Wall art size guide for French rooms, from moulded salon to new-build

Moulded walls are the hallmark of French period rooms, richest on the étage noble of a Haussmann building, under 3.20 m ceilings. The mouldings divide each wall into tall rectangles that already frame whatever hangs inside: a canvas that fits its panel looks made for the room, and one that overlaps the moulding looks like an accident.

Measure inside the moulding, take 20–30 cm (8–12 in) off the width and keep the panel's proportions: a panel 100 cm wide and 180 cm tall takes a canvas of about 75 × 140 cm (30 × 55 in). Fill the central panel of a long wall, or hang a matched pair in neighbouring panels; for anything wider, choose a plain wall. Where a salon keeps a framed panel over the door, the dessus-de-porte, it was often made for a painting: a horizontal canvas cut to fit it revives an old French habit. Room by room, see French apartments and villas.

Unless the row says otherwise, hang the centre about 150 cm (59 in) from the floor, with 15–25 cm (6–10 in) between a sofa back or headboard and the bottom edge.

Between two rows, take the larger. Browse upright and panoramic works.

Haussmann ceilings drop as you climb: 3.50–3.80 m on the ground floor, 3.20 m on the étage noble, 2.80–3.00 m above.

Under 3.20 m, a free wall takes an upright of 150–180 cm (59–71 in) centred at about 155 cm, with half a metre to spare below the cornice. Over a sofa or console the bottom edge sits 15–25 cm above the furniture, so choose 100–120 cm (39–47 in) tall and 150–200 cm wide. A ground floor or a hôtel particulier takes 200–250 cm on a free wall, hung 30–40 cm off the floor, or two canvases stacked. Ceilings floor by floor are in our France wall art guide.

A Haussmann plan sets the salon, dining room and library in a row along the street; with the double doors open, the view through them runs 15 to 20 metres. From that far, a canvas under about 150 cm shrinks to a patch of colour, so the wall that closes the view takes the tallest upright the room allows, centred on the doorway.

Where the doors have gone, the double réception has one long wall opposite the windows, for a panoramic canvas of 200–250 cm (79–98 in) or a pair of 120–150 cm (47–59 in) hung 5–10 cm apart. The long corridor that joins bedrooms and kitchen is seen at an angle from a metre away: give its side walls a row of uprights of 50–80 cm (20–31 in) at one height, and its end wall the big canvas.

Post-war and modern blocks commonly have ceilings of about 2.50 m, and the average French flat is 63 m², with half of all flats between 45 and 77 m². Above a sofa back at about 85 cm, that leaves some 1.6 m of wall: a canvas 90–100 cm tall sits with air above it, while a taller one crowds the ceiling. Many French interior architects now favour one large work over a cluster of small frames.

The old service rooms under a Haussmann roof are lower still, at 2.20–2.30 m, close to the 2.20 m that French rules set as the minimum for a main room. Turned into a studio or guest room, they take a horizontal or square canvas of 60–80 cm, centred about 140 cm (55 in) from the floor.

A 123 m² bourgeois flat of 1900 for sale in Lyon's 6th arrondissement has a 30 m² séjour and a separate dining room: walls of five or six metres, for 140–160 cm (55–63 in) over the sofa, or a pair. On the Croix-Rousse, canut workshops were built with ceilings of about four metres for the silk looms, and a mezzanine often splits the wall: hang under it at the usual height, or give the full height beside it to one tall upright.

Bordeaux has Chartrons stone flats listed for their 'belle hauteur sous plafond' and single-storey échoppes, such as an 85 m² one in the same district: uprights for the corridor from street to garden, 120–140 cm (47–55 in) across for the front salon. On the Riviera, glass often takes the sea side, as in a villa above Monaco built around panoramic bay windows; give the inland wall 200–300 cm in a matte finish. More on the Riviera and Monaco.

Each number comes in three shapes, from the squarest to the longest: Figure (F), Paysage (P) and Marine (M).

When a panel or wall sets the size, ask for exact centimetres: 87 × 143 cm is as straightforward for us as a 50F.

France's hotel classification sets minimum room sizes, bathroom excluded: 13.5 m² for a three-star double, 16 m² for a four-star double and 40 m² for a suite with separate living and sleeping areas. The bed wall is the one guests face, and about two-thirds of the bed's width suits it; a suite adds a sitting-room wall for 120–150 cm (47–59 in). One design painted at three or four sizes covers every room type.

Offices go by use: an individual office, long planned at about 10 m² in France, takes one canvas of 80–100 cm (31–39 in), and a reception of 25–35 m², as in one Paris guide's example, takes 150–200 cm or a triptych. More on French hotels and offices.

Four measurements are enough: the width of the wall or the inside of the panel, the ceiling height, the furniture below, and anything in the way, such as a radiator. Send them with a photo on WhatsApp; we reply with a size in centimetres and inches, the nearest French format if a framer will finish it, and a shortlist from some 1,300 catalogue designs or a piece designed for the room.

Express parcels stop at 274 cm long with FedEx in France, so the largest pieces go rolled or by air or sea freight, on the route we find best for your address, with the shipping cost confirmed before dispatch.

Each canvas can travel stretched and ready to hang, framed, or rolled; a rolled canvas, the lightest and most economical way to send a large painting, arrives without stretcher bars, and any local framer can stretch it for you.