3 basic rules to follow when hanging a painting

Sometimes we have been invited to a friend's house and have seen paintings hanging very close to the ceiling. Other times they are slightly inclined. They do not look all right!. Here you have three basic tips which you can follow when hanging paintings. We hope they help you!

1- What is the proper height when hanging a painting?

The most important thing is that the centre of the painting is at eye-level. We can correct it a bit afterwards, placing it a bit lower or higher depending on other factors such as the total height to the ceiling, wall lights, switches, surrounding furniture or other elements which were already hanging on the walls.

2. How do I centre the painting?

We must take the most important piece of furniture as a reference.

In the case of a sofa, we must leave the same distance at both ends of it.

For example, if the painting is going to be in a bedroom, the bed will be the reference point and we will try to leave the same distance from both ends to the wall.

In case we want to hang two or more paintings, they will be evenly distributed and we will always leave a wider space at both ends than between the paintings.

3- One or two bolts?

Big format paintings always need two bolts. This way we will distribute the painting's weight into two points and the structure will not suffer from tensions which can end up with a broken painting, or with the painting falling off. Besides, we can also avoid leaving the painting slightly inclined when we dust it.

As to small paintings, we can hang them with a single bolt and therefore we avoid making so many holes on the wall.

A good solution to avoid leaving them inclined is to put adhesive felts at both ends of the lower back side of the painting. You can find them at any ironmonger's

Apart from rules, the most important thing to consider is your sense of aesthetics and that, once you have finished and have a look at the wall from a certain distance, you feel visual harmony. If you do, this means you did a good job.