A guide to hanging art

Plan the wall before you choose the art.

Art that looks wrong on a wall is rarely the wrong piece. Usually it's the wrong size, hung at the wrong height, or spaced unevenly. Five measurements made before you buy solve all three.

An 84-inch sofa with a triptych at two-thirds of its width: 2½ in between frames, 7 in above the sofa back. Drawn to scale, in inches.

The rules of thumb

Five numbers designers hang by

57–60″Eye level

Hang the center at eye level

Put the center of the artwork, or the center of a whole grouping, 57 to 60 inches above the floor. Galleries use this height, and it works in most rooms.

6–8″Above furniture

Leave a gap above furniture

Over a sofa, console, or headboard, keep the bottom edge 6 to 8 inches above it. Any higher and the art floats away. Any lower and it looks crowded.

⅔Width

Size to what's below

Over furniture, aim for roughly 60 to 75 percent of its width. On an open wall, fill about two-thirds of the space you want covered.

2–3″Between frames

Keep sets tight

For a diptych or triptych, use frames of the same size and leave 2 to 3 inches between them, so the set reads as one piece.

+1Size up

Go bigger than you think

Art almost always looks smaller on the wall than it did in your head. If you're between two sizes, the larger one is usually right. The piece on the left covers a quarter of the sofa. The one on the right covers two-thirds.

Try your numbers

Measure once, see it to scale

Enter your furniture and the drawing applies all five rules at once.

Hanging over

Furniture size (in)

Width Height

Pieces

Share of furniture width · 66%

—Total art width

—Each piece, about

—Bottom edge from floor

—Center from floor

From photo to order

Five steps to a finished wall

Each step works with a tape measure. Beside it is how the Wall Designer does it with your own photo.

Photograph the wall
Stand square to the wall at about eye level, in daylight, and take one straight-on photo. Include something whose size you know, like a door, a light-switch plate, or the sofa.

In the Wall Designer

Choose photoType the wall size

Upload from your phone's camera or library, or skip the photo and type the wall's width and height. Your photo is stored privately in your space.
Set the scale
A photo has no sense of inches until you give it one. That's why sizes judged from a photo by eye are never quite right.

In the Wall Designer

Tap the two ends of something you know the size of.

Door height · 80 inLight-switch plate · 4.5 inSheet of paper · 11 in
True to scale
Photo taken at an angle? Adjust the corners and the art follows the wall's perspective.
Mark where the art goes
Decide on the rectangle you want filled, for example over the sofa, 84 by 48 inches.

In the Wall Designer

Draw an areaRead my roomArea 1 · 84 × 48 in

Draw the area or type its exact size. Use several areas per wall and several walls per space. Read my room suggests an area, picks up your palette, and finds art already hanging. It analyzes a smaller copy of your photo once and doesn't keep that copy.
Try arrangements, not just pieces
A single statement piece, a matched pair, a triptych, and a collected grid each change the room differently. Try several before you decide.

In the Wall Designer

MixedOne artistColor storyBlack & whiteSame seriesOne medium

The designer proposes arrangements that fit your area and fills them from our collection, sized to the space. Steer it by mood, medium, budget, and number of pieces. Swap any piece, choose from your favorites, or search. Every piece is shown in the frame and finish you choose, at true size.
Check it, then order exactly that
Before you buy, check the height and spacing rules against the layout. Then make sure what you order matches what you planned.

In the Wall Designer · Review & order

Add all to cartCopy spec

Review lists every piece with its size, frame, and estimated price, and the cart gets the exact sizes and framing you designed. Spaces stay saved, so you can come back, duplicate one to try a variation, or start the next room.

Why we built it this way

Most planners give you a picture. We wanted an order.

The Wall Designer works on your own wall at true scale, shows each piece in a real frame, and turns the finished wall into a cart with the exact sizes and framing.

For designers & trade members

Spaces can live inside a trade Project, repeat across identical rooms, and add straight to the project at your trade pricing.