Choosing the right mat for your artwork

A mat does two jobs at once. Visually, it gives the artwork room to breathe so the eye settles on the piece rather than the wall behind it. Structurally, it holds the artwork away from the glazing, which matters more than most people expect.

Width is the decision people agonise over. As a rule we start at 50mm on smaller pieces and scale up from there — a generous mat reads as deliberate, a narrow one often reads as an accident. When in doubt, go wider than feels comfortable.

The traditional trick is a weighted bottom: making the bottom border slightly deeper than the other three. An even border optically reads as bottom-heavy, and adding roughly 15–20% to the bottom corrects it. It is the sort of detail nobody notices until it is missing.

On colour, restraint wins. A soft white or bone tone flatters almost everything and dates slowly. Save the bold colours for pieces that genuinely call for them.