Office wall art: how to choose paintings for the office

A painting in an office does two jobs at once. It tells a client what kind of company you are before you say a word, and it makes the room where your team spends eight hours a day a friendlier place.

SvetSlik has sold hand-painted paintings on canvas since 2011, and for business premises we put together a whole set made to fit the space. Our biggest project was the Kempinski Palace Portorož hotel, with more than 250 framed paintings, and we also furnished a furniture showroom in Ljubljana. This guide covers what to choose for the reception, meeting room, offices, corridors and waiting rooms.

Paintings room by room

Reception and entrance

This is where a client forms a first impression. It calls for one large painting, around 150 × 100 cm or more, or a multi-panel painting on stretchers that fills the wall behind the desk. Match the subject to the company: a modern abstract in your brand colours, a landscape from your region, or a reproduction of a famous work.

Meeting room

Put the painting on the shorter wall that everyone at the table can see, not behind the chair at the head. Make it about two thirds the width of the table or wall. Calm subjects such as landscapes, the sea or a quiet abstract don’t pull attention away from the meeting. In photo 1 the painting hangs on the end wall of the meeting room, where everyone at the table can see it.

Director’s office

One painting behind the desk or facing it, around 80 × 120 or 70 × 100 cm. This is the place for a more personal choice: a famous work you love, or a subject painted to your own idea. Photo 2 shows an office with a single painting in a light frame beside the desk.

Open-plan offices and corridors

On long walls, a row of paintings of the same size, for example 50 × 70 or 60 × 80 cm, at the same height and evenly spaced. A row looks orderly and breaks up a long space. Photo 3, taken in a dining room, shows how a row of same-size paintings works.

Waiting room and clinic

In a doctor’s or dentist’s practice, at a physiotherapist or in a beauty salon, clients wait and look at the wall. Choose calm, light subjects: nature, the sea, flowers or soft abstracts in pastel colours.

Hang the centre of the painting about 145 to 150 cm from the floor. Above a sofa or sideboard, keep the bottom edge 20 to 30 cm above the backrest.

Subjects by type of business

Framed or on stretchers?

Both work in an office. A painting stretched on 2.5 cm stretcher bars with painted edges looks modern and light and suits multi-panel paintings. A framed painting is more formal, and the frame protects the edges in corridors and waiting rooms where a lot of people walk past. Stretching and framing are done in our workshop in Slovenia, so the paintings arrive ready to hang. Photo 4 shows a painting in a black floater frame.

Why a hand-painted painting and not a print

A canvas print costs less, but a client waiting next to the painting sees the difference: brushstrokes, layers of paint and depth. A hand-painted painting is one of a kind, so your reception doesn’t have the same picture as the company next door. It’s a small but visible sign that you care about details.

How to order paintings for an office

1. Wall photos. Send photos of the walls, rough measurements, your brand colours or the designer’s brief.
2. Quote for your space. We prepare a quote for your premises: paintings from our range, reproductions or new subjects.
3. Painted by hand. The paintings are painted by hand by the different painters we work with. You get a photo of each painting before it ships.
4. Delivery. Made to order usually in 15 to 45 days; paintings in stock ship in 6 working days.

For hotels, restaurants and holiday rentals there are separate guides: paintings for hotels, paintings for restaurants and paintings for holiday rentals. Paintings suited to workspaces are in the paintings for the office category, and entirely your own subjects on our made-to-order page.