I don't think it's too wide for the chest. (((shrug)))

I'd center the picture over the chest and drop it down vertically until it "caught" a corner of the chair in the composition.

I would like that if you move the lamp to the right side of the table. That would give it more balance, I think. I do tend to like asymmetry and larger pieces of art than a lot of people on this forum use, though, so I may not be the best judge. I do like the way the lamp shape is an inverted form of the chair (sort of).

funcolors, if I centre the picture above the chest, the one side will catch the chair but the other side will be hanging over the chest. Do you think the picture is too high?

cyn427, I am trying to add a bit of asymmetry to my decorating. I moved the lamp to the right side of the chest not sure if I like it there though.

Hmmm. I'm of a different opinion. I think the picture proportion will be good on the wall if you shift it down and to the right...but the chest is too small. It looks a bit lost in that space. Do you have something wider - a chest, a console, or a sturdy table - that will fill the space a little more, and that is at least a few inches wider than the picture?

bronwynsmom, shift it down how much lower and in line with the chest? I specifically bought that chest for that spot. A larger one would might that spot tight cause the closet is there.

When I first looked at it and imagined a picture there I thought the size and placement was PERFECT. I still think so. It will depend on the picture itself and the frame; if it is too dark overall, or if the frame is too heavy, it might make the arrangement look top heavy. But if it has some lightness to it and is not too dense, I think you have managed to bring the pieces together in a very aestheticly pleasing way. You may need to move the lamp a bit, again depending on how it looks with the pic there. Can you show us the pic?

This is what I was thinking.

Not sure about scale, beefiness of your frame or if there is a frame on the piece, but this is the thin green tape line superimposed over the picture I used.

olychic, here is a picture of the picture, while it is big in size, it looks light in weight because of the gold and white. I wish it didnt have the glass in it though, you can see me in it taking the picture. This will be opposite a window so I hope there is not too much glare on it.

funcolor, I really do like the picture lower with the lamp on the right side as you have pictured, thanks for showing me that. Beautiful painting as well, wish I had that one. The one thing I am not sure about is centering on the chest, I always thought that art should be narrower than the table or chest it hangs above.
Is that not a decorating rule?

{{!gwi}}

Maybe it's a rule, I don't know to be honest. I'm a work with what you have kinda girl. :D

Fact o'the matter is the art is wider than the chest and that's what we have to work with. So, the question is what's the best way to incorporate the pieces you have into the most pleasing composition possible.

If you prefer how it looks with the picture higher and floated off to the left, then that's what you prefer.

If it's a of matter what are our options to arrange the pieces with the goal of a composition that is as balanced and proportionate as we can get, then that's a different course of action.

Do you know the title/artist of your picture?

I read somewhere that a rule of thumb for art size is no more than 25% wider than the furniture underneath. The phot-shop images appear to be about that to me. Don't know what the dimensions of the chest & real painting are.

Rose, if your painting is too large for the chest, do have another place for it? Do you have a smaller piece of artwork on hand that you could use over the chest?

Believe me, I know how hard it is to find artwork that you really like. You may have your heart set on using this piece in that spot.

I like funcolors mock up, but would hang the picture about 3 inches higher. I like my pictures hung a bit low, but that height is uncomfortably low.

funcolors, sorry I dont know the artist or title.
As far as placement of the picture, I am not sure now which way to go. I want it to look right and not like a mistake :>(

Stinky, I would like to use this piece if possible, my DH bought this picture himself.

thanks terriks, we must have been posting at the same time. I think I will play with the green tape a bit more.

My first thoughts were to center it between the chair and stand and lower it about 3 inches.

After seeing Funcolors mock up I like that very much but would raise it a tad.

I'm looking at it from a simple rule of thirds perspective. Also have to consider the top of the closet door cuz it's so close to the corner. The photo is slightly angled down, in real life you're going to have to eyeball it as far as where the picture looks right.

