How to hang pictures at habitation

Hanging pictures, much like painting them, is a balancing act of spacing, colour and proportion. As whatever gallerist, curator or interior designer knows, the fashion fine art is displayed is crucial and transformative, not merely to the space it is in, simply to the feeling given off in the pictures themselves.

How to hang pictures on walls

Simon Upton

While what we have on our walls is important, the fundamental to fine art looking good is more nigh how to hang pictures than what nosotros choose. A Picasso masterpiece can look equally expert as a cluster of affordable prints, so long every bit you know how to arrange art on a wall. We're fifty-fifty fond of using books of prints equally sources, and you tin see a beautiful instance of this in one of our favourite decoration shoots here. Nicky Haslam did the same in his famous Hunting Lodge: 'Behind the bust of Marie Antoinette is a group of sepia engravings of Old Master drawings. The whole lot cost about a fiver; merely I framed them up "grand" in rubbed golden.' If it'southward practiced enough for Nicky... We've canvassed the professionals to get all the tips and tricks y'all need to know how to hang art, no matter your budget or cognition.

Using the space

  • Recall about the practicalities of the room. A small picture show can be lost on a large wall, while a more substantial artwork could dominate a room. Freddie de Rougemont, a specialist in the Old Masters Group at Christie's London, advises, 'The impact of an artwork, however grand, can be greatly reduced if it is unsuited to the space.'
  • Consider what volition surround the artwork and how the low-cal will fall in the room during the solar day. Exercise you desire the art to be the focal point, or would you adopt it to exist placed more subtly? Comport in mind sight lines and what you want to see first when you enter the room.
  • Don't be agape to hang a movie somewhere surprising. As David Macdonald, head of Sotheby's UK single-owner sales, notes, 'The human relationship yous have with a slice should be cardinal: the ornamentation effectually it secondary.' Contemporary pieces can look brilliant in traditionally decorated rooms and vice versa.

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How to arrange pictures on a wall

  • As a rule of thumb, hanging pictures at heart level is a safety option. This generally ways positioning the picture so its midpoint is 57-60 inches from the floor, depending on the ceiling height of the room – and your height, of class.
  • Manifestly, every bit with any rule, some flexibility is necessary – y'all may have other artworks to manoeuvre effectually, or an inconveniently placed mantelpiece. If the motion-picture show's midpoint is not exactly at centre level, don't panic: become with your instincts and hang information technology where it feels natural. In fact, Freddie advises against using tape measures at all and suggests 'trusting your eye'.
  • What if y'all are hanging several pictures? 'Information technology'southward mostly sensible to hang your largest film first and work around it,' says Freddie. Visualise how you desire the completed wall to await and play around with a few arrangements laid out on the flooring before you start to brand any holes in the wall.

Things to avert

  • Never position a flick in straight sunlight, equally this will damage it irreversibly. This is especially of import for works on paper, but applies to all artwork. The interior designer Martin Brudnizki suggests using picture lights, such equally those past Hogarth Lighting or TM Lighting, to illuminate key pieces. Spotlights and angled ceiling lights work well, likewise.
  • Art advisor Arianne Piper says, 'No glass will safeguard from direct sunlight, but consider UV-protected drinking glass for art in frames.' Museum glass is preferable simply expensive.
  • Call back nigh the conditions of the room. Due to their humid and hot environments, kitchens and bathrooms are non always ideal places to hang art. Similarly, to a higher place a radiator or fireplace might not exist the best spot.

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To DIY or enlist a professional person?

  • Using the services of a professional picture hanger is a worthwhile investment. They tin hang a huge number in a day and you can be sure that each and every one will be hung perfectly, with no unwanted holes or markings on the wall.
  • Yet, if you are itching to go the hammer and nails out, exist sure to accept a spirit level to hand, or a laser spirit level, which will allow for actress precision. Luke Duncan, associate director at Cristea Roberts Gallery, SW1, says, 'Don't hang your moving-picture show on string or wire. It'south better to work a chip harder at the start with a spirit level and so install your pic direct on ii hooks or screws.' String or wire will non fully support the picture and, equally the motion picture can motion around, it will rarely sit down perfectly straight.
  • Luke also points out that, 'Heavy works should e'er be hung by a professional. If you can't carry information technology yourself, don't try and hang it yourself.'

