How To Position & Hang Pictures, Paintings & Art On Walls

One of the best ways of giving your home impact and soul is to hang some attractive pictures or art on your walls. But the question is how to arrange those pictures in a grouping that works on the wall.

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How many times have you begun knocking holes in the wall only to find that you are not happy with the end result.

This article looks at how to choose & group pictures & art on a wall.

So you've got a few favourite pictures that you want to hang together as a group?

There are many ways of grouping styles of pictures & art . See later articles on how to group pictures & art and also how to choose a theme for wall art and also how to work with proportion and shape of the space on which you wish to hang some art.

Lets assume that you have made your choice of the pictures or art that you want to hang on your wall.

We will also assume that you have chosen a wall area, like the space seen in this photograph, for hanging the art.

Note that although this is not a large space, the wall is completely bare with floor to ceiling bookshelves on one side and a door on the other.

In this situation the art needs to balance with the other elements of the room, so a fairly large arrangement would work here.

Lay some of the art that you have out on the floor and begin to play with the individual pieces.

Try all sort of arrangements until you find one that pleases your eye.

Keep working until you find the arrangement you like best. Tip: Keep a digital camera handy in case you forget how you did the arrangement you liked a little earlier.

When you find the arrangement that you are happy with make some paper templates of the different pieces of art. I use old rolls of wallpaper, but you can use anything including brown wrapping paper.

Make sure that the edges are nice an even and that the templates are exactly the size of the art.

Next, using white tac or other non marking sticky tac, position the templates on the wall that you wish to hang the art.

At this time you can play around with the height, the spacing and the final overall positioning of the art that you want to hang.

With this arrangement we are ensuring that all the outside edges 'line-up' so you actually create one large rectangle out of the 5 smaller pieces.

Stand back and view the positioning from different angles in the room. Sit down and look at it, walk into the room and look again.

Once you are happy that the art is correctly positioned, use a soft leaded pencil (it's easier to rub out the lines) and mark the top edge and outside edge of all of your art.

Now begin hanging the art as per your markings. See How to hang pictures on a wall.

This is quite a formal arrangement that suited both the subject matter of the art and also the room and setting for the art.

Take a look at other articles for ideas on:

Choosing a theme for your art.
How to group pictures & art.
How to hang a picture correctly.
The right sort of fitting to hang art, mirrors and shelves on walls.

Useful Resources

Art on the web - www.easyart.com
More art on the web - www.artresources.com
Even more art to look at - www.fine-art.com
Surely there can't be any more - www.artseek.com

Innovative picture positioning idea - www.thepicturewallcompany.com

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