When it comes to choosing paint colours for your house, it’s not just the light that a room receives and how you’ll use it that you need to take into consideration. For those who collect art – be it affordable prints or Old Masters – you need to be sure that all your framed pieces will look right against the walls. That doesn’t mean, however, that you need white walls; far from it, in fact some of the examples below from the House & Garden archive prove how good art can look when hung against the right paint colour.
Advice on hanging art and pairing with paint colours
Clare Simpson, Head of exhibitions at Dulwich Picture Gallery, says this when it comes to choosing colours to hang art against: ‘Use the palette of the artworks as a starting point, and look for surprising accents. You don’t want the paint to compete with the art, so find a balance of being bold without being dominating. Don’t be afraid of dark paint shades, as their intensity can create real drama. Use a matt paint finish because it recedes and prevents sheen and reflections caused by lighting.’
‘If you are working with any paintings with yellowing varnish, choose a paint colour that will counteract the yellow,’ says Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, a curator at Tate Britain. ‘Shades with degrees of purple work well – aubergine and deep reds are especially good.’ Try ‘Radicchio’ from Farrow & Ball, £43.50 for 2.5 litres of emulsion.