Creating a salon wall

  • Originating in 17th-century Paris, the salon wall – a wall on which a number of pictures of varying mediums and sizes are hung next to each other – has had something of a renaissance in recent years. You need merely expect to the Majestic Academy Summer Exhibition for a lesson in brilliant salon-style hanging.
  • When planning a salon wall, lay out all your pictures on the flooring first, to encounter how they work together and get an idea of spacing. Remember, yous will need to break the line of the wall, and then avoid hanging pictures in smashing rows equally this looks dull.
  • The selection of fine art should not be too carefully considered but feel as though information technology has been collected over many years. Every bit John Swarbrooke, specialist in Impressionist and Mod Fine art at Simon Dickinson gallery, SW1, notes, 'Balance is cardinal – combine monochromatic and colourful pictures, abstract and figurative works, older and gimmicky pieces.' This helps the hanging to experience natural. Make sure the frames look practiced together, otherwise this tin can distract from the artwork.

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How to hang a picture - tricks of the merchandise

  • If you accept bespoke walls or precious wallpaper, Arianne recommends installing an invisible hanging system. These neat railings mean y'all avert drilling into the wall and causing damage. Peak Rock has a practiced, affordable range; the J Rail system is platonic for heavy works.
  • When it comes to DIY hanging, Chloe Ballin of Sims Reed Gallery, SW1, says, 'Rules are made to be broken. Nosotros love the hanging at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, where there are pictures hanging at all sorts of heights, including footstool superlative and eye level for children. Why not rehang every once in a while to create new space and refresh the room.'
  • For a marker-free wall, John advises using Post-it notes rather than pencil to mark out the edges of the picture frame and where you plan to identify your hooks

House & Garden's Tried-and-Trusted Hangers

  1. Arianne Piper ariannepiper.com
  2. ADi Solutions groupadi.com
  3. Hang My Art hangmyart.co.uk
  4. Martinspeed martinspeed.com
  5. Jacek Lojek (in-house at builders/decorators Lethbridge London) lethbridgelondon.co.uk

How to hang art

  • How to hang pictures

    Christopher Horwood

    What was once a nine sleeping room bedsit has been transformed past Natasha Howard, the designer behind Instagram'southward 'Philamena', into an elegant and inviting family home. Natasha made the well-nigh of the owners' art collection, creating a gallery wall higher up the main bedroom's fireplace, which she found on eBay. The antique shell chair came from Ardingly Antiques Off-white.

  • Simon Bergström

    For a casual, informal await, designer Sebastian Bergström has stuck botanical prints to the tiles in his apartment's bathroom, too equally propping framed pictures up on the shelf that runs along the top of the panelling.

  • Martin Morrell

    A mix of modernistic British and contemporary art hangs above the antique sofa in the dwelling house of Mark and Georgie Rowse.

  • Simon Upton

    Nicky Haslam teamed upward with his former protegées, Jena Quinn and Lucy Derbyshire of Studio QD, to renovate this London house previously separate into two flats to create an exuberantly elegant single home. In the sitting room, pictures are grouped in the alcove above the sofa against a wall covered in 'Bloomsbury' in merlot by Rose Tarlow from Tissus d'Hélène. Nosotros like the idea of a primal large motion picture with smaller ones hung around information technology.

  • Owen Gale

    The art in a higher place the sofa in Angelica Squire's house is by the painter Marina Anaya, and consists of four pieces joined together. Its size sits well within the proportions of the space, and anchors the dining area in an open up plan room.

  • Paul Massey

    After a adamant search for a firm in Kent that satisfied her love of Georgian architectural features, interiors doyenne Katharine Howard made full employ of her insider knowledge to complete its ornament. The family room has walls in 'Jonquil' pinkish by Edward Bulmer Natural Paint - a lovely setting for a classic gallery wall filled with mismatched frames and pictures of varying sizes.

  • Michael Sinclair

    Anthony Collett'southward own London house combines the warmth and colour of his collected objects with the passion for craftsmanship that defines the work of Collett-Zarzycki, his multi-disciplinary design partnership. In the bathroom a painting by the artist David Champion hangs above the salvaged bathroom installed past the Colletts when they moved in almost forty years agone, and more artworks are placed atop the panelling.

  • Lucas Allen

    The painting at the entrance to the main bedroom suite in a Long Isle Farmhouse by Veere Grenney is by Francis Picabia. The night wooden frame works with the feel throughout the rest of the house and serves to emphasise the hit artwork within.

  • Paul Massey

    The owners of Ashby Manor House used paintings by indigenous Australian artists to add colour to this double-height space – Emu Dreaming at Alhalkere 2007 by Kudditji Kngwarreye is seen on the upstairs landing.

  • Owen Gale

    Every bit of wall infinite in Violet Dent'due south flat has been used to display pictures, prints and paintings soured from all manner of places. There is no rhyme or reason to information technology, it's simply a gloriously eclectic gallery wall across the entire flat.

