You’re standing in a room where the kitchen flows into the dining area, which flows into the sofa area, all within one open space - and you’re wondering where on earth to start hanging art. It’s the most common question we get from people who live in open-plan homes, and it’s a perfectly reasonable one. A poster that works perfectly in a small, closed-off room can look out of place when it has to share the same wall space with three different functions. This buying guide will help you choose posters that bring an open-plan space together rather than divide it, while still giving each part of the room its own feel. We’ll cover how to think about color, format, and quantity, what to avoid, and how to create a cohesive look throughout the space.
First, a little background, because it explains why this question is so relevant right now. Open-plan living came to Sweden as early as the 1960s, but didn’t catch on widely until the 1990s, partly because it kept construction costs down. The most common approach is to combine the kitchen and living room, and that’s the combination that places the greatest demands on how you choose artwork.
How an open-plan space changes your buying decision
In a closed-off room, you buy one picture at a time and let each room speak its own language. In an open-plan space, you’re buying a cohesive whole instead. The eye sees several walls at once, often in the same glance, so things can quickly look cluttered if each wall pulls in its own direction with a different color palette, frame type, and style. That doesn’t mean everything has to match exactly - quite the opposite, as that can feel stiff. But there should be a common thread: a shared underlying tone, a consistent family of frames, and a considered choice about how much each zone should stand out.
Think of it as decorating a landscape rather than a room. The kitchen area can often handle more energy and humor, the dining area benefits from something that brings things together and creates a sense of calm, and the sofa area is where you can let a larger focal point take center stage. So when you buy posters for an open-plan space, you’re not just choosing images - you’re distributing attention across an entire area. A good place to start is to choose one main wall for the largest artwork, then let the other walls complement it in a slightly lower key.
Color is your most important binding element. Choose a palette of two or three base tones that recur in every zone – for example, warm ochre, muted green and greige – then vary the designs within that framework. That way, a still life in the kitchen, a landscape by the dining table and an abstract composition above the sofa can still feel like they belong together. If you need help finding the right color scheme, we have a complete guide to how you can match posters to your interior, which is especially useful when several zones need to work together.
Zone with art: which posters for which area
Zoning is the key to making an open-plan layout work. Interior designers often talk about defining zones with rugs, furniture and lighting, but art is just as powerful – a carefully arranged group of prints immediately says “a new part of the room starts here.” Here’s how you can distribute the designs.
The kitchen area is a great place for smaller formats and designs related to food and drink. Fruit, herbs, coffee or a graphic quote in 30x40 or 40x50 cm work well on a short stretch of wall or between cabinets and the countertop. Keep it light and a little playful; the kitchen can handle more personality than many other spaces.
At the dining area, look for something that brings the space together. A symmetrical arrangement – two or four prints of the same size in a row, or a calm triptych – gives the table a clear focal point and marks it as its own zone. Botanical prints, still lifes and peaceful landscapes work beautifully because they don’t compete with conversation and food.
You can go bold in the sofa area. This is where the open-plan layout’s biggest focal point belongs: a large 70x100 cm print, or a carefully arranged group of several prints above the sofa. For a sense of depth and calm, choose abstract or minimalist designs, while those who want more impact can opt for a bolder artwork that draws the eye across the entire room. You’ll find plenty of contenders for the role among our 70x100 cm posters.
Quick facts: In a recent Swedish survey, 48 percent preferred a partially open-plan layout – down three percentage points since 2019. The share who preferred a fully open-plan layout fell from 20 to 15 percent, while the preference for enclosed layouts rose from 27 to 32 percent after the pandemic. So the trend is toward softer zoning rather than one large space – and art is especially useful as a boundary.
Three mistakes that disrupt an open-plan layout
The first and most common mistake is buying each picture separately, at different times and without a common thread. The result is a wall that looks like a noticeboard of random choices. Decide on your palette and frame family before you start, and you’ll avoid that trap.
The second mistake is mixing too many frame styles. In an enclosed room, you barely notice it, but in an open space where everything is visible at once, alternating between gold, black, white and oak creates a cluttered look. Choose one, or at most two, frame styles and stick to them throughout the space. A consistent slim oak or black frame is almost always a safe choice.
The third mistake is choosing art that’s too small. Open-plan layouts often have large, continuous wall surfaces, and a single small picture in the middle of a wall like that looks lost. Either go bigger or group several pieces together to fill the space. If you’re unsure how to put together a grouping like this, our complete guide to gallery walls is a great place to start.
“In an open-plan space, you’re not buying individual pictures – you’re distributing attention across an entire area, and the art becomes the invisible walls the room is missing.”
Practical measurements, formats and smart bundles
Once the palette and zones are set, the rest is a matter of craftsmanship. Always hang art with the center of the piece at eye level, around 145–150 centimeters from the floor, even when ceilings are high – it’s the viewer, not the ceiling, that determines the height. Above a sofa, position the art so it takes up about two-thirds of the sofa’s width, leaving 15–25 centimeters of space between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the artwork so they feel visually connected.
For an open-plan space, thoughtfully curated sets are often a shortcut to a cohesive look. Instead of piecing together individual prints, you can start with a ready-made series that already shares a color palette and style, and distribute it across your zones. Our poster bundle deals are designed to work together, saving time and reducing the risk of a mismatched look. For a calming, cohesive feel, minimalist posters and abstract posters work particularly well as a recurring theme throughout the space, since they rarely clash with one another.
Also consider the orientation of the formats. Landscape-oriented art calms and broadens a wall, while portrait-oriented art draws the eye upward and suits narrow sections between windows and doors. In an open-plan space, you can have a large landscape-oriented piece above the sofa and a group of portrait-oriented pieces in the dining area - the variation in orientation helps the eye distinguish the zones without the need for physical dividers.
Don’t forget the lighting, because it works directly with the art in an open-plan space. Just as interior designers use different light sources to define zones in an open-plan space - a pendant light over the dining table, soft side lighting in the seating area, and focused task lighting in the kitchen - you can use lighting to highlight the painting or grouping that serves as the focal point of each zone. A small picture light or a well-placed table lamp makes the art visible in the evening too, and helps give each part of the room its own atmosphere, even though the walls are connected. Together, light and art create the soft boundaries that an open-plan space would otherwise lack.
Tip: Take a straight-on photo of your entire open-plan space with your phone and apply a black-and-white filter. This will immediately show whether the light and dark tones are balanced across the space, or whether one zone feels too heavy or too empty. It’s the easiest way to spot an imbalance before you order, and quickly reveals whether you need to shift the focal point.
The 2026 interior design trend is working in your favor here. The trend is moving away from cool minimalism toward warmer, more personal homes, where patterned rugs and richer colors can serve as anchors in the room. An open-plan space that once felt anonymous can, with the right art and textiles, gain just the warmth and character it was missing. If you want to take a closer look at the sofa area, which often becomes the room’s focal point, we have a dedicated guide to posters in the living room.
Frequently asked questions about prints in open-plan layouts
An open-plan layout is really a gift for anyone who loves art: you have large, connected walls and the freedom to make the whole home feel cohesive. The secret is to stop thinking room by room and instead see the entire space as one composition, with a shared palette and clear focal points. Start with a large statement piece above the sofa, let the dining area and kitchen play along in a softer key, and keep the frames disciplined. If you want an easy starting point, a ready-made set in size 50x70 cm is a reliable way to get several prints that already speak the same language - and from there, the whole look almost comes together by itself.