Placing Artwork

A lot of people get hung up on artwork; how to place it, what size is the right size, is there such a thing as too much.

The first thing to know about placing artwork is that, ultimately, the art is for you. If you’re happy, then it doesn’t really matter.  It’s still a bit tricky and can be daunting, so here are a few tips and tricks to not get hung up on hanging your artwork.

Placement

For a single piece of art on a wall with no furniture, hang the piece about 60” from the floor to the center of the piece. This is average eye height and will ensure that most will not have to strain to look at the piece.

If you’re hanging art above a sofa or other piece of furniture, make sure it’s not too close. Somewhere between 4”-6” above the furniture is usually a good rule of thumb.

If you have other accessories or other décor in front of the art, the rule of 4-6” can be broken to ensure you aren’t blocking your art.

If you’re worried about the scale of a piece in relation to the size of your sofa or when you’re placing it above a fireplace, consider choosing a piece that is no more than 2/3 the size of your sofa or fireplace.

It’s always best to hang art after furniture is installed in the space. It’s important to think about placement. For instance, if you have a cool floor lamp that takes up a lot of space, you don’t want to hide art behind it. When you have multiple pieces, you’d like to install in the same area, consider placing them at two different heights.  This helps make the space feel thoughtfully designed.

 

 

Gallery Walls

There are a few different types of Gallery Walls, the “Art Gallery” wall, the “Eclectic Gallery” wall and the “Elaborate Gallery” wall.

The “Art Gallery” Wall

You typically see symmetry in an art gallery or museum, the key is to ensure that you have the same frame for all of your photos and art. If your art itself is different sizes, picture mat can be used to balance the art in the frames as we want to ensure the wall is cohesive. Place your gallery collection 60” floor to center (of the collection) and placed equidistant from each other. This will result in a very polished and almost formal presentation… If you don’t know where to start, you can buy pre-planned gallery wall frames that you fill with your art at many large retailers. We like this one from Target (pictured above).

 

The “Eclectic Gallery” Wall

The key to a successful eclectic gallery wall is to pick one cohesive factor. One easy way is to choose the same frame color. This will help everything flow together, while still being able to mix and match shapes and sizes. Even though this doesn’t need to have the uniformity of a formal gallery wall, placement is still important. Lay out the art on the floor first to see how you like it.

 

The “Elaborate Gallery” Wall

This is where most people get a bit nervous, because this type of gallery wall requires you to put a lot more thought into how it’s laid out. This wall will have different sizes, colors and shapes. The key here is planning. If you feel as though all your pieces are cohesive together, just worry about the general layout. An easy way to do that is to create a paper model of your wall and art, I use graph paper to draw it out.  Once again, placing the art on the floor the way you will place it on the wall gives you an extra chance to see how it will work before hanging. You’ll be able to see if you have all your gold frames on the left or you realize that the colors in one of your art pieces completely takes over and distracts from the piece you planned on putting next to it. Even with planning ahead, it’s okay to accept that you may need to patch and paint your walls if you need to move things around. We’d rather have you do that than not take a chance on the elaborate gallery wall if that’s the look that you are going for.

 

Keep in mind that you can also add other items like plants or sculptural elements to your elaborate gallery wall to add an extra level of interest instead of just framed artwork only.

Still completely stumped and not ready to tackle your art installation on your own? Give us a call, we’ll be happy to come  and help you create a plan and hang your art!