What height to hang pictures

What ist he correct height to hang pictures?

The question may sound rather banal. However, the height at which you hang your picture on the wall depends on several factors and therefore cannot be determined across the board. Rather, the question depends first of all on what kind of picture or art you want to hang on the wall? Is it a canvas painting, an Alu-Dibond print, a painting behind acrylic glass, an artwork or a picture frame? Maybe you just want to hang beautiful photos and postcards on your wall?

The perfect height of your art in the room is therefore always dependent on the size and shape of the picture. In addition, for the ideal height oft he pictures of course the furnishings and your home play a not insignificant role in the perfect placement of your pictures. In an old building flat with high ceilings you have considerably more possibilities than in a modern new building flat with standard ceiling height. Last but not least, the perfect height of the pictures naturally depends on the further furnishing of your apartment. Therefore you should always include other furnishings in your considerations for the perfect picture height.

We show you at what height and in what position your pictures looks best and also tell you how to hang up your picture on the wall quickly and easily.

Our picture hangers for best height to hang pictures hang pictures

Our picture hanger for the perfect picture height

Find the correct height to hang pictures!

A general rule of thumb is that you should hang the center of your picture at about eye level. This is the case at a height of about 1. 60 metres. By the way, the rule of thumb in museums says that the centre of the picture is at a height of 1. 45 to 1. 60 metres. Ideally, one third of your picture should therefore be above eye level and two thirds below. But of course you have to make the exact height for hanging up your artwork also depend on your personal size. In the children’s room, for example, you should adjust the ideal height of the pictures to the eye level of the children. So make sure that you don’t hang the pictures too high up there 😉.

Our tip: Sitting on the sofa in the living room we recommend a lower height to hang your pictures than standing in the hallway. In this case you should fix the lower edge of your picture frame about 20-30 cm above the seat of your sofa.

Adjust the height of your picture to the conditions in your room!

Rules are made to be broken. Therefore you should not always rigidly follow the rule of thumb described above. First, look at your room and look at other furnishings that you might consider when hanging a picture. To find the perfect height, orientate yourself around other edges in your home, such as windows, doors, furniture or even the floor. Because the proportions of your pictures play a decisive role for a harmonious and calm hanging.

Tips: You want to hang your picture near a door at eye level? Here you can have your picture for harmony reasons, for example, with the top edge of the frame of door or room transitions. Other possible orientation points for the presentation of your wall pictures can be, for example, a tiled stove, a chest of drawers or cupboard, but also a window. The same way you colour-coordinate your furniture and decorations, you can do the same with pictures and walls. However, if you hang your pictures near a window, make sure that you do not expose them to direct sunlight in rooms flooded with light, otherwise they will fade quickly.

Basically, the rule applies: larger picture frames look their best over coarse wooden chests of drawers, while smaller pictures and frames look their best next to a small side table. As a further rule of thumb you can remember that your picture frame should be a maximum of 2/3 to 3/4 as wide as your piece of furniture. In addition, your decoration should harmonize with the hanging pictures, whether with or without frame. Strictly geometric hanging thus also requires clear and structured decoration when you want to hang pictures at eye level. However, if you decorate your home in a more colourful way, your hanging can also be much more unstructured and you can combine many different pictures and artwork with or without frames with the right distance between them.

Hanging pictures height – above a chest of drawers

Since the worst chests of drawers are not too wide, you should always hang only one picture or piece of art above them. But beware: many people make the mistake of hanging a single picture way too far away from the chest of drawers. The distance between your artwork and the shelf of the chest of drawers should never exceed 15 and 20 centimetres. You wonder why? Chests of drawers often have a considerable height in themselves. If you now make the mistake of hanging your artwork too high on the wall, your walls will look much lower and your room will look oppressive. With the perfect distance between the picture and the chest of drawers, your walls will look much higher and your room larger.

Hanging pictures height – above a sofa

Because of the width of a sofa it is quite common to hang several pictures and art at a certain distance from each other above the sofa. Here you should place the pictures at eye level, about 150 centimetres high. However, many people make the mistake of hanging two pictures above your couch at far too great a distance from each other.

If there are two or more pictures, the distance should not be too big, otherwise the couch or sofa will seem much smaller than it actually is. You should therefore make sure that you hang your pictures and wall paintings in the middle of the sofa at a maximum distance of 5 to 10 centimetres from each other.

Hanging pictures height – different hangings for an individual picture wall

Would you like to hang different types of pictures on the wall with a passepartout or without a passepartout? Do you like it more structured and prefer straight lines? Or can your pictures also hang criss-cross on the wall and you prefer a random hanging? Whichever hanging you ultimately decide on: different picture types and colours, small or large picture frames, but also different motifs can always be combined to form a harmonious whole.

Just as you match your furnishings and decorations in terms of colour, you can do the same with your pictures and walls. If you often use the same or similar colours in your home, the overall picture will look much more harmonious. With white walls you can of course give your creativity free rein. Here you can basically do nothing wrong and your works always come into their own in the room.

Our tip: Simply orientate yourself here along the horizontal and vertical lines of the image edges and form reference lines from there. You can either prolong this imaginary or continue it through meaningful crossings or sequences. You can find out about the different ways of hanging them in our picture frame guide – here’s how to find out. A spirit level, a folding rule and a pencil are used as aids for straight lines and the correct distance of the hanging.

Picture hanging height from the floor: Tipps for arrangement

Before you hang your pictures on the wall, you should first make a stencil. You can cut these out of a single cardboard box in the size of your wall pictures and stick them to the wall with painter’s tape in the desired hanging of your pictures, at the right distance from each other and at eye level. Here you should use a spirit level so that the artwork hang straight later. With the stencils on the wall you also get a first feeling in which hanging you hang your pictures on the wall best and how the different picture formats as a group of pictures work together best.

You can also hang your pictures along an edge. The upper or lower edge of all pictures here provides the reference line for the suspension. You want to hang several artwork on the same height? With a picture bar you can place several pictures in different formats next to each other and at the same height. All pictures follow a common reference line. Your pictures are simply oriented to the frame edge of the picture bar. The picture rail is mounted on the wall once, so you only have to drill two holes in the wall.

Our tips: If this is too stressful for you, you can also spread your pictures out directly on your floor in a row or as an orderly chaos before hanging them up. Also with your wall pictures on the floor you already get a first impression how the pictures work together and which hanging is best suited for your pictures. When you hang your pictures later on the wall, make sure that you have the exact height of your pictures!

Advantages at a glance:

Self-adhesive

Without wholes in the wall

No frames or tools are necessary

Removable without residue

Height to hang pictures: That’s how you hang pictures quickly and easily

You should always start with the central picture first, no matter whether you hang your wall pictures later as a group of pictures or hang them on the wall in a block. The other pictures are always distributed around the center of the central image. If you work with templates, you can also drill holes directly through the paper for the later hanging points. Then you can remove the paper from the wall. If you need several screws or nails per picture or you want to hang your pictures in a row, you should use a spirit level. Is your wall a solid concrete wall or maybe just plain plasterboard? Depending on the condition of the wall, you can either nail your pictures to the wall or hang them on the wall with proper plugs and screws.

For light pictures you also have the possibility to do without nails, screws and dowels completely and to stick your pictures to the wall.

Further tips: Are you still looking for the right hanging for your artwork? With our picture hangers you can stick, nail or screw your work to the wall at eye level. The size and weight of your work ultimately determines the way it is hung on your wall. This makes it the first picture hanger that adapts flexibly to you, your picture and your wall. Especially with light pictures you do without drilling and stick your pictures to the wall. With our hangers for all kind of pictures you can quickly and easily design your own individual picture wall.