Desk Mat and Wall Art Pairings: 5 Combinations From the Catalogue

When you sit at a desk, two surfaces fill your view: the wall in front of you and the desk below it. If the art on one and the mat on the other have something in common, the whole corner looks designed. If they have nothing in common, it looks like two separate purchases.

Many Kiyo Arts designs come as both wall art and a desk mat, which makes pairing easy. Here is the principle, followed by five combinations that work.

Three ways to pair

• Match. The same artwork on the wall and the desk. It is the most cohesive, and the simplest. It works best when the artwork is abstract or has an all-over composition, so the two don't look like a repeated photo.
• Echo. Different artwork, same colours. The wall piece and the mat share a palette, so they look related without being identical. This is usually the most stylish option.
• Balance. One loud, one quiet. A bold, detailed piece on the wall and a calm, dark mat below it, or the other way round. This keeps the corner from becoming overwhelming.

What to avoid is two loud, detailed pieces in unrelated colours. They fight each other, and you sit between them.

1. The purple setup: a full match

Wall: Purple Pink Wormhole as a poster or tapestry.
Desk: the Purple Pink Wormhole desk mat.

A spiral of purple and pink light around a black centre, on both surfaces. This is a match, and it works because the design is abstract and circular. On the wall you see the whole vortex. On the desk, the keyboard covers the middle and the spiral sweeps out around it. Add purple or pink LED lighting and the corner becomes one continuous colour scheme.

Good for: a gaming or streaming setup. We look at the piece in detail in Purple Pink Wormhole: a closer look.

2. The calm office: an echo in blue

Wall: Blue Mountain Fog on canvas.
Desk: the Frost Owl desk mat.

Two different pictures in the same cold blue and white. On the wall, pine trees fade into cloud. On the desk, a white owl sits in front of a misty blue forest. They look like two views of the same place. Nothing here is loud, so it suits long working days and looks tidy on a video call.

For a simpler version, use the Blue Mountain Fog desk mat for a direct match.

Good for: a work-from-home desk, a study, a professional office.

3. The neon street: balance

Wall: Japanese City Punk FX.2 Koi Attack as a large poster.
Desk: the Cyberpunk Slick Street desk mat.

The wall piece is busy and colourful: two giant orange koi over a street of blue towers and red signs. The mat is the quiet partner: a night street that is mostly black, with streaks of white, red and green light. They share a subject, the city at night, and the mat's darkness gives the eye a rest from the wall. The black mat also hides marks and sits well under a dark keyboard.

Good for: a gaming setup with character. See Koi Attack and Cyberpunk Slick Street for a closer look at each.

4. The teal grid: a match with depth

Wall: Cyber Wave Escape on canvas.
Desk: the Cyber Wave Escape desk mat.

A glowing teal wireframe grid runs to the horizon between wireframe mountains, under a sky streaked with light. This match has a neat effect. The grid in the picture is a floor stretching away from you, and the mat on the desk continues it toward you. The desk seems to run into the wall. It pairs naturally with cyan or teal lighting.

Good for: a retro-futurist setup, or anyone who wants one strong colour.

5. The dark and violet: an echo

Wall: CRT Lion Retro Wave on canvas.
Desk: the Hand of the Stars desk mat.

On the wall, a lion drawn in pale violet light on pure black. On the desk, a glassy violet-pink hand against a dark, starry sky. Both are mostly dark, and both have one bright subject in the violet family. The lion is hard-edged and the hand is soft, which stops the pairing feeling repetitive. With violet or cool white lighting, this is the moodiest setup of the five.

Good for: a dark room, a black desk, a setup you use mostly at night. See CRT Lion Retro Wave and Hand of the Stars.

Building your own pairing

1. Choose the wall piece first. It is bigger and you look at it more directly.
2. Name its two main colours.
3. Pick a mat that contains at least one of them. Our guide to choosing a desk mat by colour scheme sorts the mats by colour.
4. Check the noise level. If the wall piece is detailed, choose a simpler or darker mat. If the wall piece is calm, the mat can carry more.
5. Bring in the lighting. Set any LED lighting to one of the two colours.

Things to keep in mind

• The keyboard covers the middle of the mat. Designs with interest across the whole surface, such as grids, spirals and landscapes, show better than those with one subject in the centre.
• Size the wall piece to the desk. Aim for about two-thirds of the desk's width. For a 48-inch desk, that is around 30 inches of art.
• Hang it at seated eye level. Lower than you would in a hallway. The bottom edge should sit 6 to 10 inches above the top of the monitor or the desk.
• Choose the right mat size. See the desk mat size guide.
• Use canvas or matte paper on the wall. Glass behind a desk reflects the screen.

Our earlier post, pairing canvas wall art with your desk mat, covers the thinking behind this in more depth. Browse the desk mats and canvas art collections to put your own pair together.