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Large art above the bed
The wall above a bed is the widest blank wall in most homes, and it has a built-in ruler: the headboard. Art above a bed follows the same proportion as art above a sofa — about two thirds of the width of what sits under it — but beds are wider than sofas, so the numbers go up.
By bed size
US mattress widths are fixed, so the art widths are too:
| Bed | Mattress width | Span to aim for (one piece or a set) | Sizes that fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full | 54 in | 36–42 in | 36 × 24, 40 × 20 |
| Queen | 60 in | 40–45 in | 40 × 20, 48 × 24, 45 × 15 as a set of three 15 × 15 |
| King / California king | 72–76 in | 48–58 in | 48 × 24, 60 × 20, 60 × 40 if the ceiling allows, a 3-piece set of 20 × 30 |
Headboards are usually a few inches wider than the mattress; if yours is much wider, measure the headboard instead.
Why horizontal
A bed is a long low rectangle. A long low rectangle above it — a 2:1 or 3:1 panorama — continues the line and makes the room feel wider. A tall piece fights the bed and, over a king, looks like a postage stamp. This is the one wall where the “long horizontal” shape is almost always right, which is why our long horizontal pages exist.
How high
The bottom of the frame should sit 8 to 12 inches above the top of the headboard — a little more than above a sofa, because nobody’s head sits against this wall and the extra air keeps the piece from looming. With a 48 in headboard and a 24 in tall print, the top of the frame lands near 84 inches.
If the headboard is very tall (five feet or more), go wider rather than taller: a 60 × 20 panorama rather than a 48 × 32.
Canvas or framed?
Above a bed there is nothing to bump the art, so an unframed stretched canvas is fine and its light weight makes hanging easy. A float frame adds a crisp dark edge that suits a modern room; a classic frame suits a traditional one. Whatever you choose, use two hooks for anything over 36 inches wide, so it stays level — the hanging guide on every product page shows how, and none of our pieces ship with hanging hardware, so you choose the hooks that suit your wall.
Bedrooms are dark rooms
Bedrooms get less light than living rooms, and that changes what works. Images with a light ground — a misty landscape, a pale panorama, a quiet abstract — read well in low light; a dense dark image above a bed becomes a dark rectangle at night. The “Dark living room” scene in the product-page preview is a fair stand-in for a bedroom at dusk; flip to it before you decide.
See the Long Horizontal collection →
Sources
Every piece is a new print made to order: studio artwork created for this shop, or a restored public-domain work. New made-to-order prints — not originals or antiques, not hand-painted; restored works (paintings, prints and historic photographs) are new prints made from museum scans. Colors vary by screen and by material.
