Shop bedroom wall art and calmer bedroom art prints. Framed for UK homes — preview size and moulding on every product page. Start in the Bedroom collection, or keep reading for how to choose.
| 292 works · 116 artists · 6 sizes · from £52.50 | |
| Most represented | Paul Duncan, 26 works |
|---|---|
| Shape of the collection | landscape 112 · portrait 52 · square 67 |
You see bedroom art from two positions, and neither is standing
Every other room is judged standing up. A bedroom is judged lying down, and from the doorway.
From the bed you see the wall opposite at a shallow upward angle in low light. From the doorway you see the wall above the headboard. Those are the two views that matter, and the piece above your own head is the one you will almost never look at.
That argues for putting the work you actually want to live with on the wall you face, not above the bed — which is the opposite of what most people do.
Size it to the headboard, not the wall
Art above a bed should span roughly two thirds of the headboard's width.
A standard UK double headboard is 140–150 cm, which points to a framed width around 95–100 cm. A Large at 80 × 60 cm frames up to about 98 × 78 cm — that is the size. A king headboard is 150–165 cm, which wants 110–120 cm framed: an X-Large at 100 × 70 cm comes out near 120 × 90 cm, or a diptych at about 118 cm across.
Leave 15–25 cm between the top of the headboard and the bottom of the frame.
Before you hang anything above a bed
Weight matters more here than anywhere else in the house, because of where it would land. Framed work behind glass is heavier than it looks and needs a proper fixing into something solid, and above a bed is the worst place to get that wrong. Use fixings rated well above the actual weight, into a stud or with proper cavity fixings, and never a single picture hook into plasterboard.
If you are uncertain, hang the piece on the facing wall instead. It is the better view anyway.
What "restful" actually means
People ask for restful bedroom art and usually describe a subject — water, sky, soft landscape. But restfulness is a property of tonal range, not subject matter.
A work with a narrow tonal range, where the lightest and darkest points are close together, reads as calm whatever it depicts. A work with a full range from white to black reads as alert even if it is a picture of a lake at dawn. If you are choosing between two seascapes and one feels calmer, that is usually what you are responding to.
The bedroom edit is weighted toward seascape, landscape and waterscape for exactly this reason, with a strong showing of figurative work for people who want the opposite.
Square works better here than it does downstairs
Bedrooms carry more square work than sitting rooms do, because the walls are often interrupted — by a wardrobe, a window, a chimney breast — and a square sits comfortably in a space too narrow for a wide landscape.
Square is also the format every diptych comes from. If you like a square work and the wall is wider than you thought, check whether it is available as two panels.
Sizing against the bed
Above a bed, size to the headboard rather than the mattress or the wall.
| Headboard | Target width | Size to buy | Framed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single, ~90 cm | ~60 cm | Medium 50 × 50 cm | 65 × 65 cm |
| Double, ~145 cm | ~97 cm | Large 80 × 60 cm | 98 × 78 cm |
| King, ~160 cm | ~107 cm | Large 95 × 75 cm | 113 × 93 cm |
| Super king, ~180 cm | ~120 cm | X-Large 100 × 70 cm | 120 × 90 cm |
Leave 15–25 cm between the top of the headboard and the bottom of the frame.
What goes wrong in bedrooms
Putting the best piece where you cannot see it
The wall above your own bed is the one wall you never look at. If you have one work you really want to live with, it belongs on the facing wall.
Underestimating the weight
Framed work behind glass is heavier than it looks and needs a proper fixing into something solid, and above a bed is the worst place to get that wrong. Fix into a stud or use proper cavity fixings rated well above the actual weight. Never a single hook into plasterboard.
Confusing subject with mood
People choose a calm subject and end up with an alert picture. Restfulness comes from a narrow tonal range — how close the lightest and darkest points are — not from what is depicted.
Palette
Bedrooms are seen in two lights that could hardly be more different: early daylight and a warm bedside lamp. A palette that works in both is usually a muted one.
Soft blues, greys, sand and off-white hold their character under both. Saturated reds and oranges intensify under warm light and can feel louder at night than they did at ten in the morning. If you want warmth, take it from a muted ochre rather than a strong one.
Related rooms
Where to buy bedroom wall art in the UK
TheArtFolio is a UK shop of independent artists. Browse the Bedroom collection, then open any work to choose frame, mount and size. We deliver within the United Kingdom — see Delivery & returns.
Framed to order
Every work is printed and hand-framed in the UK to the size, moulding and mount chosen at checkout. Live previews on each product page are there so the sitting room, study or hallway you have in mind is not a guess.
If you would rather start from a photograph of your own wall, use Discover.
