Many people hang their artwork too high.  When hanging a single piece, the center of the image should be at eye level for an average person. A good rule of thumb is about 5 ½ feet from the floor. When in doubt, it’s usually better to hang art lower rather than higher.

In your living room you are usually seated, so you may want to hang artwork a little lower. When hanging art above a sofa, a good rule of thumb is place the art so that it is no higher than 10 inches above the sofa.

Livingroom Artwork

When placing art over the mantle, you may want to lean it rather than hang it. When hanging art over a mantle, hang the art closer to the mantle rather than the vertical middle of the space. Then the art will relate to the mantle rather than hanging alone out in space.

Get the Scale Right

Artwork needs to fit the space you are hanging it in. Nothing looks worse than a tiny picture hung by itself on a large wall.  A good starting point for determining the best size of your artwork is that it should be about 2/3 the size of your sofa or mantle. An example is a 96” sofa looks best with art that is about is about 64” wide. If you don’t have a piece big enough, consider two pieces side by side or a grouping of art that takes up the same amount of space.

Deciding on the height to hang you pictures around a room can be confusing, especially when the walls are broken up by windows and doors. When you have different sizes, pictures should be lined up by their centers rather than the tops.

Do you still need help? Give us a call at (951) 699-0760. We frequently provide two hour sessions just to re-hang our clients artwork.