How do you hang pictures on the wall? Here are some tips and ideas.
* Will you mainly be standing in the room (as in an entryway or hallway)? If so, it may make sense to hang artwork a bit higher than the 60-65 inch center starting point – especially if the ceiling is tall.
* In a room where you generally sit down (a dining room, family room, or office), hang pictures a bit lower, so they can be enjoyed at a lower viewing angle.
* A large framed piece over a sofa or sideboard relates more easily when hung so the bottom of the frame is positioned 6 to 12 inches above the top of the sofa back or tabletop. This won’t work, however, if your artwork is very small. In that case, consider hanging the piece in a group of other objects such as plates, mirrors, or decorative items.
* When working with a grouping of pictures or objects hung on a wall, think of the grouping as one large picture and relate the bottom of the entire grouping to the furniture underneath it.
* A small picture hung on a large wall can look out of balance. Look for narrow walls (such as the spaces between two doorways or windows) and consider hanging two or three small pictures in a vertical line. In this case, treat the center picture as the center of the grouping.
* Cut paper templates to size for each piece of art and attach the paper cutouts to the wall with painter’s tape. This will give you the option to stand back and see how the artwork’s size relates to your room and your furniture. Or, draw a sketch to plan placement. If you have a digital camera and photo manipulation software, take a photo of the area you want to hang your artwork, then using the tools in the application, add blocks of color to design your composition. Better yet, take the picture with the images that you want to use. In the software, cut each image into it's own layer and fill in the background with the color of the wall paint. Move each image around until you come up with a composition that works.
* The wall isn’t the only place where you can display art. You can simply place the picture on the floor and lean it on the wall or furniture. Try placing two art pieces of different sizes, one leaning over the other, partially covering the other one but still leaving most of the art visible.
* Large pieces or compositions work well with large furniture such as sofas or solid case pieces like a substantial chest. The designer's rule of thumb is to make sure that the artwork is about 2/3 to 3/4 the length of the furniture.
* You can mount a gallery ledge on the wall and place pictures across the entire length of it.
* Use a picture rail molding. This can be done by mounting the picture molding against the wall close to the ceiling. Support your picture with 2 ropes. Tie one end of the rope to each corner of the picture
* The mosaic hang. Either you have a "natural frame," or you could make your own by taping off a section of wall and painting it a contrasting color. Choose about three anchor pieces, the large pieces. Mostly small portraits are used to run across the top, with a larger, central secondary anchor. Strive for a mix of small, medium and large pieces. Start by aligning the outer edges and then work your way in toward the center. Also aligned are the bottom edges of the space created for the furniture. This hang stopped 16 inches above the baseboard.
* The Paris hang. This hang is biggest in the middle and gets smaller as it goes out, but it could be biggest on the outside and smallest on the inside, or the sizes could alternate, or they could be in order of size.
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