If you've ever hung a piece of art and thought it didn't feel quite right for the space, chances are it is too small. Not to worry! I have a trick to make art feel larger in a space if you are 100% sold on it's current location. See my tips here.
If you are starting with a blank space and looking to purchase a correctly sized piece, I have a simple formula to help you determine how large of a piece you need. This works for filling a void above a piece of furniture -- think sofa, bed, console table, but also a mantle or a small blank wall.
Measure the size of the piece of furniture below the space you are looking to fill. You want to find a piece (or pieces) that are 2/3 the width of the piece below. Take the width of the piece of furniture and multiply it by .67. For example if you have a 96" sofa, you would multiply 96 x .67 = 64.32. You can round this to the nearest round number which in this case is 65".
You can purchase one piece that is the full width of the number you received (in our previous example, 65"), or you can will the space with multiple piece (for example, 3 20" pieces with a 2.5" gap between each piece). Of course, there is room for nuance here, so remember if you absolutely love a piece, but it's a bit too small, you can fudge it using my tips here. And when in doubt, if you have the room, larger art makes more of an impact that smaller art!
Happy art hunting!