Dining Room Art

A dining room is the one place in a house where people sit still, facing each other, for an hour at a time. That changes what art has to do. Nobody studies a piece in a hallway, but a dining room work is looked at properly, repeatedly, by the same people, and it has to hold up to that without dominating the conversation.

Two practical things follow. First, hang lower than you would elsewhere: the sightline is a seated one, so the centre of the piece wants to be around 145cm to 150cm from the floor rather than the usual 155cm to 160cm. Second, dining rooms are usually lit from a pendant above the table, which means light falls downward and across a wall rather than onto it. Dimensional work reads beautifully in that light and flat prints tend to go dead.

That is why textured and relief pieces make up most of what we would recommend here, and why the calmer end of our range suits better than the boldest. Deep-toned timber and warm metal sit well against a table setting. Browse the dimensional work in 3D wall art and wood wall art, and the quieter styles in abstract art.

Scale is the usual mistake. Aim for around two thirds the length of the table on the main wall, which is larger than most people choose, and treat a run of smaller panels as one composition rather than a group. Avoid pieces that project sharply where chairs pull out. For the wider ranges see wall art and wall decor and metal wall art.

Every piece we make is handcrafted to order by our artists, designed in Birmingham and made in our worldwide studios. Standard production takes around three to four weeks, and we offer free worldwide shipping. Get in touch if you would like help sizing a piece to a particular table and wall.