What's worth hanging and where?

So what's it like to have someone actually come to your home and advise you? Illuminating.

Despite the best laid plans our house is clutter heaven with DVDs, books and busy furnishings all competing in a complex open-plan situation that doesn't have a lot of wall space.

Our minor art collection is leaning against the feature wall in front of the designer wallpaper.

After taking almost a year to get the lot to the framers, this is as far as our hanging intentions have taken them.

Downstairs one principal wall is home to the aforementioned feature paper and Stephen Kingston of Art Installation Services counsels against hanging anything on it.

Another is home to a Waterford Crystal LED-lit creation that one inhabitant loves while the other would like to use the wall space to hang something else on.

The other wall is some 30ft high and is the only place to position our Quiet Man poster, designed for the French release of the film and it is much more graphic in its representation of O'Hara and Wayne's relationship than the American version. In it a forthright John Wayne grabs the red-haired Maureen by the head.

Kingston suggests hanging the Tony O'Malley print below this large piece.

Another creation, which has been dominating one of our floors for almost three years, is a piece of carved teak, imported from Bali, that weighs about half a ton. A decision to "hang" it on a pair of invisible legs in the conservatory against a stone wall solves its final resting place.

A commissioned piece by Blaise Smyth finally finds its place in the sun in a more traditional setting, above the fireplace but only after Kingston advises clearing the mantel of the plants that currently call it home.

Meanwhile there's also a pen and ink by Liberalli, an Argentine artist, and a resin piece by American Lemmy that also have to be housed. The Liberalli ends up in an alcove in the livingroom while the Lemmy is taken upstairs to add a splash of colour.

The increased floor space is liberating. And the house feels more lived-in and settled.

The clutter is still there but the art on the walls detracts from it.