How to Hang Artwork

The Lo-Down on Hanging Art Attractively & Effectively

Puzzled about how to hang your pictures, paintings and other wall art objects for maximum impact and attractiveness in your home? Take heart. While choices in styles and types of art vary widely, the “rules” for hanging them are few and sensible. If you know the rules for hanging art at the right height and in the correct manner, your home can look like a chic art gallery and have a definitive interior decorator feel with very little effort! Here are a few tips to help you hang your art correctly:

The eyes have it: Hang art at eye level for best visibility and greatest impact. Whose eye level, you ask? Yours, of course. While you will undoubtedly entertain guests who are taller or shorter than you, you will be spending more time in your rooms than they will, so hang art where your eyes can most easily take it in. If you happen to be a particularly short or tall person and you choose to hang your art for the enjoyment of others, use a height of 5′6″ as your guide – being the average height to cater to. In private homes, “eye level” is generally considered to be judged from a seated position; in public halls and reception areas where people stand more than they sit, “eye level” is assessed while standing.

Several smalls can equal a big: If you don’t have a huge oil painting, that doesn’t mean you can’t make your art a focal point of the room. Grouping several smaller pieces together to make an interesting arrangement often works better than centering one large piece of art anyway. Arrangements do call for more planning, however. Work out an arrangement that pleases you by placing pictures and art objects on the floor, making sure that the arrangement has balance and proportion. Then get some paper—old paper bags or notebook paper will do—and cut it into sections the exact sizes of the pieces you plan to hang. Use low tack masking take and attach the paper to the wall in the arrangement you’ve chosen and reassess your choice. Feel free to move the papers around until you are completely happy with the arrangement. When you are ready, hang the art right over the paper guides and once hung, simply pull the paper out from underneath the framed art.

Watch surrounding heights: Take nearby door and window heights into consideration. Hang pictures at or below them for best proportionate viewing. If your rooms have crown molding near the ceiling, consider hanging pictures using chains or ribbons on hooks especially made to fit such molding. This is a lovely touch, particularly in older homes or spaces that want to achieve that shabby chic or cozy cottage feel.

Don’t keep everything on one wall: Keeping artwork and other wall visuals distributed throughout the room will avoid an unbalanced look. Consider framing photos and other pictures of the same size in matching frames.

Pay attention to the “nuts and bolts”: Hang heavy pictures and mirrors from wall studs, using two hangers to help keep them level. Use the correct hanger for the weight of pictures you’re hanging; two 20 pound capacity hooks don’t equal one 40 pound hook. For pictures hung on walls with frequently used doors, either wrap painter’s tape around the part of the picture wire that sits in the hook, or affix double-sided tape to the lower edge of the frame and press it into the wall when the picture is in place.

Above all, choosing art and hanging it in your home should be a labor of love. When you choose art, prints or photographs that you cannot live without and enjoy looking at everyday; it will make the choice of where to display it that much easier. In most homes, the goal is functional and aesthetically pleasing – there are no art curators that will be measuring the dimension between ceiling and frame to ensure you have adhered to gallery standards!

©2007, Kathy Burns-Millyard.