This Is the One Spot You Haven’t Thought to Hang Art—Yet

Showcasing artwork throughout your home not only fills the empty space on your walls, but it also allows you to put your personality, favorite colors, and the motifs that resonate with you most on display. Building an art collection takes time, money, and energy. It also requires space. Even if you hung a floor-to-ceiling, salon style gallery wall arrangement in every room of your home, you’d eventually run out of walls. Plus, your rooms might start looking the same.

That’s where this artist-approved display tip comes in: Instead of leaning a framed print against a wall or propping a painting up on a floating shelf, you can do as painter Chambers Austelle did in her quirky, colorful Charleston home and hang a piece right on your window frames.

You might argue that hanging a piece of art on your window panes limits the view outside, but I think it can actually create an unexpected focal point in a room that otherwise might not have one. It also just might draw more attention to, say, a set of windows with pretty moldings. I probably wouldn’t pick a piece that’s going to totally obscure the entire window, blocking all natural light in the process. However, if you did have a not so great view, this is a decent fast fix for covering that up a bit.

Austelle herself was inspired by a pin she saw on Pinterest. “I love the look of artwork hanging on bookcases, but that wasn’t an option for me, as I don’t have a bookcase,” she says. She then realized she could create the same effect with this set of double windows on her porch.

“Just like you would on a wall, I used wire resting on a nail to mount the photo in the center of the windows,” says Austelle. You can also explore more temporary mounting solutions like Command Strips, too, especially if you choose a lighter, smaller piece. One other tip to keep in mind: This idea works best on undressed windows, so drapes and shades don’t get the way of your prized piece of artwork.

Austelle’s home is a treasure trove of other unique ways to display art, including hanging a portrait on the lower half of a bathroom wall over beadboard. Thinking outside of the norm when it comes to displaying your artwork will not only bring your walls and home to life even more, but it will also elevate the pieces of art in the process. After all, who better to advise on special ways to display art than an artist?