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6 Tips for Hanging Pictures Perfectly

Nail, hammer, wall, picture: easy peasy right?

Not so fast. An improperly hung picture can, at best, look sloppy and, at worst , throw a room off balance. To hang your photos so that they have a positive impact on a room, here’s what you need to know.

57 is the Magic Number
The most common mistake people make is hanging their photos or artwork too high. All you need to remember is 57.

That’s the number of inches from the floor that the center of your photograph should hang.

First, measure 57 inches from the floor, and mark the spot on the wall lightly with a pencil. That marking is where you want the center of your photo to hit.

Measure the height of your photo, and divide it in two to the find where the center lies.

Next, stretch the wire on the back of the frame tight, so that it’s pulled taught as though it were hanging from the wall. Measure the distance between the highest point of the wire and the top of the picture frame.

Now, subtract the first number (height of photo divided by two) by the second number (distance between the taught wire and the top of the frame). Go back to your mark on the wall at 57 inches, and add the resulting number you just calculated. This is where you should hammer the nail!

Focus on the Center, Not the Top
If you hang all your photos using the 57 inches rule, then the centers of all of your frames should be at the same height, even if your collection includes pieces of different heights.

Measuring from the centre creates a much more cohesive, harmonious atmosphere than hanging all your photos so that the tops of the frames are in line. Hard lines, like those created from matching the tops of the frames, can look very harsh in a room.

Hanging Multiples
Planning on grouping several different photos together? The 57 inch rule still applies, with a slight modification.

Lay your grouping out on the floor, arranged as you wish it to look when hung up on the wall. Now, instead of calculating the centre of just one photo, calculate the centre of the entire grouping. If you want to have two 10 inch photos stacked above one another with a 2 inch space between, you’ll be working with a total height of 22 inches. Your new center will be 11 inches—it will actually fall between the two photos. That center should hit right at the 57 inch mark, with 11 inches of art (one inch of wall plus one photo) being above the 57 inches, and the other 11 (another inch of wall and the second photo) hanging below.

Why 57?
The number 57 wasn’t just arbitrarily pulled out of thin air. It is the average human eye level, and is what most galleries use to guide their displays. If it’s good enough for a gallery, it’s probably good enough for your home!

What About Furniture?
If you’re hanging artwork over furniture, the 57 inch rule can get a little tricky. Instead, your goal should be to have the bottom edge of the frame hit around 6 to 8 inches above the top of the piece of furniture.

Generally speaking, the piece of art should not be wider than the furniture it is hanging over.

Masking Tape: The Secret Ingredient to Two Hooks
Some frames have two hooks on the backing, instead of just one. When properly hung, this is a good thing: your picture will be nice and steady, and if you accidentally brush it, it should still stay straight. But hanging a two-hooked frame can result in a lot of fumbling around with rulers and tape measurers.

Enter masking tape. Measure the distance between the two hooks with masking tape—literally cut tape and stick it on the back of the frame. Make sure that you measure to the same point on both hooks, ideally from the center of one hook to the center of the other (you can also use a marker to mark the center of each hook on the masking tape).

Pull the masking tape off of the frame and stick it lightly to the wall. Get your level out and adjust the tape as needed until the level indicates a perfect balance. Now use the ends of the tape (or the points you made on the tape with market) as a guide for nail placement.

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