Christian Dining Room Wall Art: What to Hang Where the Family Actually Gathers

The dining room is where a family actually talks. Not the living room, where everyone faces a screen — the table, where people face each other. So it is strange how often it gets the leftover art.

Here is how I would choose a piece for it.

The one room where the art and the room are about the same thing

Scripture is full of meals. Bread broken on a hillside, fish cooked on a beach, a table prepared in the presence of enemies, a feast thrown for a son who came home. Hang one of those stories above your table and it is not decoration — it is the room explaining itself.

“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.” — Acts 2:46, NKJV

The obvious choice, and why it is obvious

The Last Supper above a dining table is a tradition for a reason: it is the meal every other Christian meal points back to. As a framed canvas it runs from $99.99 at 11″×14″ up to $289.99 at 30″×40″, in black, white or espresso frames. The fine art print starts at $34.99 if you would rather frame it yourself.

I wrote more about why so many families hang it there in why people hang the Last Supper in their home.

Less expected, just as fitting

• Jesus Feeds the 5000 — abundance from almost nothing. A good fit for a big family and a table that always has room for one more. There is also a close-up version that suits a narrower wall.
• Psalm 23 — “You prepare a table before me.” Quieter than the Last Supper, and it works in a room with a lot going on.
• Jesus ‘Look at the Birds’ — lighter in tone, lovely in a kitchen-diner or breakfast nook.

Getting the size right

Dining rooms are where art most often ends up too small, because it is hung above a long table and measured against nothing. A few rules of thumb:

• Aim for roughly two-thirds the length of the table. A table seating six is usually 60–72 inches long, so a piece around 40 inches wide — the 30″×40″ canvas at $289.99 — fills the wall properly. For a four-seater, 24″×36″ at $219.99 is usually right.
• Above a sideboard, use two-thirds of the sideboard’s width and leave 6–10 inches between its top and the bottom of the frame.
• Hang a little lower than you would in a hallway. People look at it sitting down.

The full measurements are in our room-by-room sizing guide.

Two pieces on a long wall

An open-plan room or a long wall can take a pair. The Last Supper and Psalm 23 canvases sit well together, and two canvases take 10% off, three take 15%, five take 20%. For bigger walls there is more in how to fill a big wall without it looking bare, and if the dining space opens onto the lounge, our living room guide will help the two rooms work together.

Before the holidays arrive

Thanksgiving and Christmas both happen at this table. If you want the piece up before the family sits down, order early — canvas and fine art are made to order, and I would rather you have buffer than a bare wall. Here is what to know before ordering. And if you are a guest this year rather than the host, see our Thanksgiving hostess gift ideas.

A table worth sitting at

Most of what matters in a family gets said over food. Put something on that wall that is worth looking up at between courses.

Browse: Framed canvas prints from $99.99 · Fine art prints from $34.99 · Printables from $7.99. Free US shipping.