The most common decorating mistake in a small apartment is thinking that small space means small art. It does not. In a studio flat or one-bedroom apartment, the right wall art is the most efficient decorating decision you can make: it takes up zero floor space, costs significantly less than furniture, and does more to define the character of a room than almost any other intervention. But the choice of what to put on the wall — and how — matters more in a small space than anywhere else. Too many small prints create visual clutter that makes a room feel cramped. One wrong-sized piece on the wrong wall makes a ceiling feel lower. The right single print in the right place can make a 30-square-metre flat feel twice as considered and twice as lived in.

This guide covers everything: the seven rules of hanging art in small spaces (based on what the most popular interior design guidance from Houzz, HGTV and professional designers consistently agrees on), room-by-room recommendations with specific confirmed prints from 98types.co.uk, and the seven best gallery wall strategies that work specifically in small apartments. Every print in this guide is available from £3, with buy 3 get 1 free and same-day dispatch before 3pm from Camden Market, London.

The 7 Rules of Wall Art in Small Apartments

These are the principles that professional interior designers consistently apply to small-space art decisions. Follow all seven and the art on your walls will actively work to make your apartment feel larger.

Print Size Guide for Small Apartments

The most common sizing mistake in small apartments: buying an A5 print when the room needs an A3, because A5 "feels safer." An undersized print in a small room looks lost and makes the room feel more cramped, not less. Use this guide to choose correctly.

A studio flat has one fundamental challenge: it is all one room, which means it must simultaneously be a living room, bedroom, kitchen and — increasingly — a home office. Wall art is the most effective tool for creating visual zones within an open-plan space without adding physical dividers that would make the room feel smaller. One piece above the sofa defines the living area. One vertical print beside the bed defines the sleeping area. One or two pieces on the kitchen wall define the cooking area. Three zones, no walls, the flat feels like a proper home.

Above the Sofa — The Main Zone Anchor. One A3 print centred above your sofa at 57 inches from the floor. This is the living area anchor. It does not need to be art you have strong opinions about — it needs to be a print with enough visual presence to define the sofa as the living zone, not just a piece of furniture in the middle of a room. The lion, elephant or eagle aesthetic print in A3 works here: enough authority to anchor a zone without requiring the wall to be dedicated exclusively to it.

Beside the Bed — The Sleeping Zone Marker. A single A4 portrait print beside (not above) the bed, at the height of the bedside table, defines the sleeping zone in a studio without requiring a room divider. Choose something with a softer palette — the deer, rabbit or butterfly aesthetic print, or the Chasing Cars lyric print — that communicates "this corner is for rest" rather than "this is the entertainment wall."

The Corner Vertical — Turning Dead Space into Design. Every studio flat has a corner too narrow for furniture. A tall vertical A3 or A4 portrait print in that corner — a city map print works perfectly here, as do lyric prints in portrait format — turns wasted space into the most considered spot in the room. Hang it at standard eye level, ensure there is nothing competing with it, and watch the corner become a feature rather than a problem.

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The small bedroom has one job before it has any other design ambitions: it must feel like it belongs to a specific person. Generic art in a small bedroom makes the room feel provisional — as if the person living there has not yet decided to commit. The best small bedroom wall art is either intensely personal (the lyric from the song that means something, the city map of somewhere that shaped you) or intensely calming (soft-palette animals, line art). Both work. Generic prints from a homeware chain do not.

Above the Bed — The Bedroom Anchor. The print above the bed in a small bedroom should be A3 in a room where the bed is a double, A4 in a room where the bed is a single. Centre it above the headboard, leaving 15–20cm between the top of the headboard and the bottom of the frame. The bedroom anchor should have personal meaning — the lyric from the song that changed something in you, the animal that is genuinely yours, the city map of the place you are from. A generic print here is a missed opportunity to make the room feel like your room.

The Side Wall — The Vertical Stack. If the bedroom has a side wall beside the bed (the wall that runs parallel to the bed, often beside the door), this is the place for a vertical stack of two to three A5 prints — same palette, same frame colour, different subjects from the same category. Two aesthetic animal prints and one lyric print, all in black frames, evenly spaced, creates the bedroom's most interesting visual moment without taking up any floor space whatsoever.

The Desk Wall — Motivation Without Overwhelm. If the bedroom doubles as a home office (which in a small flat, it almost certainly does), the wall above the desk needs one print that communicates purpose without agitation. An owl, eagle or wolf aesthetic print in A4 works here — enough authority to make the desk feel like a workspace rather than a piece of furniture pushed into a corner, but restrained enough to not fight with the bedroom's calming register.

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The hallway in a small flat sets the tone for everything else. It is the first impression, the transition, the space that tells visitors what kind of home they have entered before they have seen a single room. The challenge is that hallways are narrow — often 90cm or less — which means the art must be vertical, must be spaced along the wall rather than clustered at one end, and must be chosen to make the hallway feel longer rather than more cramped. The secret: hang art slightly higher than normal eye level (65 inches rather than 57), which draws the eye forward and upward and makes the hallway feel both taller and longer.

