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Picture hanging height - proper height to hang pictures

picture hanging height

Proper picture hanging height and other hanging tips

First things first: Do not hang a painting too high! The best height is when your eye is at the center of the painting. Note the symmetry. Hang it in the middle of a sofa, or in the middle of a wall, or in combination with other paintings. Every painting deserves a good spot! Art lighting is necessary in order to make it perfect.

A wrong picture frame is detrimental to your painting, there are enough real framers out there to help you. Instead of one big painting, you can also hold several small pieces together to get a collage, which brings warmth to your room. Note the color scheme. For example, hang cool tones together, and the warm tones in another place. The most ideal suspension system is a rail across the width of a wall. Then you can always vary in height and place without damaging the wall. With new buildings you can let this have built into the wall or ceiling. Hang a painting as close as possible to the wall, otherwise a distorted image will arise.

 

STAS picture rail

What is the proper height to hang a picture?

You are probably wondering how far from the ceiling you should hang your picture. Art that is hung too high on a wall is a common mistake. There's no relationship to the furniture and it requires you to tilt your head way back to look at the piece of art. Picture frames should therefore be hung about 8" from the back of your couch or sofa. Another common rule is to hang art / frames at eye level. But what is the best exact height to hang a picture? Some people are bigger than others, so whose eye level should you use? Moreover, every work of art comes in a different size, is there a different way to handle hanging a large picture frame than a small one?

Picture hanging height formula

A simple rule of thumb to hanging art at the right height is to place the center of the art object at 60″ to 63″ above the floor. From there you can adjust accordingly for the overall height of the ceiling or height of the furniture over which the art will hang. This measurement provides a great base-line starting point and a good foundation to hang your art at the proper picture hanging height. Of course you can find the centerpoint of your frame by dividing the full height and full width by two. The point at which these two measurements intersect is the centerpoint. Use a tape measure to hang your art correctly, it’s an invaluable tool! 

How to hang photo frames

And of course use one of our picture hanging systems to save your wall from drilling holes and driving nails into them! You can move your art around until you’re completely satisfied with the way it is arranged on your wall. Never damage your wall again…use STAS picture rail.

 


Back to Picture hanging overview.

STAS picture rail