What is the Right Height to Hang Art?
We founded Art of the Movies with a simple goal, to get more Original Vintage Movie Posters out of drawers and long-forgotten boxes and, where they should be, hanging on walls.
So, alongside our fantastic selection of original movie posters, we also offer custom movie poster framing.
Once any piece of art is framed, the next exciting challenge is choosing where it should be hung to have the greatest impact.
To help with that, in this blog post, we explore the right height to hang your newly framed movie poster, or indeed, any piece of art.
Basic Rules
Before we do, let's cover off some basic rules of hanging works of art:
- Do not squash large or high-impact pieces together. Multiples pieces of art competing for attention can reduce their visual impact.
- Conversely, do not position small pieces of art in the vast expanse of a large wall. They will appear lost, again diminishing their visual impact.
- Always hang art a safe distance from a direct source of heat, such as an open fire, electric heater or radiator. As well as reducing fire risks, changes in temperature can damage your art work.
- If hanging in a room with increased moisture, such as a kitchen or bathroom, ensure that the room is well ventilated to prevent damp and mould affecting your art.
- Unless you have taken steps to reduce the harmful affects of ultra-violet light (which we will cover in a later 'glazing' blog post), do not hang your art work in direct sunlight as over time it will bleach colours out of the art.
Other Factors
When considering where in the room to hang your art, consider factors such as:
- Whether to hang in the middle of a wall.
- Whether to position over a piece of furniture, such as a sideboard, chest of drawers or sofa.
- Whether to position in the blank wall space between pieces of furniture.
- An odd number of art works on a wall (e.g. 3), seems to work better than an even number.
For each of the posters in our Catalogue, we show an 'in room' image. Taking a look through each of these may provide some good inspiration.
The Right Height
Once you've decided where to hang your framed art work, you can turn to working out the right height to hang it.
Whilst the quick answer is that the right height is the height that looks best in your room (get someone to help you by holding the art work for you, so you can gauge the best height), there are a couple of rules of thumb that can help:
- If hanging over a piece of furniture, such as a sofa, allow 6 in / 15 cm from the top of the furniture to the bottom of your picture frame. This creates a sense of harmony and cohesion between the furniture and art work.
- Do not hang your art work too high. Most galleries and museums follow a rule that the centre of your art should be circa 57 in / 145 cm from the floor. This is a comfortable 'eye level' view point for the majority of adults.
In the Infographic below, we have outlined how we calculate the hanging points for our art works, together with a few useful tips to prevent mistakes.
You can download a PDF version from the link below.
The Right Height to Hang Movie Posters
A final piece of advice... Safety first. You want your Original Vintage Movie Poster to be on display for many years. Once framed, it is likely to be heavy, with the frame perhaps containing a large expanse of glass. It needs to be safely secured to your wall. If you are at all in doubt, call in an odd-job man or trusted DIY'er. If you haven't got the right tools, or aren't experienced in these sorts of things, it just isn't worth the risk.
We hope you have found this post useful. Once you've hung your current piece of art, why not check out our selection of beautiful original and vintage movie posters and find your next framing and hanging project?
Adam and the Art of the Movies team.