The Vertical Stack Along the Wall. In a narrow hallway, three A5 or A4 prints evenly spaced along the wall — not clustered at one end — create the illusion of length. The space between prints does as much work as the prints themselves. A city map series (London, Edinburgh, Manchester — the three places that have shaped your life so far) hung in a line is the hallway print arrangement that consistently generates the most conversation.

The Single Statement at the End. If the hallway ends in a blank wall (as many do), this is the place for the single most striking print in the apartment: an A3 animal print in a bold palette, a famous film poster, a large lyric print. This end-of-hallway print creates a visual destination — the eye travels forward toward it, which makes the hallway feel longer than it is. The lion, godfather poster or dancing queen lyric print all work exceptionally well in this position.

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The small kitchen is not the place for the Godfather poster or a profound lyric about loss. It is the place for art that makes the first person down in the morning feel immediately better about being awake — which means cheerful wit, food culture references, and the kind of gentle irreverence that makes a kitchen feel like the warmest room in the flat. The 98types kitchen collection (Alexa Do the Dishes, Sorry I'm Latte, Swimming in Wine, How Do You Like Your Eggs?) is the most requested room-specific collection for a reason: it understands what a kitchen wall needs to do.

Above the Splashback or Worktop — The Kitchen Statement. Two or three A5 prints in a row above the worktop or splashback — all in the same cheerful register, all in matching frames — creates the kitchen's defining visual moment. The trio that consistently gets the most response: Alexa Do the Dishes + Sorry I'm Latte + Swimming in Wine, hung in a line at eye level with 5cm between frames. All available from £3 each; three for the price of two with the buy 3 get 1 free offer.

The Single A4 on the Kitchen's Main Wall. If the kitchen has one larger wall available — beside the fridge, opposite the window — a single A4 print elevated from the kitchen collection gives the room more presence. The Be a Nice Human print or the Donut poster work here: slightly larger than the worktop prints, slightly more declarative in tone, sitting at eye level as the room's single large statement.

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The small bathroom is the room in a small flat that most people leave blank — and the room where a single well-chosen print has the most dramatic effect relative to the space involved. In a bathroom, the association between the room's function (water, cleanliness, the ocean, the morning) and the print's subject matter is important. Ocean prints, botanical prints and clean-palette animal prints all work exceptionally well. The key practical consideration for bathroom wall art: choose prints on quality paper (98types 260gsm satin paper is moisture-resistant in normal bathroom conditions, but do not hang directly above a bath or shower where steam regularly contacts the surface).

The Ocean Bathroom — Transform the Entire Room. A single A3 whale or octopus print above the toilet or opposite the door transforms a bathroom from a utilitarian space into something that feels considered and intentional. The association between ocean creatures and water makes this combination feel designed rather than arbitrary. The whale aesthetic poster in A3 is the most popular bathroom print in the 98types collection by a significant margin.

The Detail Row — Three A5s Above the Towel Rail. Three A5 ocean prints in a row above the towel rail — whale, jellyfish, seahorse — creates the bathroom's most complete decorative moment. All in matching blue or navy frames. 5cm between prints. The row should be two-thirds the width of the towel rail above which it sits.

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The home office corner in a small flat is almost always exactly that: a corner. A desk, a chair, a screen. The wall above it is blank because there was never a plan, and there is no plan because the whole situation — the corner, the flat, the working from home — feels provisional. It is not provisional. It is where the work happens, which means the wall above the desk is the most important wall in the professional day. One purposeful print above the desk changes the entire energy of working in a small flat.

The Above-Desk Anchor — One Print That Says Something About How You Work. An eagle for vision and altitude. A wolf for focus and solo determination. A bee for purposeful industry. An owl for scholarship and the long read. Choose the animal that matches how you think about your best work, put it in A4 above the desk at eye level when seated, and let it do the job a blank wall was doing before: communicating nothing whatsoever about the person who works there.

The Side Wall — One Lyric or Map That Says Something About Why You Work. The side wall of the home office corner — the wall you see when you turn away from the screen — is the place for the print that answers the question the desk does not: why does this matter? The Scientist lyric print (about going back to the start, about iterative improvement) or a city map of the place you are working toward getting to. One A4. Not a gallery wall. The work corner does not need complexity — it needs clarity.

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7 Gallery Wall Strategies for Small Apartments

A gallery wall in a small apartment is not the same as a gallery wall in a large house. In a small space, the gallery wall must be more restrained in scale, more consistent in palette, and clearer in its internal logic. These seven strategies all work specifically in small apartments — each one tested against the seven rules above.

Browse by Category — All Confirmed 98types Collections

Every print in this guide is part of a larger 98types collection — browse by category to find the specific prints that work best for your apartment, your rooms and your aesthetic.

Browse aesthetic animal prints, music lyric prints, UK city map prints, movie posters, funny kitchen prints and all 98types bestsellers.