How To Hang Art: The Right Way

Have you ever finished hanging a piece of artwork then as you step back to admire your handy work you realize that something is just not right? One of the biggest design mistakes I see over and over again is artwork that has been hung incorrectly. You may even be surprised to know that people who have been decorating for years often make this mistake the most.

So in an effort to prevent one more beautiful home being ruined by teeny tiny art pieces being swallowed by huge walls, today I am going to give you all of the insider secrets and show you How To Hang Art The Right Way!

While decorating the last thing most people think of is ensuring that their art placement is correct, it can be nearly impossible to make a beautiful piece of art look good when it’s hung too high on the wall or lookin like a loner hanging out by itself when there is a perfectly good piece several feet away that it could marry!

This post may contain affiliate links for your shopping convenience, this is at no extra cost to you. For information see my disclosures here. 

These design mistakes are the ones that are made the most yet the easiest to fix so here are a few tricks you can use to ensure your art is placed correctly each and every time.

Hang Art at 60″ On Center: On center being the center of the artwork. So measure when you are getting ready to hang a piece of art simply measure 60″ and place a mark. You will then measure your art piece, then divide that number by two. Then subtract approximately two inches for wire hanging. Once you have your end number you will go back to the mark you made and measure up x amount of inches, this is where you will place your nail/screw.

Insider Tip: Another Trick is imagining the wall divided into four sections, always make sure that art is hung in the third  section.

 Scale: Too often after walking into a home, I see these teeny tiny pieces on the wall and it pretty much makes me scream inside. The art should always be the right scale for the space, so don’t throw a small piece on a giant wall and expect it to look good, because it won’t.

Gallery Wall: Instead of the above mistake, group small pieces together in the form of a gallery wall. Gallery walls are a wonderful way to display family photos or eclectic art pieces that aren’t large in size.

You can keep it fun and go with pieces that are complete opposites or go more uniform with pieces that are similar in style, color, or similar objects. In our living area, the wall that the sofa sits on is longer than all of the other walls so to stop the urge to fill the space with different items we simply created a large Grid Style Gallery Wall, for the full tutorial see the post here.

Marry Pieces Together: When hanging several pieces be sure to make them speak to each other by keeping them around 2″ apart, the pieces should appear to be one instead of two separate pieces.

Proper Placement Above Furniture: When placing art above furniture its good to keep them no more than 4″-8″ above the furniture piece.  This ensures that the objects speak to each other and appear intentional instead of out of place.

Overcrowding: I know that most of the time we are so anxious to fill bare walls that we randomly throw things up just to fill the space but most of the time that is a huge mistake. Buying one large piece of art instead of three small pieces makes a much bigger statement which in turn keeps you from having to hang tons of small art just to fill the space. In situations like these, fewer but larger items is almost always the way to go.

Level, Level, and Level Some More: Nothing stands out more than a piece of art or a picture frame that is completely unlevel. This can happen to even the most seasoned “art hangers” (pretty sure that was never a term until now). Anytime you are hanging art or anything on the wall for that matter be sure to use a level of some kind.

To ensure we ended up with a perfectly straight gallery wall we used a laser level like this one, it does cost a little more than the cheaper versions but since we do most of the projects around our home ourselves versus calling someone in, it made sense for us to invest in a level that could be used on multiple projects such as tile, backsplash or flooring.

Take a look around your home, do you notice any pieces that are hung too high or need to be grouped closer together? By now you should be well equipped to hang all of your artwork the right way.

Don’t forget to show some love by pinning the image below 🙂