Wall art for small apartments: 6 ideas that won’t overwhelm your space
Decorating a small apartment doesn't mean everything on the wall has to be small too. In fact, filling a limited amount of wall space with lots of little prints and objects can sometimes make a room feel busier than choosing one piece of art and giving it room to breathe.
The trick is being a little more considered about what goes up there. From choosing the right size to using colour, texture and negative space, here are six wall art ideas for small apartments that add something to the room without overwhelming it.
1. Try one larger piece instead of lots of small ones
It sounds slightly backwards, but a larger piece of wall art can work brilliantly in a small space.
Rather than breaking up a wall with lots of separate frames, one piece gives your eye a single place to land. It can make the room feel calmer and more intentional, especially if the artwork itself isn't overly busy.
You don't need a really huge canvas either. A piece that feels substantial in relation to the furniture underneath it can be enough to give the wall some structure. For example, a 50 × 70 cm canvas above a small sofa, desk or console can create more impact without introducing the visual clutter of a full gallery wall.
And if you can't find something in exactly the right colours or style for the room, that's where making it yourself gets interesting. Our Full Art Kits include everything you need to build the canvas, stretch it, make the artwork and add the wooden edge frame yourself.
2. Use negative space in the artwork
Wall art doesn't need to fill every centimetre of the canvas. Leaving areas of raw cotton or linen exposed can make even a relatively large artwork feel lighter in a small room.
A single painted shape, a few lines, a block of colour or an off-centre section of paint can be enough. The untouched canvas becomes part of the artwork rather than empty space you need to fill.
It's also one of our favourite approaches if making your own art feels intimidating. Instead of staring at a blank canvas thinking you need to create an entire painting, you can deliberately decide not to cover most of it.
Simple suddenly becomes the plan.
Our Blank Canvas Kits are particularly good for this if you already have paints at home and want to create something minimal for a specific wall.
3. Take your colours from the room
One of the hardest parts of buying wall art for a small apartment is finding something you love that also works with everything already in the room. Making your own gives you another option: start with the room instead of the artwork.
Look at the colours that are already there. Maybe it's the olive green in a chair, dark wood furniture, a burgundy cushion, a blue lamp or the warm neutral of a rug.
You don't have to match everything exactly. Just taking one or two colours from the space can make the artwork feel connected to the room rather than like another unrelated thing you've squeezed into it. And you can keep the palette restrained. One colour in different tones can make a seriously good piece of abstract art.
If you're starting from scratch, our Full Art Kits come in different colour palettes, with paints and all the tools you need already included. Every kit also comes with access to our Digital Art Guide, including step-by-step painting guides if you want an idea to start from.
4. Let texture do more of the work
If you don't want to introduce loads of colour or pattern into a small space, texture is another way to make wall art interesting.
Think visible brush strokes, thick palette-knife marks, watery acrylic washes or the weave of raw fabric showing underneath the paint.
You can even take that idea all the way and leave the canvas completely unpainted. Raw linen has its own natural colour and texture, so once it's stretched and finished with a wooden edge frame, it can work as an incredibly simple piece of wall art without adding more visual noise to the room. We wrote more about that in our guide to blank linen canvas wall art.
If you like that look, our Framed Linen Canvas Kit gives you everything you need to build and stretch your own, including the linen, inner frame, wooden edge frame and staple gun. Leave it blank, add a tiny amount of paint or completely change your mind later.
5. Don't ignore the awkward little walls
Small apartments don't always give you one perfect, enormous blank wall to decorate. You might have a narrow section beside a door, a space above a bedside table, the wall over a desk or an empty spot between two pieces of furniture. Use them.
A smaller 30 × 40 cm canvas can bring colour or texture into those areas without needing the space of a large statement piece. It can also work propped on a shelf or console if you don't want to hang everything.
This is where making your own wall art becomes particularly useful. You're not starting with an artwork and wondering where on earth it will fit. You're starting with the wall and making something for it.
Measure the space, decide what colours you want there and create around those constraints. Sometimes having fewer options makes deciding what to paint much easier.
6. Keep the artwork simple, but make the finish count
Minimal wall art does not feel unfinished. Quite the opposite.
A very simple artwork can look much more substantial when the materials and finishing details are good. Raw fabric, visible texture and a proper wooden edge frame can give a piece presence without needing a complicated design.
That's a big reason every Plan kit includes an edge frame. Once you've made your artwork, four cut-to-size wooden pieces are attached around the finished canvas to give it a clean Oak or Dark Oak border. It's the final step that takes it from something you've painted to something that feels properly ready for your home.
You can see exactly how it works in our guide to framing canvas art with an edge frame. In a small space, those details matter. If you're going to have fewer things on display, you may as well really like the ones that are there.
Make the artwork for the space you actually have
The nice thing about a small apartment is that you don't need endless artwork to make it feel like yours. You might just need the right piece in the right place.
And if you've spent months looking for something that's the right size, the right colours, the right style and actually feels like you, you don't necessarily need to keep looking. Make it for that wall instead.
That's the idea behind Plan. Our DIY framed canvas kits give you everything you need to go from a box of materials to finished wall art in four simple, and satisfying, steps: build the inner frame, stretch the canvas, make the art and attach the wooden edge frame.
If you want the paints and tools included, start with our Full Art Kits. Or if you've already got your own materials and just need a beautiful canvas to start from, explore our Blank Canvas Kits.
Emmi
Co-founder of Plan