  • Simon Brown

    'Almost annihilation can expect good when it is framed well,' says designer Nicky Haslam. 'I frame anything that appeals - postcards, let­ters, maps; everything merely photographs. If I buy a small original of a picture, I'll frame a reproduction as well to make a pair if necessary. Backside the bust of Marie Antoinette in my sitting room (pictured) is a grouping of sepia engravings of Onetime Master drawings. The whole lot cost almost a fiver; simply I framed them upward "1000" in rubbed gilt.'

  • Simon Upton

    Densely hung paintings and prints - forth with furniture on a large scale - gives a sense of timeless character in Keith McNally'southward Notting Hill home. To increase the menstruum of space in the Balthazar restaurant owner's infinite, the large ground-flooring living room was created out of several smaller rooms.

  • Rachel Whiting

    The artist owners of this London house called on interior designer Beata Heuman to create a family home full of fun, distinctive design and punchy colours. A highly original space, unapologetically theatrical and oozing free energy. 'The owners are both artists. They have quite wild tastes and they love stiff colours,' says Beata.

    The drawing room is a comfy infinite for watching idiot box in the evening. Warm pink walls in Dulux '90RR 52214' are the perfect backdrop for the Walton Ford prints. 'They appear to be naturalist illustrations, only if you look closely, they are trippy and quite naughty,' says Beata.

  • Michael Sinclair

    In their Twickenham domicile, Lady Wakefield and her late husband Peter decided to move the cartoon room up to the showtime floor. Hither, they created a comfy space with panelled walls and purposely unmatched furnishings that mix well with paintings and objects acquired over the past 3 decades. The sofa is strewn with a cosy drove of needlepoint cushions.

  • Ngoc Minh Ngo

    Every room in all of the nine residences and public areas at the Playa Grande is different, and each is painted in what Celerie calls, 'faded bathing-suit colours', and layered with art, objects and vintage effects as this decoration detail proves.

  • Rachel Whiting

    A grid formation is a swell way to brandish multiple works from the same series of pictures. In this hallway by House & Garden's Gabby Deeming, the walls have been painted with greenish Farrow & Brawl emulsion. This is the ideal canvas for a display of drawings of flowers by Lucy Auge. The striped chair is a witty touch.

    WALL Paint, 'Arsenic', £39.50 for two.v litres estate emulsion, from Farrow & Ball. Ink on paperartworks, 500 Flowers, 29 x 21cm, £xl each, by Lucy Auge. Aluminium A4 pictureframes (black), £3 each, from Tiger.

    Furniture Cotton wool- and silk-covered chair with mid-mahogany-finished legs, 'The Cub Chair' (damascus stripe), 80 x 51 x 59cm, £iii,570 every bit shown, from Soane.

  • Paul Massey

    A set of botanical prints creates a striking backdrop to a vignette of objects on a table at Rita Konig'due south farmhouse.

  • Paul Massey

    A drove of pressed plants of 'herbaria' is framed and displayed on the wall underneath the stairs in architect Jonathan Tuckey'due south Swiss chalet. Endeavor your hand at framing dried herbs, blooms and fronds against brown card for a similar outcome using a bloom press from Crocus, which costs £29.99.

  • Simon Brown

    This graceful cartoon room in the Cotswolds is blessed with light thanks to a large bay window overlooking the garden. Architect Robert Hardwick designed the panelling, which is painted in Farrow & Ball'due south 'Old White'. Antique textiles and paintings enhance the blusterous feel. The house in its present grade is merely 20 years old, the result of hard work and imagination on the part of the owners and Robert, who is an skillful in Costwolds colloquial.

  • Paul Massey

    Elegant gilded-framed portraits brand a fashionable contrast with the sleek white walls in this newly congenital Yorkshire house designed by Tom Brooksbank.

  • Simon Upton

    The owner of this 1830s London house wanted information technology to be restored to its original style, which interior designer Max Rollitt achieved past retaining its idiosyncrasies and, including the original dentilled cornicing in the hallway illuminated by an 'Original Globe' lantern from Jamb (available in two sizes; the smallest measures 57.2 x twoscore.5cm diameter and costs £2,640) and walls full of pictures.

  • Paul Massey

    A diverse mix of artworks covers ane wall of the possessor'southward sleeping accommodation in this colourful Chelsea maisonette. Frames of dissimilar colours and sizes add together to the eclectic appeal.

  • Large-scale photographs with white frames describe the eye, without detracting from the sleek feel of this modern living room in Audrey Carden's London firm.

  • Paul Massey

    Rita's walls are an eclectic mix of framed prints, photographs, drawings and paintings; they add to the overall relaxed feel of her living room.

