My parents have recently moved into a new house and are rapidly moving toward making it their new home. Since my Mom doesn't really have an artistic bone in her body she asked me to come and help her hang up her many artworks. Since I'm pretty good at this, in just a few hours we were one step closer to making their house a home.
Here are a few tips for hanging art:
Many people hang their art too high. Remember that art will be viewed at different heights depending on the function of the room. In a living or dining room art will be viewed from a seated position and should be hung only a few inches above sofa height. In a hallway art can be hung a bit higher as it will be viewed from a standing position.
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| These three tiles are both grouped and hung very low to relate to the scale of the meditation chair. | |
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If it is a large wall group items. Create a gallery by grouping items
that are similar. This could be similar subjects, similar frames, or
similar colors. There needs to be something that makes them family.
If you aren't sure about how to make a balanced grouping cut paper
rectangles in the size of the frames and tape them to the wall until you
like the arrangement. If you are using new frames you can just use the
paper backing that comes in the frame.
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| This painting (by yours truly) is about 2/3 the size of the wall space. |
Choose a wall that is appropriate to the size of the artwork. Nothing
looks more lonely than a single piece of small art on a huge wall. A
good rule of thumb is the rule of thirds, the art should take up about
2/3 of the wall space.
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| Tucking this painting in close to the bookshelf means it is not hanging out all by itself. |
Tuck it in. Artwork does not have to hang right in the center of a wall. If you have a smaller piece, or a large wall, you can tuck it closer to an arrangement of furniture so that it is not left hanging out in space.
Choose art you love! If it doesn't uplift you, don't own it!
