Planning guide

The venue art planning guide.

Everything a facilities manager, owner or designer needs to specify art for a commercial space in one sitting: counts, sizes, heights, spacing, glazing, lighting and licensing. Written for people who have walls to fill, not galleries to run.

How many pieces

Count walls, not square feet. Every public room has one anchor wall, the one people face when they enter or sit, and that wall gets the largest piece. After that, one print per 150 to 300 square feet of public floor area is the normal range: dense for cafes and salons where people sit close to walls, sparse for gyms and retail where the walls are far away or full of product.

Rooms that repeat (guest rooms, treatment rooms, rentals): one print per room, plus two or three for the shared areas per ten rooms.
Corridors: one print at each turn or junction, not evenly along the length.
Restrooms and corridors to them: one print each. They are photographed more than the dining room.

A DecoSwift bundle is five prints composed to hang together, so most rooms of 800 to 1,500 square feet take one bundle and larger floors take one per 2,000 to 3,000 square feet. The planner does the arithmetic.

Which size for which wall

Size follows viewing distance. Within arm's reach, in booths, between salon stations and in small rooms, and across a table or a desk, the standard 16×20 print reads as intentional; on a wider wall, hang them in pairs and trios. Across a room, behind a reception desk or above a sofa on a wall over 10 feet wide, a larger print earns its place, and those sizes are available on quote. A single piece should span roughly half to two thirds of the furniture below it; a group of three should span about three quarters.

DecoSwift sets ship as five 16×20 prints, all 4:5, so one framing standard covers a whole building. Larger sizes keep the same ratio and are quoted per project, so a set can be mixed across sizes without the proportions changing.

Hanging height

Standing rooms (lobbies, corridors, retail, reception): centre of the print at 57 to 60 inches from the floor.
Seated rooms (dining, waiting rooms, salons, booths): centre at 50 to 54 inches, so the art sits in the seated eye line rather than above everyone's heads.
Above furniture: bottom edge 6 to 10 inches above a sofa back, desk or console, 8 to 12 inches above a headboard.
Above shelving or mirrors: bottom edge 4 to 6 inches above the top of the obstacle, which usually puts the centre near 64 inches.

Pick one height per room and hold it along a wall; a row of frames at different heights is the most common way a good set ends up looking cheap.

Grouping and spacing

Pairs and trios in one size with 4 to 6 inches between frames read as one piece. Mixed sizes work when the centres align, not the tops. Leave at least the width of a frame between a group and the next thing on the wall (a door, a sconce, a menu board). The placement guide in each bundle marks which print anchors, which hang as a pair and which stands alone.

Glazing, frames and light

Glass for quiet rooms. Acrylic where things get knocked: corridors, gyms, bars, kids' areas, anywhere over seating people climb out of. Non-glare acrylic under spotlights and in video-call rooms.
UV glazing on walls that get afternoon sun, or the colours fade over a few years.
Sealed backs in clinics and salons so the frame can be wiped with the room.
Security hangers in rentals, bars and anywhere with turnover.
Lighting: a small warm spot at about 30 degrees per anchor piece. Dark prints need it; light prints survive without.

Frame colour follows the room's metals and timber: black and white for modern fit-outs, oak for Scandinavian and warm interiors, walnut for traditional rooms. Keep one colour per location.

Licensing, in plain terms

A print bought for a home comes with the right to hang it at home. Hanging it in a business, in a room you rent to guests, or in a photo that advertises the business is commercial display, and that needs a license from the artist or publisher. Most online print shops do not grant one, which becomes a problem at a brand audit, a franchise inspection or a lease handover.

Every DecoSwift bundle includes a commercial display license covering premises the buyer owns or leases, and the marketing photography made there, with paperwork you can file. It does not cover reselling the prints or using the artwork on products.

Budget

Budget the prints, the frames and the hanging separately. DecoSwift bundles run $179 to $199 per set of five at list, 15% off from five sets, and project pricing from ten. Off-the-shelf 16×20 frames with glazing typically cost $25 to $60 in US retail, and frames for the larger quoted sizes $45 to $200; custom framing is two to four times that. A handyman hangs about twenty pieces in a day. The planner produces all three numbers for your space.

Quick rules by venue

Space	Sizing rule
Cafes and coffee shops	Cafe walls are usually 10 to 16 feet wide with seating along them, so prints are seen from close range.
Restaurants	Dining rooms are viewed from a seated position across tables, so hang the standard 16×20 prints in threes and fives rather than singly, and ask for a larger size on quote for walls over 12 feet wide or behind a host stand.
Hotels and boutique hospitality	Guest rooms take a pair of 16×20 above a queen or king headboard and a single above desks and in bathrooms.
Offices	Open-plan walls are long, so spacing matters more than size: one 16×20 every 15 to 20 feet along circulation, a trio or a larger quoted print in reception, 16×20 pairs in rooms under 12 feet wide.
Coworking spaces	Coworking floors are long and open: 16×20 singles along runs, a trio or a larger quoted print at the entry, singles in booths and small rooms.
Dental and medical clinics	Patients view clinic art from seated positions, so centre prints lower than usual, around 50 to 54 inches in waiting areas, and place treatment-room prints exactly where the reclined patient's eyes rest.
Salons and spas	Salons are seen seated: centre prints at 50 to 54 inches near stations and beds, 57 to 60 inches at reception.
Bars and lounges	Bars are viewed seated and from across the room: one 16×20 per booth, and a trio or a larger quoted print on the feature wall.
Short-term rentals and vacation homes	Rental rooms are domestic in scale: a pair of 16×20 above sofas and queen beds, singles elsewhere.
Gyms and yoga studios	Training floors are big and mirrored: group the 16×20 prints in threes, or ask for a larger size on quote, hung above mirror height.
Retail and boutiques	Retail art hangs above the product line, so centres sit higher than usual: 62 to 66 inches above shelving, 57 to 60 behind a desk.
Senior living communities	Hang lower than in offices: 50 to 54 inches to centre in corridors and dining rooms, since many residents are seated or use mobility aids.