Mixing original art with prints: how to make it work

Mixing original art with prints works perfectly well: the trick is to treat them as equals on the wall rather than sorting them into a hierarchy. When framing, scale and placement are consistent, the eye reads quality and composition first, and barely registers which piece is a one-off and which is an edition.

The instinct to keep them apart, originals in the good room, prints relegated to the hall, is the thing most likely to make a home feel uneven. A thoughtfully chosen print is a real work of art, not a placeholder, and the best collections almost always combine the two.

Why mixing originals and prints is a good idea in the first place

Combining originals and prints is one of the most practical ways to build a collection you actually enjoy living with. Originals give you the texture, the brushwork, the sense of a single hand at a single moment. Prints, whether a screen print, an etching or a fine giclée, give you range: more artists, more variety, and more wall covered for the same outlay. A home that mixes the two tends to feel collected over time rather than bought in one go, which is exactly the quality that makes a room feel personal.

There is also a quiet confidence in mixing. It signals that you choose work because you respond to it, not because of what category it falls into. The collectors whose walls look most assured rarely separate the expensive from the affordable; they hang what speaks to them and let it sit together.

How do you make originals and prints sit together?

The single most effective move is to bring consistency to the framing. Framing is the great equaliser: a modest print in a well-judged frame can look every bit as considered as an original, while a fine original in a cheap clip frame will always look undersold. You don’t need every frame to be identical, but a shared logic helps enormously, perhaps all natural wood, or all simple black, or a consistent generous white mount across the works on paper.

Hang the wall by eye and by quality, never by price tag.

Pay attention to mounts in particular. A wide, clean mount around a small print gives it presence and pulls it up to the visual weight of a larger original beside it. Glass matters too: anti-reflective glazing on a piece you love is worth the small extra cost, and using it on both prints and originals stops one from looking more “finished” than the other.

Does scale matter more than medium?

Scale matters far more than medium when you are arranging a mixed wall. A wall reads as balanced or unbalanced based on the sizes and spacing of its pieces, not on whether each one is unique. So group a large original with a cluster of smaller prints to anchor it, or let a big bold print hold a wall on its own with a few originals orbiting it.

The mistake is to assume the original must always be the largest or most central piece. Sometimes the print is the showstopper and the original is the quiet, rewarding detail you notice on the second look. Arrange for the composition you want, then step back and check that no piece feels stranded or accidentally demoted to the corner.

Where to find prints worth mixing in

The prints worth hanging beside your originals come from artists and studios who treat printmaking as a discipline in its own right, not as a sideline. Dedicated print studios and print-focused galleries are the obvious starting point, because the work there is made and editioned with real care. In London, spaces such as East End Prints and Print Club specialise in editions by working artists, and browsing them is a quick education in what a good print can be.

It is also worth seeking out print galleries when you travel, or browsing the galleries listed for a city you are visiting, for instance the full set of spaces under London, so you can compare an etching, a linocut and a screen print in the flesh before you commit. Seeing prints in person tells you more about paper, ink and finish than any screen ever will, and it sharpens your sense of which pieces will hold their own at home.

A few habits that keep a mixed wall honest

Buy what you respond to and frame everything as though it deserves it, because on the wall it does. Resist arranging by value; arrange by colour, line, mood and scale, and the originals and prints will fall into a conversation rather than a ranking. Live with a grouping for a week before you decide it is finished, since walls reveal their problems slowly. Do that, and the question of original versus print quietly stops mattering, which is exactly the point.