Funcolors, I dont understand what you are trying to tell me. What is the rule of thirds perspective? I need a lesson please.

i agree with olychic. i think it looks kinda perfect when you center it over the table and chair. i would just lower it a bit, just enough to have about 1/2 or at least some of the lampshade in the scene. i also like the lamp moved to the right with a little plant or flowers like funcolors shows. and the picture itself is light enough not to look topheavy.

The rule of thirds is the easiest way to manage stuff within contained parameters. It is a fundamental rule of design. The rule applies no matter what you are designing, no matter what dimension you are designing 'in'. Two-dimensional, business card to billboard. Or three-dimensional, you're cozy corner or a bowling alley.

You have "x" amount of stuff to fit in "x" amount of space. And you want some "white" space also known as "negative" space for really important reasons like a visual break from item to item. Not enough white space or negative space is another way to define cluttered or busy.

First thing I do is break down the space I have to work with. I broke your space down into a grid of thirds. It's the blue grid you see in the pic. Three equal boxes across and three equal boxes down.

Then I filled the boxes. The chest has to be where it is because of the closet door. The chair only makes sense where it currently sits. Everything else, the lamp and the picture can be moved around however we want to in those little blue boxes. We can make various configurations from the top of the chest and up to the top of the adjacent closet door frame.

The rule of thirds or the rule of threes is based on Divine Proportion - sometimes it's called the Golden Mean, Golden Section, Golden Ratio, or just Phi. Lots of times interior designer/decorator concepts stop at the rule of three - always group things in three kinda thing. However, the "rule" goes far beyond just three.

Tablescaping or designer tips often say only use odd numbers. If you understand where the rule of thirds or threes came from, then you know you are not limited to just using odd numbers of items in your composition.

The Fibonacci Series would be the advanced step past the rule of three. Fractals and whatnot.

Hope that wasn't too confusing or complicated. I can try to streamline it if you want me to.

Novacat, thanks for your post, I do have the tape too high.

Funcolors, that is very interesting, I had heard of the Golden Ratio but never really understood what it meant. Could I ask you if you could photo shop it again for me but this time with the picture centred over the chair and chest and a tad higher? I am liking the way you have it but wouldnt mind seeing how the other way would look. If you dont have time, dont worry about it, I can play with the tape. Thanks for the lesson and your help.

funcolors, that was the most fascinating design aesthetics lesson ever! I can see now how you arrived at the placement. I am curious though, why the grid included the plane of the tabletop. If the grid bottom went to the top of the wall behind the chest, wouldn't that move the placement of the picture just a bit higher (which would be more pleasing to my eye), at least from the angle of the photo. Would it make a difference if this scene is going to be viewed mostly when walking by, or if seated in an adjoining room? I also really liked the flowers you added with your mock up and what they add to the scene.

roseabby, please post a pic when you're done hanging it.

I am curious though, why the grid included the plane of the tabletop. If the grid bottom went to the top of the wall behind the chest, wouldn't that move the placement of the picture just a bit higher (which would be more pleasing to my eye), at least from the angle of the photo.

Because she wants to include the lamp and the chair - it's not just about the chest and the picture. :)

We can increase our imaginary boundaries or parameters on the wall if we want to - have the whole wall to work with.

But what happens, what changes at the first blue horizontal line with regard to the lamp specifically and is it better or not?

Again, standing there looking at it is going to be a whole lot different than our virtual here.

Centered to chair and chest and higher.

funcolors, gotta admit it...that looks great. but just out of curiosity, can you do it again, this time centering the pic on the wall. i just wanna see the difference...then i'll reread your above posts and try to understand.

Looks like centered to the wall is where the original green tape was.

funcolors, sorry i didnt see the other two pics when i last responded. roseabbey, i'm kinda lovin funcolors take on this issue (art over the chest). the centering on the wall looks good, too, but i like over the chest even better. who woulda known!

funcolors, you have earned my respect. would you pleeeeze respond to "art over toilet" in this forum. thanks

art over toilet thread - oh boy, can't wait.

