Bedroom Wall Art: How to Choose and Position Photography Prints for the Room You Sleep In
The bedroom is, in one sense, the most important room in the house for wall art. You see the art on your walls last thing at night and first thing in the morning. You live with it at close quarters in a way that is different from living rooms, where art is viewed across a distance. The choice of what to hang in a bedroom — and how to hang it — matters more than most people realise.
The Mood Question
Before thinking about size, colour, or style, think about mood. What do you want the bedroom to feel like? For most people, the answer involves some combination of calm, comfort, and a sense of being removed from the demands of daily life. This emotional brief should guide the selection of wall art as much as any aesthetic consideration.
Long-exposure seascape photography — specifically the kind of pre-dawn or post-dusk imagery that characterises our Brighton collection — is exceptionally well suited to bedroom spaces. The smoothed water, the quiet horizons, the deep blues and silvers of the blue hour all communicate a visual calm that is difficult to achieve with any other subject matter. These images slow the room down. They create a sense of space and distance that is genuinely restful.
By contrast, high-energy images — bright colours, strong diagonals, busy compositions — can work against the psychological function of the bedroom. The wall above your bed is not the place for something that demands sustained attention.
Above the Bed: Size and Proportion
The most common position for bedroom wall art is above the headboard, and this is where the most important sizing decisions apply. The general principle is that the art should be narrower than the bed but wider than just the headboard itself. This keeps the art in visual proportion to the main piece of furniture in the room.
For a double bed (135cm wide), an A2 landscape print or an A3 portrait works well. For a king-size bed (150–180cm), consider an A2 portrait or an A1 landscape. The art should feel like a deliberate presence above the bed, not a token gesture.
The height of the lower edge of the frame matters too. Too close to the pillow level and it will feel crowded; too high and the relationship between the bed and the art breaks down. Generally, 15–25cm above the headboard is the appropriate clearance.
Orientation: Landscape or Portrait?
Above a bed, landscape orientation generally works better than portrait — the horizontal format mirrors the horizontal span of the bed and creates a settled, grounded composition. Portrait orientation works well in narrower positions: to the side of the bed, in an alcove, or on a wall that the bed does not occupy.
For a gallery arrangement above a bed, a combination of one landscape print flanked by two portrait prints of the same height creates a dynamic composition that is wide enough to span the bed without the visual rigidity of a single format.
Colour Considerations
Bedroom colour palettes tend toward the calm and the neutral: soft whites, pale greys, warm stone, sage green, dusty blue. Most of these palettes are excellent companions for our Brighton seascape prints, whose dominant tones of navy, silver, and pale gold sit comfortably within a wide range of bedroom colour schemes.
If your bedroom has a darker palette — deep navy walls, charcoal, forest green — our prints create a tonal harmony that is particularly effective. The art and the room speak the same visual language.
For very light, minimal bedrooms in white or off-white, a large print with strong, saturated colour creates a focal point that anchors the space. Our West Pier sunset prints — with their dramatic amber and gold — work especially well in this context.
Multiple Prints in the Bedroom
A bedroom can accommodate more than one print without feeling cluttered, provided the prints share a consistent visual language. Two prints flanking a window, in matching frames, create a symmetrical composition that suits the bilateral symmetry most bedrooms already have (two bedside tables, two wall lights). A pair of portrait prints on either side of the bed is one of the most classic and effective arrangements in residential interior design.
If you choose multiple prints, use the same frame for all of them — consistency of frame creates unity even when the images themselves vary.
Practical Considerations
Bedrooms are generally lower-light environments than living rooms, which affects how print colours read. Colours that look vibrant in direct light appear more muted in the softer, warmer light typical of a bedside lamp. This is generally a virtue rather than a problem — the cooler tones of our seascape prints, which can be stark in bright light, become more atmospheric and intimate in lower-light conditions.
Avoid placing prints where they will be regularly hit by direct morning sunlight. East-facing bedrooms can receive strong direct light in the morning, which will cause some fading over time even with UV-filtering glass. North-facing and west-facing walls are the safest positions from an archival standpoint.
Browse our bedroom photography prints and our size guide to find the right print for your space.