Walk into most homes and the art is hanging a hand's width too high. It happened for a good reason: people hang to the wall, not to the person looking. Galleries solved this a long time ago with one number, and the number works in a house as well as it works in a museum.
Measure 57 inches from the floor to the center of the artwork. Not to the top of the frame, not to the hook, to the center of the image. That puts the middle of the work at the eye level of an average adult, which is where the eye rests when it enters a room. Some galleries use 58 or 60. Anything in that range is right. Anything above 62 starts to feel like it is looking down at you.
If the ceilings are unusually high, resist the pull to hang higher. A tall wall makes art look small when the work floats up toward the ceiling. Keep the center at eye level and let the wall above stay empty. That emptiness is what makes the work read as considered rather than placed.
The hook is never at 57 inches. It sits above the center by half the height of the frame, minus the drop of the wire. The arithmetic, in order:
If the work hangs on two D rings rather than a wire, measure from the top of the frame to the ring and subtract that instead. Two hooks, level, keep a large work from tilting over time.
| Framed height | Top of frame | Hook, with a 3 in wire drop |
|---|---|---|
| 24 in | 69 in | 66 in |
| 32 in | 73 in | 70 in |
| 44 in | 79 in | 76 in |
| 52 in | 83 in | 80 in |
| 64 in | 89 in | 86 in |
Wesden prints ship unframed, and sizes are listed as height × width. Once the work is framed, measure the frame, not the print. A float frame adds about an inch to each side, a mat adds more.
Furniture changes the rule. When the work hangs above a piece of furniture, the two need to read as one arrangement, and the gap between them matters more than the center height.
Leave 6 to 8 inches between the top of the sofa back and the bottom of the frame. Above a console or a sideboard, the same 6 to 8 inches. Above a bed, 6 to 10 inches from the top of the headboard. If following the 57 inch rule opens a gap wider than that, lower the work until the gap closes. A photograph floating a foot and a half above a sofa looks like it belongs to a different room.
Width follows a separate rule. The work should span about two thirds of the furniture below it. Our guide on choosing the right print size covers that math, including the part almost nobody accounts for, the frame.
For a pair hung side by side, treat the two as one rectangle. Center that rectangle at 57 inches and leave 2 to 3 inches between the frames. Wider than 3 inches and the pair falls apart into two separate objects.
For a stacked pair, one above the other, the point midway between the two frames sits at 57. For a full gallery wall, lay the arrangement out on the floor first, find the center of the whole group, and hang that point at eye level. Individual works in a group are allowed to be high or low. The group is not.
Along a staircase, the 57 inch line follows the slope. Measure from the tread directly below each work, and the centers will step up in a clean diagonal.
In a dining room, or any room where people are seated most of the time, drop the center to 54 or 55 inches. Seated eye level is lower, and a work that is right for standing feels slightly high from a chair. The same applies to a bedroom wall you look at from the bed, and to a reading corner.
Hallways are seen while walking and usually from close by. Keep the center at 57 and choose works that hold up at arm's length.
Cut a sheet of kraft paper to the size of the framed work and tape it to the wall with the center at 57 inches. Mark where the hook would go directly on the paper. Live with it for a day. Look at it from the doorway, from the sofa, in morning light and in the evening. Move the paper before you move a nail.
If you are still choosing the work, the View on your wall tool on every Wesden product page places the photograph at true scale on a picture of your room. It shows size more than height, but it settles the first question before you pick up a tape measure.
And if you would like a second opinion on a specific wall, send a photograph and the measurements to hello@wesden.us. We answer with numbers.
The photograph above breaks our own sizing rule and still looks right. The reason is the wall. When a wall has panels or a recess, the art takes its measure from the wall, not from the furniture.
Most art hangs a hand's width too high. One number fixes it, and a little arithmetic tells you exactly where the hook goes.