;D

Funcolors, thank you for explaining about including the top of the chest in your grid. Makes sense, now that you've explained it. I loved this lesson. Thanks.

funcolors, that is fantastic, thank you so much for the visuals. I really like it centered over the chest in the virutal but IRL when you are in the room, I think it will look better centered on the wall which is over the chair and chest. Definately lower than I had it and with the lamp moved to the right along with some accessories on the chest. I will post a picture when it is hung. Thanks again :>)

How could something known as Golden NOT be fun? :D

I looked for the art above the toilet thread - can't find it???

I think your scale is going to work fine. I always like pictures hung a little lower so that a visual tension/connection gets created between the shapes. Funcolors, you are awesome. I was going to suggest something very similar to your first example photo: picture lower, lamp shifted to the right, some lower mass (like your flowers) to balance the space on the left. The one variation we haven't tried here, I think, is to position the picture so that it's lower left edge "catches" in the curve of the chair back, rather than on its top edge or to the lower point of the curve. You could do that either by (a) leaving it centered on the table and just raising it a few inches, or (b) my original thought. raising it and shifting it to the left until the right edge is flush with the right edge of the table and the left corner is just a couple inches from the deepest part of the curve on the side of the chair back. Might mean shifting the chair slightly. I tend to like triangles, so I'm curious about how that would look.

Hmmm, triangles, eh? Sounds interesting. I have stuff doin' today so I'm going to need a bit before I can play with this....

Later,
FC

I am going to wait and not hang the picture yet then if you are going to play some more. The triangle sounds interesting to me too.

cant wait to see this triangle thing. so glad i found this site!!!

"art over toilet"...its there, do a search and thanks/

I think funcolors nailed it in the second mock-up under "centered to chair and chest and higher."
Since you chose the chest for the space (and it's very attractive, too!), I think that's exactly where to hang it. Balances the whole business, and the height looks just right to me.
The visual lightness of your actual picture will look wonderful there.
Hang, and shoot, and show!!

Here's the 'art over toilet link', funcolors.

Here is a link that might be useful: art

I like the first one that funcolors posted on Tue, Apr 6, 10 at 20:15.

I did something similar in my family room. I wanted the print hung in the middle of the wall (and also because there was a speaker knob getting in the way of hanging the print directly over the chest.) Because of this, the chest and chair are to the right and left of the print.

bronwynsmom, that is the one I like IRL in the room.

terriks, the first one looks the best in the virtuals, I agree but irl IMO it looks better centre on chair and chest which is centered on that wall.

newhomebuilder, thanks for the photo, looks great.

"leaving it centered on the table and just raising it a few inches"

"my original thought. raising it and shifting it to the left until the right edge is flush with the right edge of the table and the left corner is just a couple inches from the deepest part of the curve on the side of the chair back."

funcolors, i think both looks great...i guess if i had to choose, i'd say the corner of the frame to the corner of the chair. but on the other hand, corner of the frame to deepest part of the curve looks great too. thumbs up for both!

There are a few good options - like I said before, it all depends on how it looks three-dimensionally.

Thanks for the link to the other post - I'll get over there eventually. It's been a busy end of week with work stuff and I have to update the blog, like get a new post up asap and edit my podcast about violet so it's up first thing Monday am.

Thinking about using this thread as inspiration for the blog post needed immediately --- divine proportion, etc. ties into proportions of color in a room too.

Thanks everyone, especially Funcolors for your help. DH thanks you too, he didnt have to put extra holes in the wall.

{{!gwi}}

BEAUTIOUS! I so want that chair. I may have drooled over it in another post so I'll try to control myself. The pops of red for the accessories are a nice touch, roseabbey. And you're so welcome - gave me an idea (which I needed) for a new post so thanks right back atcha.

beautiful! lovin the curves of the chest, too!