How to Select and Hang Artwork

An easy way to refresh a room and add some personality is to hang artwork or photographs on your walls. If your walls are bare, consider adding purchased artwork, family photos, framed maps, paintings that family and friends have made, photos you’ve taken, etc. If you have things on your walls now, consider switching pieces between rooms (yes this may require some hole patching) for a quick refresh. Clients are always surprised to see how different a particular piece of art looks when we move it into a new room during the design process.

If you’re in the market for some new artwork, some of our favorite online shops are Etsy, Society6, Minted, Juniper Print Shop, Art Finder, Saatchi Art, and Tappan Collective. Some of these sites offer one of a kind pieces and others offer prints that make purchasing these pieces and supporting the artists even more affordable. The key to selecting the right pieces for your home is simple – select pieces that you love, pieces that bring you joy!

Designed by Brick + Beam Studio

I could write quite a bit about artwork - from selection, to color palette, to subject - it’s such a big topic. But the questions we are asked most focus on determining correct sizes and hanging heights. Continue reading as we break down our methods, tips, and tricks.

Art Hanging Heights

Most often, artwork is hung too high. A good rule of thumb - the center of the piece of art should be at eye level. The horizontal midline of the artwork should be around 60” above the floor. If everyone in your household is very tall, you might need to adjust that number accordingly. We use 60” as the average eye height for most adults. When hanging multiple pieces of artwork in a row or in the same room, align the horizontal centers first, not the top or bottom. Treat the groupings of artwork as one large piece in order to determine the horizontal center. See images below to see what we mean by “horizontal centers”.

Artwork Sizes

Here is where a little math comes into play. To determine the size of artwork for a large blank wall, measure the width of the wall and multiply that number by .57 – the resulting number is the overall width of your artwork. That width could be made up of a single piece of artwork or it could be multiple pieces in a gallery wall that equals that overall width. The number you get isn’t a hard and fast rule but rather a guide to help you visualize.

If you’re hanging artwork above a piece of furniture, the artwork should relate to the furniture below. Here, you’ll break that 60” midline rule and instead put the artwork close to the piece of furniture, usually 8”-10” between the bottom of the frame and top of the furniture. If the furniture is low, you’ll want a tall piece of art to fill the height.

When hanging artwork over furniture, the width should relate to the furniture. Measure the width of a piece of furniture and multiple by 2/3, that will give you the ideal width of the artwork.

designed by brick + beam Studio | photo by elaine frederick

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