How to Style Scandinavian Wall Art in Your Living Room
Where to hang it, how big to go, which frame, and how to mix styles without losing the calm: a practical guide to styling Scandinavian wall art in the living room.
Scandinavian wall art earns its place in a living room by doing two things at once: bringing in warmth and character, and leaving the calm alone. Whether you live in a compact city flat or a spacious countryside home, Nordic artwork has a knack for anchoring a room without overwhelming it. The trick is understanding the principles behind Scandinavian design: simplicity, function and a deep connection to nature.
Start with your walls, not your art
Before you start browsing prints, step back and look at your living room with fresh eyes. Consider the wall space you've actually got, the natural light that moves through the room during the day, and the existing palette of your furniture. Scandinavian interiors tend to favour neutral backgrounds, whites, soft greys and natural wood tones, which is a canvas waiting for artwork to stand out against.
A common mistake is choosing art that simply matches your sofa cushions. Think contrast and conversation instead. A bold abstract like IThinkIThink against a minimal white wall creates the visual interest; a soft botanical such as Tree Top Peach beside a window draws the eye towards the light. The best Scandinavian living rooms use art as a counterpoint, not an echo.
The art of placement: where to hang Nordic prints
Placement matters as much as the artwork itself. A few approaches consistently work in living rooms:
Above the sofa
The classic position. For a single statement piece, choose something roughly two-thirds the width of your sofa, and hang it so the centre of the artwork sits at eye level, around 145 to 150 cm from the floor, leaving 15 to 25 cm between the frame and the sofa back. If you prefer a gallery arrangement, keep the spacing between frames consistent at around 5 to 8 cm.
Leaning on a shelf
A distinctly Scandinavian habit is leaning framed prints on a picture shelf or directly on a sideboard rather than hanging them. Relaxed, curated, and easy to change with the seasons. Layer pieces of different sizes, overlapping them slightly for depth; the square illustration prints, Mean Snothing among them, sit particularly well on a shelf.
The feature wall
Dedicate one wall to a single large-format piece and let it anchor the space, which works especially well in open-plan rooms. The biggest format we print is 50 x 70 cm, and it's enough: Swallow Dive can command a wall on its own, and Eltsjoen holds the same job through density rather than sheer size.
Choosing a colour palette that works
Scandinavian art tends to fall into a few colour families that work beautifully in Nordic-inspired interiors. Earth tones, terracotta, ochre and sage green, bring warmth without disrupting a neutral room; Morgenstrekk is the house example, ochre on warm peach. Blues and teals add a cool, coastal feel, which is the deep cobalt of Swallow Dive doing its work. And graphic, few-line illustrations bring punch to minimalist spaces.
When combining multiple prints, stick to two or three colours that appear across the pieces. They needn't match exactly, slight variation looks more natural, but a shared colour thread ties the arrangement together.
Framing: the finishing touch
The frame isn't an afterthought; it's part of the artwork's presence in your room. In Scandinavian homes, a natural wood frame is the default choice, warm against the pale timber Nordic furniture leans on. Black frames create a clean, graphic look that suits contemporary spaces. White frames disappear into white walls, letting the artwork itself take centre stage. All three are chosen on each product page.
A useful rule: if you're hanging multiple pieces, use the same frame style throughout. Consistency in framing creates cohesion even when the artwork styles differ.
Mixing art styles the Scandinavian way
One of the hallmarks of Scandinavian interiors is the confident mixing of art styles. An abstract print beside a botanical beside a deadpan character illustration: it shouldn't work, but it does, because the unifying thread is the restraint and quality of each piece.
The trick is to vary the subject matter but keep the tone consistent. Choose pieces that all feel considered and intentional, and avoid anything that feels mass-produced or generic. Scandinavian design is fundamentally about authenticity, and that applies to the art on your walls as much as the furniture beneath it.
Ready to find the piece? The living room collection is curated for exactly this room, and the whole gallery sits on our Scandinavian wall art page. If you've found the print but not the size, our guide to print sizes settles it. Every print is made to order, framed or unframed, and delivered worldwide.
