Sleeping & Napping Wall Art

Sleeping & Napping Wall Art

This subject belongs in bedrooms, nurseries and the occasional quiet snug, and it genuinely does not belong anywhere else. A sleeping cat above a dining table, or a dozing figure facing a desk, is a small joke that stops being funny by the second week, because the image describes a mood the room is not in. Put it where the mood matches and it works quietly for years.

Within a bedroom, the wall opposite the bed usually beats the wall behind it. You never see the piece above your own headboard, and a restful image is worth looking at from the pillow. If the space above the bed is the only option, keep it wide and low in contrast, and hang it high enough that nobody sitting up will catch it with an elbow.

Contrast is the technical thing to check. Bedrooms are dim for most of the hours you use them, and a very dark image lit by one bedside lamp becomes a black rectangle. Mid-tone images with soft edges keep their shape in low light. Very bright white images do the opposite and can feel glaring when a lamp catches them at night. Style splits between the sentimental and the graphic. Sleeping animals, curled cats and dozing children read as warm and personal. Line drawings of a resting figure are cooler and suit an adult bedroom that is not trying to look like a nursery. Decide which room this is before deciding which image it is.

For a child's room, buy for the parent as much as the child. Nursery taste changes every couple of years, and a piece that is calm and well drawn rather than cartoonish will move happily to the landing later on instead of going straight into the loft.