Why scale decides everything here

A small bedroom gives you one or two usable walls, and both are usually interrupted by a headboard, a window or a door. The print has to fit the gap, not the room in the abstract. Measure the wall space above the bed or dresser first. A workable rule is that the print, or the pair of prints, should span roughly two thirds of the furniture width below it. Above a 140 cm double bed, that means something in the region of 90 to 100 cm across, which a single 50x70 cm landscape print or two smaller pieces side by side will satisfy.

The other measure is height. Hang the centre of the print at about 145 to 150 cm from the floor, or 20 to 25 cm above the headboard. In a room where the bed already takes most of the floor area, a print hung too high floats awkwardly and one hung too low crowds the furniture. Getting these two numbers right matters more than any argument about canvas versus paper.

What each size actually does

Muller-Kaempff painted northern German coastal and village subjects, and her compositions tend to be quiet and horizontal. That suits a bedroom, where a large statement is the wrong register. A 40x50 cm framed poster works well on a narrow wall beside a wardrobe or above a chest of drawers, and the frame adds a defined edge that a bare wall needs. For the main wall above the bed, a 60x80 cm canvas gives more presence without shouting, and you can buy the canvas edition in that format if you want the softer, frameless look.

Resist the temptation to go bigger because the price per square centimetre improves. In a 10 to 12 square metre bedroom, a print larger than 70x100 cm becomes the room's only subject, and it will fight with the bed for attention. If the wall is genuinely small, two smaller framed pieces hung as a pair often beat one medium piece, and the framed poster format keeps the cost of that pair reasonable.

Checking before you commit

Cut a sheet of newspaper or Kraft paper to the exact print dimensions and tape it to the wall. Live with it for two days. This costs nothing and settles the question more reliably than any guide, including this one. Look at the mock-up from the doorway, from the bed and in evening light, because a print that reads well at noon can disappear at night in a bedroom lit by a single lamp.

Also think about tone. Coastal scenes in muted greens, greys and sandy tones sit easily behind a headboard in most colour schemes, and the subject list for this painter is worth a quick look before choosing, since her most common subjects lean toward sea, dunes and village lanes. If you are still weighing formats, the difference between canvas and framed poster prints comes down to edge, weight and how close you sit to the work, which in a bedroom is very close.