Maple Tree Wall Art

Maple Tree Wall Art

Pairing is the awkward part, because a maple in full colour is one of the loudest things you can hang. What lives happily beside it is anything with a different rhythm: a calm horizon, a black-and-white photograph, a piece of plain typography, a still life in muted tones. What does not work is a second autumn tree. Two blazing canopies in one room read as a display rather than a pair, and neither gets looked at properly.

The reds and oranges also set the room's temperature whether you intend it or not. Against a warm cream wall they merge and lose their punch; against grey, deep green or an off-white with a cool cast, they separate and look intentional. Wooden furniture in the same orange-brown family is the other thing to watch, since the picture and the sideboard can end up as one continuous smear of colour.

It is worth remembering that this subject has a winter version. A bare maple, all silhouette and branch structure, is a completely different proposition: graphic, quiet, far easier to live with in a room you have kept neutral. If the colour version worries you, the skeleton usually does the same job with a fraction of the noise.

Scale can be generous. A tree has a natural top and bottom, so tall formats suit it, and a large single canopy filling the frame holds a wall on its own without needing anything hung near it. Small maple prints tend to become an orange texture with a trunk in the middle.

Look out of your own window first. If there is a red maple or anything like it in view from the same seat, the two will compete every time the light changes, and you will end up preferring the real one. In that case, hang the print on the opposite wall or choose the bare-branch version instead.