What height should office artwork be hung?

Centre the artwork at about 155cm from the floor in standing areas (receptions, corridors). Above sofas or credenzas, leave 15-25cm between the furniture and the frame's bottom edge.

What artwork suits a boardroom?

Calm, confident and non-distracting: large-scale abstracts or landscapes in a restrained palette. Avoid busy detail and figurative subjects that pull attention during meetings — and avoid small pieces, which read as indecision.

How do I plan artwork for my whole office?

Photograph each key space and upload to ArtBuyer — it returns a commission-ready plan per space: curated set, exact sizes, placement, a monthly lease quote and a rendered preview. First curation free.

Office artwork: the size and placement guide

Clients judge your reception in seconds; staff live with your walls for years. Room by room, here's what works.

Reception — your one first impression

This is the highest-value wall in the building. One large piece (or a bold diptych) behind or facing the entry, sized to 60–75% of the wall width, centred at ~155cm. The style should say what your firm wants to be — a law practice and a creative agency should not buy the same painting. Skip the motivational-quote posters; visitors read them as filler.

Boardroom — confident, calm, big

Large-scale, restrained, non-distracting: abstract fields, landscapes, subtle texture. Nothing busy that pulls eyes mid-negotiation, and never a cluster of small frames — in a boardroom, small art reads as small thinking. One wall gets the statement; the others stay quiet.

Open plan — rhythm over randomness

Open floors need a repeating visual rhythm: a series of related pieces (same size, same palette family, evenly spaced) along the main sightlines. Series create order in visually noisy space; random one-offs add to the noise. This is also where colour psychology earns its keep — blues and greens for focus areas, warmer tones in collaboration zones.

Corridors and stairwells — the free gallery

Long walls with guaranteed foot traffic: hang a sequenced set (think chapters, not repeats) at consistent height and spacing. Corridors tolerate more adventurous work than client-facing rooms — they're where an art budget buys the most personality per dollar.

What a full office costs: lease it

Bought from galleries, a fully curated mid-size office runs well into five figures of capital spend — which in NZ generally can't be depreciated, and is why most offices settle for posters. Leased, a commissioned six-piece collection covering reception, boardroom and key sightlines typically runs NZ$149–800 a month on a 12-month term, framed and delivered, usually treated as a deductible operating expense (confirm with your accountant), with the collection refreshable at each renewal.

Plan every space from photos

Upload a photo per space — get curated sets, exact sizes, placement notes, a monthly lease quote, and rendered previews of your actual walls. First curation free.

Curate my office →

FAQ

Prints or originals for an office?

Client-facing spaces earn hand-painted originals — and leased commissioned collections make originals cost less per month than most firms spend on plants. Back-of-house can mix in quality framed prints without anyone noticing at walking distance.

Who owns the leased artwork?

The leasing house does — that is exactly what keeps it off your balance sheet and the payments in your operating expenses. You hold the collection for the term and refresh, renew or return it at each anniversary.

What does ArtBuyer cost?

First full curation free; packs from NZ$19 for 3 spaces.