Pixtury's tricks for hanging pictures and decorating stairways

Decorating a stairway with taste and the right sensitivity is as important as it is tricky. To help you decorate this delicate space, we've put together this guide, where you'll find valuable advice on the themes and colours to use to create the right composition.

Alongside the text, you'll also find a selection of art prints that you can buy straight away from Pixtury's photographic art gallery to instantly create the feel you're after.

1. Why stairways matter in home décor

Stairway décor is often neglected when we furnish our home or office. After all, it's a transitional space, a link between two more important rooms, somewhere we pass through absent-mindedly without stopping. For this reason, we often don't give this space the same attention we give other rooms, leaving stairwells bare and anonymous, which leave us with a sense of emptiness and incompleteness.

Even though it doesn't have a function of its own like other rooms, it's important to decorate your stairway properly, as with any other transitional space, to bring unity and cohesion to every part of the home. The simplest way to decorate these spaces is to take inspiration from the themes of passage and transition.

2. Space and lighting

It's generally very difficult to place furnishings in entrance halls, corridors or on stairways, because of the limited space available. We can get round this problem by using small furnishings and pictures that decorate without obstructing or getting in the way of people passing through, which is the main function of these spaces.

One of the main things to consider when taking on this task is certainly lighting: it needs careful attention to restore these often forgotten, isolated spaces to harmony with the rest of the home. Where light is insufficient, you'll need to position spotlights and wall lights carefully to bring in the right amount of light and give the space back its importance. Finally, to add a more personal and elegant touch, it's certainly worth decorating the walls with pictures, posters or fine art prints that fill the communicative void.

3. Hanging pictures to decorate stairways

When decorating the walls of a transitional space like a stairway, as a general rule you should bear in mind that it's a place people pass through without lingering and that it's often quite narrow, meaning any decorative elements on the walls will be viewed from very close up. The best choice, therefore, is to go for small to medium-sized pictures, such as close-up posters or landscape pictures that don't require you to focus on small details. To emphasise the theme of passage, you could choose images of flowing water, moving objects or simply people walking.

We should always remember that stairs are a space we generally pass through in motion, with effort if we're going up or quickly if we're coming down. We can therefore draw on these two themes: accompanying the effort of the climb or, to give the space more energy, celebrating the speed of the descent.

4. How to create the right atmosphere

Below are some suggestions for decorating stairways to meet specific needs.

4.1. Adding more liveliness

If your stairs feel like a forgotten, empty part of the home, to liven them up and bring them fully into your home's décor scheme, you can turn to images inspired by the themes of movement, energy and vitality.

The colours must immediately convey a strong feeling: so you'll need dynamic images in warm colours, favouring bright shades such as fiery red.

4.2. Decorating with black and white

If you need to decorate the stairway of a home or office where colour is already very present, you can certainly use black and white pictures to bring this space to life without upsetting the existing colour balance.

To make up for the neutrality of the "colour" element, the subjects should convey a sense of movement and dynamism at first glance, with clear, immediate images and without too many details that might slow viewers down as they pass.

Black and white photographs are particularly well suited to homes furnished in a modern style or with a minimalist décor, featuring furnishings and decorations in white, metal or glass. In this way, black and white helps tie the stairway in with the rest of the home without drawing too much attention.

Did you find this article useful? Then share it now with your friends. Remember that in the Pixtury gallery you'll find modern wall art of all the images we've shown you, along with lots of other original subjects.

If you have any questions, write to us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible!