Hang On! What you need to know about hanging wall art!
Hanging artwork on your wall can make an instant and dramatic change. Art is an integral part of good design and most importantly, a presentation created with your personality in mind. Like paint color, artwork can immediately establish or change a room’s mood.
How you hang art, whether as a single framed piece or a grouping, influences the overall feeling of a room and doing so properly requires planning and preparation.
Many are confused and overwhelmed by the prospect of pounding that nail into the wall…that they just painted! I am here to help you sort through what can be a daunting task punctuated (no pun intended;)) by the myriad of choices and decisions you are faced with making.
The first step is, as always: Make a plan! How many times have you heard me say that? Analyze the style, color and function of the room that the art will be hung. To make your art work stand out or make a statement, select a picture that best complements the room’s color pallet and is in harmony with the mood and style of the room.
After all, a blank wall is like a canvas of sorts, perfect for arranging pictures and creating a masterpiece that is both stunning by design as well as sentiment. Understanding the basic visual principles such as symmetry and lines is paramount to a well-designed presentation.
Rule number one (after you’ve make your plan and have a style/genre/etc. selected! duh) is to remember when you hang a picture, the size of the frame needs to be relative to the size of the wall. Smaller frames look best on narrow walls, while larger frames or a group of frames is best hung on expansive walls.
When it comes times to hang your artwork, you can minimize nail holes, by first doing a paper layout. This can be as low tech as a sketch or as high tech as using your computer and special software. Another way is to go down to the art supply store and stock up on inexpensive butcher paper and masking tape. Cut the butcher paper into the same shape and size of the pictures and other wall decor you’ll be arranging. On the other hand, if it helps, do a basic drawing in each shape to represent the picture you are working with. These drawings don’t need to be elaborate; they just need to represent!
Clearly, the safest choice on hanging art is a grid. You can do this easily on a square-based format. It doesn’t mean your entire wall decor needs to be similarly sized. Mixing up sizes and shapes while still conforming to a basic symmetrical grid layout is easy and presents a fabulous composition. Grids help with spacing and lining the art in a balanced presentation.
The use of LINE is sometimes overlooked by DIY’ers. Proper use of line can set the mood in a room. Horizontal lines tend to elongate, widen and emphasize a casual decorating scheme. Further, horizontal lines tend to be calming and can give the illusion of width in a narrow room. Vertical lines however, tend to be more formal, add to the illusion of height and can seem more elegant and refined. Diagonal lines make the presentation appear more dramatic and exciting. While artwork generally shouldn’t be hung in offset arrangements, it is a useful technique in a stairwell as the floor levels change. Diagonal lines – either within a picture itself or in a line of pictures arranged on the wall also tend to add excitement to the composition. Using symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangements of art can create either a formal or a casual feeling. Symmetry simply means that when an arrangement is divided in half, each half is a mirror image of the other. Symmetry adds balance and formality to an arrangement and is generally more calming to view. Asymmetrical arrangements are more unexpected and tend to be eye-catching and present a more casual and informal composition.
Take your cue from the other elements in the room.
In general, artwork should be hung so that the center point of the picture or grouping is at about eye level for the average person. This is not ALWAYS possible but it is a good guideline to keep in mind.
It’s important to relate the artwork to the furniture below it if possible. For example, if you’re hanging a large picture over a table, the bottom of the frame should sit within 4 – 8″ of the tabletop. Also, the picture frame over you sofa should not be longer than the width of the sofa. As a rule, the bottom length of the frame should not exceed 75% to 80% of the length of the piece of furniture and let the height of the furniture piece determine the height of the art. That being said, art tends to look best when it seems to extend the lines of the furniture, windows or doorways, or when several small pieces are grouped together. Also, do not leave a lot of wall space between a sofa and a picture. Anything higher than 3 – 6′ will cause the eyes to focus on the wall rather than your art!
When hanging smaller pieces together, think of staying within the box! Two horizontally framed pictures can easily be hung with two vertically framed pictures by offsetting each style. Make sure that the perimeter of the entire grouping stays within boundaries so that the small pieces work together as one unit.
Smaller groupings can also be made to appear larger with interesting objects are interjected within the grouping such as mirrors, ironwork and the like.
If the matting and frames are alike, it tends to add an air of importance to the grouping….even something as mundane as postcards, menus, etc. will become a fuller more substantial presentation that brings unity and direction to the entire composition.
Conversely, you can add interest to a picture grouping by hanging pictures with differently shaped frames. This is a trickier application but can be done if there is some thought and planning involved.
Finally, it’s important not to forget another extremely important element of design and consequently, hanging your art: Lighting!
Beautiful artwork can be lost unless it is well lit. Illuminating artwork gives it importance. However, make sure you know what type of bulb you’re using, otherwise you risk doing damage to artwork, especially a painting, over time. Fluorescent bulbs tend to fade images, but incandescent bulbs only have 4% of their rays in the damaging zone. A good guideline to follow in terms of lighting is that anything that will fade your carpet will also fade your art, such as direct sunlight.
So, remember that creating a beautifully designed room includes the presentation of wall art and you are now equipped to go forth and Hang On! Imagination, Courage and Precision….come together to make a beautiful space because it’s all about: Better Living by Design!
Mix it up…but stay TRUE!!!
Almost without exception, I steer away from the matchy-matchy. I bet you have seen exactly the type of design that I’m preaching about. Matching side tables to go with the matching chairs that sit in front of the fireplace with the matching candlestick lighting fixtures …the wood color and type throughout matches and …oh sorry…I’ve bored myself to sleep…*yawn*..wake me up when you can tell me something interesting:)
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are most definitely times when having some matching sets not only works, but works well. I am talking about the design that screams boredom and lack of imagination and creativity. Somewhere along the line the fact that mixing not only design styles and genres, but also wood finishes and types, furnishings in the same space and everything else that goes into a space got lost.
Remeber when you’re putting your room together that, unless you are making the concept of the space true to a specific style or era, you can easily mix it up…just be thoughtful. Naturally, you should choose only a style of furniture that suits and appeals to you . When you’re mixing those different styles, just make sure that the pieces compliment each other. Styles that are similar in scale, texture and lines will go well together. Mixing light and dark woods in the same room is a very pleasing contrast.
The bottom line is: Be CREATIVE and use your imagination and if you get stuck…CALL a designer:)