  • Pictures hang neatly on the white panelled wall of Anne Massie's back porch. They add a lovely sense of symmetry to the eclectic room.

  • Pictures are hung around the door of the library in Anne Massie'south Virginia home. They bring light and colour to the otherwise dark, wood panelled room.

  • Andrew Montgomery

    A chic collection of monochromatic art in slim black, white and forest frames, hangs in the house of sculptor William Pye. When arranging pictures of different shapes, sizes and subject area affair, clustering them together in an informal configuration is oft best. Make certain the spaces between the frames are even and counterbalanced. Put larger or mural pictures at the top, and conform so the horizontal and vertical planes between them are linear.

  • Jake Curtis

    Mix and match pictures with other elements - like fourth-generation Parisian fine art dealer Patrick Perrin (founder of the PAD fine art off-white). The walls of his apartment (which has been in his family for the improve part of a century) are filled with inherited treasures and his own drove of curiosities. Here he has mixed old frames with turtle shells.

  • Paul Massey

    The owner of this apartment spotted this set of Gary Hume prints at a Louis Vuitton fashion prove and immediately bought the lot. Interior designer Paolo Moschino opted for white frames to sit within white panelling to show these colourful works to their fullest advantage.

  • Paul Massey

    Maps look fantastic in frames. This huge example in a Dartmoor house by designer Guy Goodfellow has been neatly cut into sections spanning flooring to ceiling, taking on a like expect to a mural or finely patterned wallpaper. Symmetry is key to getting this look right. Brand sure the gaps between your pictures are scrupulously even.

  • Paul Massey

    Re-create designer and builder Guy Goodfellow and start with a slice of furniture as your guide; accenting its place in the house by surrounding it with art to create a tableau.

  • Paul Massey

    If you lack wall infinite, or but don't want to put holes in your wall, stacking pictures tin can be equally effective a decorative technique equally hanging; every bit demonstrated by these canvases on the kitchen worktop of artist Craig Hanna's Paris apartment.

  • Sarah Hogan

    The narrow sliver of wall next to a door can be the perfect place to display art. This configuration of ornate gold frames in graduated size, is a simple, timless formation.

  • Simon Brown

    Pretty botanical pictures, hung in symmetrical rows, gently bring out the green accents in the upholstery. If you like the look of these, check out the 'Hubbard Flower Filigree' by Natural Curiosities. A mix and match drove of 120 different blossom illustrations by Cyril E.B. Hubbard.

  • Simon Dark-brown

    Designer Christopher Leach has covered this landing dado-to-ceiling with eighteenth-century prints. To get together the collection he sought out the services of antiquarian print specialists Isaac and Ede, whom he now swears by. 'Information technology was similar putting together a library; David Isaac plotted out exactly what would fit. Information technology's a consummate mix of things, from some good Hogarths to others worth piffling more £5.'

  • Simon Brownish

    This drove of prints of London was commissioned past the owners and hang in a hit formation above the stairs, accentuating the architecture of the house.

  • Simon Brownish

    Oka founder Annabel Astor's drawing room walls are painted in Farrow & Ball'due south 'Calorie-free Blueish', on top of which hangs a big collection of pictures and family portraits, arranged both within and on top of the room'due south panelling in verticle rows.

  • Tim Beddow

    This Chelsea study was redesigned by Paolo Moschino using a bold striped newspaper from Ralph Lauren Home - a surprisingly perfect backdrop for the cool greys of these eighteenth-century prints.

  • Adrian Brisco

    Stacked on a long nineteenth-century sideboard from Robert Shackleton (020-7377 5550), House & Garden decoration editor Gabby Deeming has used abstract prints by (from left) Simon Carter, Mary Fedden, Ben Nicholson, and Terry Frost, bundled in a graduating gild that echoes the slant of the room's low roof.

  • Lucas Allen

    In interior designer Hugh Leslie's hallway, two paintings past Alvaro Guevara grouped asymmetrically, are the perfect foil to his collection of classic mid-twentieth century furniture; including a carved Edwin Lutyens table and a Hans Wegner armchair. Although a room full of significant pieces, which could so easily look museum-like, the organization of the objects and art gives a feeling of relaxation and welcome.

  • In her flat - her abode for the past 25 years - designer Jane Taylor has employed a number of clever space-saving devices, to turn a potentially awkward infinite into a smart, comfortable interior. Her home, which she shares with her husband Simon and their son Henry is a typical Edwardian mansion block in Chelsea. Although they are purpose-designed, they're often an bad-mannered shape and far deeper than they are wide. Her archway door opens into a long, loftier and potentially rather gloomy corridor that connects the front rooms to the back. Jane has enlivened information technology with pictures.