Walk into almost any house and you will find the pictures hung for somebody standing on a chair. It is the most common mistake we see, and the easiest to put right.
The gallery rule
Galleries hang to a line: the middle of every picture at the same height, about 145 cm from the floor. That is a little under the eye of a person standing, and it holds whatever the size of the work. A large painting rises above the line and a small print sits on it, but their middles agree.
Measure to the middle of the picture, not to its top, and not to the hook.
When to break it
Over a sofa or a sideboard, hang lower: leave about a hand's width between the furniture and the frame, so the two read as one. In a dining room, where people sit, the line can drop by ten centimetres. On a staircase, keep the line parallel to the stairs.
Hooks and wire
Use two hooks for anything wider than your shoulders, so the picture stays level when a door slams. Brass hooks with hardened pins go into plaster without cracking it; on old lath and plaster, find a lath first.
Or ask us
Within the city we hang anything we sell, and we will come and hang your own pictures for a small fee. It takes an afternoon to rehang a room, and it usually feels like a new one.
