How to choose Christian wall art for your living room

Stand in your living room for a minute with the television off. There is a wall, probably the one behind the sofa, that has been waiting for something since you moved in.

Choosing Christian wall art for your living room comes down to three decisions, made in order: what the room is for, whether you want a scene or a verse, and how big the piece needs to be.

Most sofa walls want one large canvas, roughly two-thirds the width of the sofa beneath it, hung so its center sits near eye level. Color, frame and subject follow from there. Take them one at a time.

What is this room actually for?

A living room does two jobs that pull against each other. It is where people gather, so it has to hold a crowd, a small group on Thursday night, kids on the floor. It is also where you sit down at the end of the day with the lights low, so it has to let you rest.

Before you look at a single artwork, stand in the room and ask which job matters more in your house. If it fills up on Sundays after church, or for a Christmas with Christ still in the room, you want a piece that holds its own in company, something a guest notices and asks about.

If it is where you read and pray before anyone else is up, you want a piece that quiets rather than speaks. Knowing which way you lean keeps you from buying something that fights the room.

Scene or verse: which one belongs in here?

A scene draws people in. A verse states something. Both belong in a Christian home, and they behave differently on a living room wall.

A painted scene invites a question: Jesus walking toward a boat on rough water, a shepherd with a lamb, one figure carrying another along a shore. A neighbor who does not share your faith can look at it and ask what is happening, and you can tell the story.

Your six-year-old can ask the same thing. The picture starts the conversation and lets you decide how far to take it.

A verse on the wall does something else. It declares. "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15, KJV) over the entry says who lives here, and says it every time someone walks in. That is a fine thing to say. But it is finished the moment it is read.

Our own view, for what it is worth (we make the longer case for verse art or scene art elsewhere): the living room is the place for a scene, and the kitchen, hallway or entry is the place for a verse. The room where people linger deserves an image that rewards lingering.

How big should it be?

Bigger than you think. The most common mistake with canvas wall art in a living room is hanging a hallway-sized piece over the sofa, where it floats like a postage stamp. Three steps get the size right.

1. Measure what sits beneath it. For a sofa, console or mantel, the art above should span about two-thirds of its width. A 72-inch sofa wants roughly 48 inches of art. Our largest single canvas is 30x40, so 30 inches wide in portrait orientation; on a wide sofa, let a pair of 24x36 canvases do the work, or hang one 30x40 and let lamps or a plant on either side complete the width.
2. Set the height. On an open wall, the center of the piece should sit 57 to 60 inches from the floor, which is where most people's eyes land when standing. Above a sofa, that rule gives way to a simpler one: leave 6 to 10 inches between the top of the sofa back and the bottom of the canvas.
3. Tape it out first. Cut painter's tape to the outside dimensions of the size you are considering and put it on the wall. Live with it for a day. If it looks small at breakfast, go up a size.

For the record, our canvases come in 8x12, 12x16, 16x20, 20x30, 24x36 and 30x40 inches. For a living room, look at the last three first, or work through what size canvas goes above a sofa size by size.

What will the color do to my neutral room?

Most living rooms today are some shade of white, greige or oatmeal, so the art is often the largest block of color in the room. It pays to know what each direction does before it arrives.

Deep water does the most. A canvas dominated by slate-blue sea, like Above the Waves, cools a warm neutral room and gives the eye somewhere to settle. It reads as calm from the doorway and works especially well with wood or tan leather, where blue and brown steady each other.

Warm portrait light does the opposite. A piece built around a face lit from one side, in gold and umber, pulls a cool gray room toward warmth. In His Presence is our example of this, and it suits rooms that already have some depth, a dark sofa or a deep rug.

Pale shepherd fields almost disappear, and that is their gift. Chalk, soft earth and muted olive, the palette of Safe in His Care, sit inside a pale room rather than on top of it. If you want the art felt more than seen, this is the direction.

Carried by Grace sits between them: warm sand and ivory with a band of muted sea blue. It lifts a cool room without heating it.

Framed or frameless?

Frameless canvas, stretched over the pine bars with the image wrapping the edge, reads as relaxed and a little modern. It suits rooms with clean lines and rooms with a lot going on, because it adds no extra edge. Frameless pieces run from $59 for an 8x12 to $129 for a 24x36.

A frame finishes the piece. Natural pine warms it and suits light, airy rooms and farmhouse interiors. Black pine sharpens it and suits dark furniture, iron fixtures or a more formal feel. Framed pieces run from $129 for a 12x16 to $319 for a 30x40. In the most seen room in the house, the frame is usually worth it.

Will printed canvas look like a painting?

Printed canvas is a print, and we would rather say so plainly. The texture you see in a painterly image, the brushwork, the layered light, is part of the printed picture; it is not raised paint you could feel with a fingertip.

We print on matte cotton-polyester canvas, which holds color well and does not glare under living room lamps. You should know exactly what you are hanging before it goes up.

Which Christian wall art for living rooms like yours?

Three living rooms come to mind. Here is the piece we would point to for each.

A home that needs calm. Someone in the house is carrying something, a job, a diagnosis, a teenager, and the living room is where it collects. Above the Waves brings the words Jesus spoke to the frightened disciples into the room: "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." (Matthew 14:27, KJV)

The water is unsettled. He is not. Hung large over the sofa, that contrast does something to a room.

If you want to see the pieces sized for a sofa wall in one place, they are gathered under Christian wall art for the living room.

A family with young children. You want a picture a four-year-old can understand and a fourteen-year-old will not be embarrassed by when friends come over. Safe in His Care, the Good Shepherd holding a lamb close while wolves wait beyond his reach, is the one. The story tells itself, and its pale palette forgives a floor full of Legos.

A room where people come for comfort. Some living rooms are where friends come after a funeral, or where an aging parent sits in the afternoon. Carried by Grace shows one figure carrying another along a quiet shore, the promise God makes to Israel in Isaiah 46: "even I will carry, and will deliver you." (Isaiah 46:4, KJV)

The painting reads this as a promise for anyone who has run out of strength. That reading is ours, offered gently.

Who is the room really for?

Whatever you hang, it will be seen far more by the people who live with you than by anyone who visits. Choose the image you would want your children to remember from the sofa, the one you would want to look up at on a bad evening.

Get the size right, hang it at the right height, and then stop fussing. The room is for the people in it.

Frequently asked

What size wall art should go above a sofa?

About two-thirds of the sofa's width. For a standard 84-inch sofa that is roughly 56 inches of art, which usually means two canvases side by side or one large piece with lamps on either side. A single 24x36 or 30x40 holds a loveseat or a smaller sofa on its own.

How high should I hang large wall art in a living room?

On an open wall, center the piece 57 to 60 inches from the floor. Above a sofa or console, forget the center and leave 6 to 10 inches between the furniture and the bottom edge of the canvas instead, so the two read as one arrangement.

Should I hang one large piece or several small ones?

One large piece is calmer and easier to get right, and it suits the sofa wall. Several small pieces suit a stair wall or a hallway, where people move past rather than sit and look. If you do group them, keep 2 to 3 inches between pieces and size the whole group as one shape against the furniture.

Passages cited: Joshua 24:15; Matthew 14:27; Isaiah 46:4; John 10:11-15 (Safe in His Care, referenced not quoted).