Get creative with your home decor and explore our collection of 50 Nordic wall art pieces from the UK! With prints from abstract to geometric and everything in between, add some style to your walls today.

Transform Your Walls The Scandi Way

We all know that feeling when a giant empty wall is staring at us in the face and a question pops into our head – what should I put up here? How do I decorate this? Where do I even start?

Scandinavian design is all about white walls and decorating them effortlessly with prints and wall art, yet, if you tried to recreate that well-known calm but stylish vibe in your home you may have found it more challenging than it seemed initially.

There are a few tips and tricks worth knowing before you start! We’re sharing the basics today on the blog hoping to make your life easier. Take these tips into consideration, follow your instincts and success is (almost) guaranteed.

However, with some clear, easy-to-follow steps, it’s simpler than you think to tackle a restyle of your home. Anyone can do it and do it well! So, let’s dig in and discuss the key considerations you can make when you renovate your home.

1. Inspiration

Seriously, you need inspiration. Whether you find it on social media, in a magazine or a friends home… it’s ok to copy something you see elsewhere! You could start by looking through our own scandi themed ideas. Pick a few wall arrangements, prints or photo collages that you like and then start to apply the ideas to your own home. You can print off images or print samples and stick them to the wall, live with it for a few days, see how it feels – it’s useful to do this before you order in the high-resolution versions & frames, just to make sure you’re choosing wall décor you’ll truly love & enjoy.

2. Proportions

If you’re a minimalist, you may want to use one big print rather than many small ones. You can use a combination of matching prints or a photo collage if you prefer a “busier” look. If you are lucky enough to live in a place with giant spaces and tall ceilings, then big pieces of artwork will work much better as they will match the proportions of the room. In a small home on the other hand, with a low ceiling height, you may want to carefully consider the size of your art – one oversized item may add some edginess to the look, but overall just pay attention and keep the proportions in line with the architectural characteristics of your home.

3. Less is More

A statement piece of art, a colorful abstract print or a powerful quote will need its space to breathe. We call this a focus point and you want these pieces to steal the attention. If you squash too many interesting things next to each other in a relatively small space they will “fight for attention” (designer talk! I know…), but it will look too busy and out of balance.

4. High or Low

In Scandinavian design, there are no strict rules about where you put your prints. All this freedom can lead to choice paralysis, but there’s a few simple best practices that can help with picture placement.

You can keep your giant framed prints on the floor. This is especially good news for those in rented flats. You can put an iconic Scandi print next to a standalone green plant on the floor, maybe spice it with a large paper bag storage with a cool quote and you’re done – the Scandi vibe just moved into your home!

Before you hang, STOP. The tendency for many is to hang artwork too high. If you’re positioning your artwork, experts usually recommend centering the vertical middle of your picture to be 57 inches from the ground.

You could also put your framed art on sideboards, chests of drawers or any other flat surface. It’s also super popular to use picture ledges in Scandinavian homes to display a set of prints above the sofa for example. This is good for those of you who like to swap things around and redecorate every 2-3 months as you can easily change the prints and the vibe of your room without having to drill or re-measure distances, etc. You’ll fix up your ledges just once and then get creative!

If you’re going for a more formal look or have small children and want to play safe hanging your prints on the wall is probably your best bet. For big and heavy stuff I would go for drilling and proper hanging solutions suitable for the type of wall, but for photo collages and matching print collections that are framed using acrylic, you could use picture hanging products that just stick to the wall and are easy to remove without damage. If you’re not experienced in measuring frame heights and distances, this is also the easiest way to get it right, because you can change it as many times as you want, plus it’s a “see what you get” kind of technique – unlike drilling holes and then guessing how the prints will hang.

5. Colour, Thickness, Style

On white walls, I love to create contrast so I am most likely to use black frames or natural wood, especially in living areas. Children’s bedrooms are a bit different as I would strive to create a very calm space to help children rest, therefore I may use white frames on white walls with prints that have a white background and soft, pastel colours.

In terms of style and the thickness of the frames, just go with what you like! Scandinavian is the kind of style that “tolerates” a lot and will easily absorb eclectic accessories. I’d start with eFrame’s Scandi collection – frames designed to fit with Scandinavian design interiors.

6. Pull it all together

Wall art is an amazing opportunity to create flow in your home. It can be used in so many different ways, but consider it as the bridge between the different colours and styles that you use. Here are a few examples of how you can pull the room together with wall décor:

Monochrome, keeping a simple black and white theme with spots of colour (think a colorful abstract art) can create a really bold and contrasting space. For more ideas on framing black and white pictures, click here.
Well planned use of colour with complementing accessories, like throws and cushions is an effective way to bring life to your room. Go for pastel tones, not saturated. A series of matching prints is a great option.
Eclectic spaces, a giant collection of all sorts of things – add some black & white art, keep the proportions of the room and the layout you adopted in the room when you’re choosing the size of your art.
When there isn’t much in the spaces you can add lots of small prints on your walls and it will balance that feeling of emptiness. Displaying family photos always helps to make you feel more at home.