What it is: Salon style is truly old-school.Think of 18th-century Academic paintings on display at the Louvre. Salon style is characterized by a floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall frenzy of artworks hung tightly together. The method has been gaining popularity lately.

Benefit: Salon style is romantically dramatic. Like the clustered style, it’s a good way to showcase pieces of art of different sizes and with different frame materials, especially if you have a sizable quantity of pieces. The framing materials define the space with hard, reflective surfaces, so this tends to make a room feel more closed-in. This isn’t a bad thing — think intimate and cozy.

Size of wall space: You can pull this approach off in small or large rooms, but it’s best used in spaces with high ceilings.

Limitations: Confirm your furniture placement before starting to lay out your configuration. That way you can work around furniture pieces. You don’t want to hang the entire wall and then realize a dining room chair back hits a painting or the sofa back doesn’t clear the bottom of a frame.