Design Tip: How High to Hang Art

August 7, 2019

Today’s Design Tip is probably the easiest and yet the one I most often see done incorrectly. How high to art. Being off by just a few inches can make all the difference. And once you understand the numbers, it’s really very simple.

Let’s start with hanging art on an open wall, that is a wall without any other furniture on it. You want the center of the art piece to be 57-60″ from the floor. If you’re hanging multiple pieces, stacked on top of one another, measure them as one unit leaving 2-4″ between each frame and mount them 57-60″ from the center of the ‘unit’ to the floor.

When hanging art above furniture, the goal is to have both pieces feel like one cohesive unit. Spaced too far apart and it can feel disjointed and jarring. A good rule of thumb is to leave 6-10″ between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the frame. This goes for a sofa, console, desk and anything else you’d like to hang art above.

Once the art is hung, I like to step back and snap a picture. It always amazes me how something can look one way to the eye and completely different through the camera.