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24 July How to Hang Art

Posted at 5:35 PM

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by Aneka

How to Hang Art: Accenting Your Interior Design

Art can make one of the largest impacts in completing your space, like the cherry on top of any good ice cream sundae. It can also be one of the easiest things to be unsure about- How high do you hang something? What’s the correct spacing between pieces? Does everything need to match? These are questions we get all the time, and relatively easy to answer, so we’ve taken the time below to detail some of the easiest Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to hanging art.
1. Hanging Art Above Furniture
When hanging a piece of art over a credenza or console table or sofa, make sure the piece your hanging is less wide than the furniture below it. If the art is too wide, it causes the space to feel top heavy, and a little unbalanced.
  • Do: Hang the art so the bottom of the piece is about 4-6 inches above your furniture piece.
  • Don’t: Hang the art too high, it’ll make the pieces look disconnected, like your art is floating in space instead of grounded above the furniture.
2. Gallery Wall
Gallery Walls can be intimidating, but it’s one of the easiest ways to fill large walls and display a unique collection.
  • Do: Pick a theme. If there is something consistent throughout the gallery wall, i.e. maybe all the frames are gold, or all the images are black and white photography, it’ll feel like every piece is apart of the larger picture.
  • Do: Vary your sizes. Create a unique blend of large, medium, and small wall decor to create more interest.
  • Do: Hang an odd number. The human eye inherently likes things in odd numbers like 3, or 13, so pick an odd number of pieces when creating your gallery wall.
  • Don’t: Jump in too quickly. We always suggest measuring out your wall space on the floor in front, and creating an almost “template” on the floor by laying out all of your pieces before you actually start nailing anything to the wall. This creates room for error, and hopefully less holes to patch up!
3. Hanging Height
If you’re hanging art in a hallway, or on a blank wall and can’t decide how high to hang it, the general rule of thumb is 5 feet off the ground to the center of the piece of art. This is pretty standard for galleries, museums, etc., because 60” off the ground is the average eye height. This rule won’t work for EVERY piece because some could be smaller or larger than others, but it’s a good place to start, then adjust the height of the piece as needed.
4. Hanging in Pairs
Occasionally you’ll get a set of prints, photos or paintings that need to be hung as a diptych (two pieces) or triptych (three pieces). The Biggest mistake we see is hanging the individual pieces too far apart.
  • Do: Hang your art 2-4 inches apart from one another.
  • Don’t: Leave too much room between pieces, it makes them feel disconnected.