Style the biggest wall with one large piece, hang it 15 to 25 cm above the furniture, keep the palette to two or three colours, and take the listing photos after styling.
An empty wall reads as an unfinished room. At a viewing, where people spend four minutes deciding how they feel, that costs you.
Fix the biggest wall first. One large piece beats three small ones. Buyers remember rooms, not details, and a single confident piece makes the room look intentional. If you only do one thing, do the wall opposite the door in the main room.
Hang lower than feels right. The most common mistake in a styled home is art hung too high. Leave 15 to 25 cm above the sofa; the room instantly feels more grounded.
Keep the palette narrow. Two or three colours across the whole room, echoed in the artwork. Viewers read a narrow palette as calm and a wide one as busy, even when they can't say why.
Mind the light. Glass reflects; opposite a window, a framed print becomes a mirror. Canvas, or a wall at right angles to the window, solves it.
Empty corners and hallways. These are where viewings lose momentum. A narrow vertical piece at the end of a hallway pulls people through the flat instead of turning them back.
Take your photos after styling, not before. Most buyers decide whether to attend from the listing photos. A wall with art photographs as a room; a bare wall photographs as a surface.
Don't over-personalise. Family photographs make a buyer feel like a guest. Landscape and abstract work does the opposite: it lets them imagine their own life in the space.
None of this requires a big budget. One large print, hung at the right height, on the wall people see first.