When someone walks into a business for the first time, they decide what kind of place it is in a few seconds. They haven't tried the coffee or met the stylist yet. They are going on what they can see. The walls are a large part of that.
Big companies pay designers to think about this. A small business usually can't, and ends up with bare paint, or a stock print that could hang anywhere. Good art is one of the cheaper ways to make a space look like it belongs to someone who cares. Here is how to choose it.
What art does for a business
- It sets the tone. Calm, energetic, playful, serious. Customers read the mood before they read the menu.
- It makes the place memorable. People remember the cafe with the huge neon city on the wall.
- It gives people something to look at. In a waiting area, a queue or a salon chair.
- It gets photographed. A striking wall ends up in customers' pictures, with your business in the background.
- It affects the people who work there. Staff look at those walls for eight hours a day.
Start with the feeling you want
Decide in a sentence how you want someone to feel in the space. Then choose art that does that.
- Calm and looked-after (therapy rooms, spas, clinics, yoga studios): soft, cool, low-contrast pieces. Misty landscapes, quiet skies. Blue Mountain Fog is the kind of thing.
- Creative and current (design studios, agencies, tattoo studios, barbers): bold, distinctive work with a point of view.
- Energetic and fun (gaming lounges, bars, comic and game shops, gyms): neon, saturated colour, strong subjects.
- Focused and professional (small offices, co-working spaces): restrained pieces with some depth. Cityscapes, monochrome work.
- Warm and sociable (cafes, bakeries): pieces with warmth and character.
By type of business
Cafes and bars
One large statement piece on the main wall gives the room an identity. Smaller pieces can go along a side wall or beside seating. Think about what will be behind customers in their photographs. Keep art away from the kitchen pass, the coffee machine and anywhere steam and grease reach.
Salons, barbers and tattoo studios
Clients sit facing a mirror for a long time, and they look at what is reflected behind them. The wall opposite the mirrors matters most. This is a place where strong, stylish art suits the business. Dark, graphic pieces such as CRT Lion Retro Wave, or the skulls and crows in our darker range, are at home in a barber's or a tattoo studio.
Gaming lounges, esports venues, game and comic shops
Neon city scenes and space art are a natural fit. Dark walls, with art lit from behind. See game room and den wall art.
Small offices and co-working spaces
Reception gets the statement piece. Meeting rooms get something calm and neutral that won't distract, and that looks good behind people on video calls. Work areas get art with depth, which rests the eyes. A night skyline such as Starlight City suits an office well.
Treatment and consulting rooms
Calm above all. Avoid anything dark, unsettling or busy. Landscapes and soft abstracts. Consider what a client sees when lying down or sitting in the chair.
Short-term rental properties
Art is what stops a rental looking like a show flat. One strong piece per room photographs well in the listing. Choose subjects with wide appeal. If the property is in a city we cover, a skyline of that city is an obvious choice. See Chicago skyline art.
Where to hang it
- The wall people see first when they come in.
- Behind the counter or reception desk. It frames your staff and appears in photographs.
- Where people wait.
- Where people sit and face.
- A wall that works as a photo spot, if that suits the business.
Hang with the centre at about 57 to 60 inches from the floor. See how high to hang wall art.
Formats for a commercial space
- Canvas is the most practical. It has no glass to break, smear or reflect shop lighting, and it is light and safe on a wall above customers. It suits large statement pieces.
- Framed posters have a protective cover, which helps in places where people brush past or where the air isn't clean. They suit rows in corridors and waiting areas.
- Tapestries cover a big wall for little money and soften the sound in a hard, echoing room. They are less durable in a busy public area.
See canvas vs poster vs framed poster.
Practical points
- Go large. Commercial rooms are bigger than domestic ones, and small art disappears.
- Fix it securely. Use proper wall anchors for anything large, and two fixing points so it can't be knocked crooked. In a public space this is a safety matter.
- Keep it out of reach of bags, chair backs and children where you can.
- Avoid direct sun, steam and grease. See canvas care.
- Light it. A spotlight on the main piece is worth the cost.
- Dust it as part of the cleaning routine.
Keep it consistent
A business looks more professional when its art hangs together. Choose one style, one palette or one frame colour, and stay with it throughout. Take the colours from your branding if you have any. Three pieces from the same series look far better than three unrelated ones.
Choose original art
The same handful of stock prints hang in thousands of businesses. Customers have seen them, whether or not they know it. Original work from an independent studio is something they won't have seen elsewhere, and it tells them you chose it. See collecting original digital art from an independent studio.
A note on using artwork in a business
Buying a print gives you the object to display. It doesn't give you the right to reproduce the image, for example on your own merchandise, menus or advertising. Our terms say so. If you would like to do more with a piece than hang it, get in touch first.
Ordering for a business
Each piece is made to order: 2 to 7 business days for production and 3 to 7 for US delivery. Allow three weeks before an opening date. Different product types ship separately. Measure the walls before you choose sizes, because returning a made-to-order piece in the wrong size means paying the return shipping yourself. The canvas size guide will help.
Browse the canvas art and framed posters collections.