There are few things I love more in a home than a well-considered art wall.
Done well, they're one of the most personal and surprisingly cost-effective ways to bring real character to a room, plus they're much easier to create than you'd often think. The key is knowing what to incorporate beyond the obvious. Once you start mixing textures, materials and scale, flat pieces alongside three-dimensional ones, carved wood next to woven textiles, something from Ghana next to a cherished souvenir or flea market find, your art wall will begin to come alive!
This is how we think about art walls at AARVEN, and how I'd encourage you to approach yours.
Start With One Anchor Piece
Every good art wall has something that earns its place at the centre, usually a piece large enough or striking enough to build around.
Our Ghanaian Sun Masks are a natural starting point. Hand carved from false rubber tree wood by Abdulai and his team in Ghana, the large versions (47cm across) have visual impact. The geometric carving, concentric rings of triangles radiating from a simple face are both striking and universally pleasing. We now have them in six colourways between the large and mini versions, so you can choose one bold centrepiece and add the smaller versions as satellites, or mix colourways for something more layered.
The sun mask mirrors from the same collection work just as well as an anchor and the added bonus of a mirror is that it bounces light around the wall.
The rule of thumb: your anchor piece should be the thing you'd miss most if you took it down. Start there and work outward.
Think Beyond Frames
The most common mistake with gallery walls is treating them like a picture rail. Frames are fine but the walls that really stand out mix flat and three-dimensional, smooth and textured, hung and propped.
Here's what we'd reach for from the AARVEN collection:
Kenyan wall hangings. Our woven wall hangings from Kenya are woven by hand on a traditional wooden loom, and they bring a softness and depth to a wall. The fluffy pom pom trim and natural variation in the hand dyed wool are the qualities that make a room feel warm and personal.
Kenyan placemats. This may sound unconventional but a woven Kenyan placemat hung on a wall is a beautiful thing. The circular shape echoes the sun mask form, the natural fibres add warmth, and grouped in a loose cluster they create a stunning, low-cost wall covering. Three or five together (odd numbers always work better) on a plain wall is one of our favourite quick styling tricks.
Ghanaian crocodile masks. At 52cm tall, our hand carved crocodile masks bring a completely different silhouette to the wall — elongated and figurative, a counterpoint to the circular sun masks. The new colourways (mustard and orange, blue and green, fluoro pink and white) mean you can choose something that works with your existing palette or use the mask as the starting point for a whole colour story.
Woven fans. A flat woven fan on a wall adds the same organic texture as a wall hanging but on a smaller scale. Our Ghana woven fans in natural grasses look particularly good grouped with the masks — the natural material creates a cohesive feel even when the shapes and scales vary and they make us think of sunny days year round.
Use Your Brass Hooks as Part of the Display
Our Ghanaian brass hooks, hand cast using the traditional lost-wax method by artisans in Ghana, are beautiful objects in their own right. When used to hang a beaded masaii choker, a cherished vintage necklace, a small embroidered purse or a favourite hat, they can give real presence to a more unusual addition to your art wall.
Mix Textures, Materials and Origins
The walls that feel most alive tend to have a mix of materials, something carved, something woven, something cast in metal, something printed or painted. The contrast is what creates the interest.
From AARVEN's collection, a wall might include:
The warm hand-carved wood of a Ghanaian mask alongside the natural fibre of a Kenyan wall hanging. The cool gleam of a brass hook next to the rough texture of a woven basket. A circular sun mirror catching light next to the angular geometry of a crocodile carving. A cluster of woven placemats in natural grasses alongside a single piece of framed artwork or a photograph from a trip.
None of these elements need to match. They just need to feel considered and personal.
A Word on Layout
Don't start with the wall. Lay everything on the floor first. Photograph it if you find this helpful. Keep moving things around until the grouping feels balanced without being symmetrical, then take it to the wall.
Odd numbers work better than even. Three masks, five placemats, seven objects. There's no rigid rule but odd groupings have a natural visual rhythm that even groupings often lack.
Vary the height. The instinct is to hang everything at eye level, try to resist this. Pieces hung slightly lower or higher than expected create movement.
Anchor to a central point, not a line. Rather than hanging a row of things, hang from an invisible centre point and let the composition radiate outward — higher on one side, lower on the other, a three-dimensional piece next to a flat one.
Leave breathing room. A wall crammed with objects reads as cluttered. The same number of objects with more space between them reads as collected. When in doubt, remove one thing.
The Walls We Love Most
In the AARVEN store in Margate, we're continually building our own art walls — Ghanaian masks and mirrors alongside brass hooks holding bags and jewellery, woven baskets and wall hangings layered in between. It changes regularly as new pieces arrive and the seasons shift. Which is the point: a great art wall isn't ever finished, it's a living thing.
The pieces we'd suggest starting with if you're building from scratch: a mask or carving, a Kenyan wall hanging or frame your favourite silk scarf, woven placemats or bowls for texture, a pair of brass hooks for function and beauty combined with a hat, a necklace, a bag that makes it yours, then add in a couple of prints, postcards or favourite photographs in a mix of frames.
