you commit the whole arrangement; the paint colour and the light shift it more than you'd expect.

Edit before you finish

The last step is subtraction. Once it's up, take one piece away and see if the wall is better for the breathing room. More often than not it is, and a little air is what makes a wall feel collected rather than crammed. A feature wall should feel like it was gathered over time, not bought in a single afternoon, even when it was.

And if you'd like to take it further, our Design Studio is on the way: pick a piece, choose your size and frame, and see it on your wall before you hang anything.