Small setups for small spaces

July 23, 2022 - Ilaria Gai

Deciding what to hang on the walls of an apartment can be an opportunity to give the home its personality.

There's no shortage of inspiration, and anyone could offer their own authoritative opinion on the matter, suggesting not only paintings, but also mirrors, empty frames, photographs of various sizes, not to mention illuminated signs and quotations from a wide variety of eras.

Naturally, many factors can influence the choice of some works of art over others that will furnish living spaces.

Here, we'll focus on some practical tips for placing illustrations in a small apartment.

The choices to be made in single spaces divided into living and sleeping areas by a wall that is not full-height, as in the house under consideration, must be even clearer:Subjects with liquid colors and themes suspended between reality and dream as we see in the image below combined with a natural frame manage to immediately convey a strong and decisive sign, producing immediate interest in the observer.

The shelf on which the work is placed, as in the first case, similarly to a display, manages to give the illustration even greater prominence; the same image hanging on the wall would have been pleasant but would not have integrated in such a decisive way, almost as if on a pedestal, as if to draw the attention of the viewer withfirmer voice.

The second affix, amplified by the proximity of the irregularly shaped mirror, fits harmoniously into a set of objects that are part of the furniture designed for that specific portion of the wall.

Here it becomes even more important to find the right subject, size, and frame color, because all these factors contribute, just as much as any other furnishing element, to giving the room its identity and harmony.

The placement of the two illustrations in an environment so strongly characterised by previous furnishing choices made by the owners allows us to obtain an interesting dialogue between the two works – also due to the square size of the prints themselves – and the resulting result is completely unique:

Although profoundly different, the illustrations have been selected with shades and proportions that blend well with the environment that hosts them:the harmonic contrast does not jar, rather it blends together decisively and the effect is undoubtedly memorable.

In the other rooms, placing the artwork on the bedside table in the bedroom is particularly effective. Placing an illustration in an unusual spot like this allows for a different experience of the work. Discreet in format, yet striking in its style and color, it becomes an easy-to-move and reconfigure element, even in other spaces within the same room—in a niche, on a shelf, to name a few.

Even a small desk area created in the transition between the living and sleeping areas can become an excuse for an unusual placement: the choice of an ironic subject contrasts sharply with the shelf and iron lamp, breaking up the rigidity of the modern style and further defining the portion of wall, without canceling out the previous furnishing choices.

In this case, examining a small-sized house, we aspire to create real installations with works that should better define spaces often designed to be extremely functional and comfortable to live in.

Since I often meet clients who ask me for advice on how to personalize their apartments, especially those intended for short-term rentals, I feel confident that this can be a minimally invasive yet highly effective option: think of the walls or corners where you'll display your artwork as small installations, enhancing them in a seamless dialogue with existing furnishings or those you've simply designed previously.

There are truly many paths to take. I personally love works that take me into imaginary worlds, poetic ones, sometimes subjects that cite situations or characters from the past, but also pure color because everything can contribute to making a place pleasant and perceived as one's own home, even if only inhabited for a short time.

Ilaria Gai | Welcome Home Real Estate
www.welcomehome.travel

All photos in this article were taken bySilvia Pastore