THE ART OF HANGING ART

There is an art to hanging art.  It took me many tries before I figured out a technique that worked.  But I have to admit that even now I run up against an ensemble of art that I have to put my thinking cap on.  Today I want to share my tools, tips, and tricks to hanging art.  Hopefully, by the end of this post, you will know the art of hanging art.

THE ART OF HANGING ART

When you start to think about art for your home a great place to begin is on Etsy or social media.  Which just happens to be the inspiration behind this post.

ART

I recently was approached by a very talented artist outside of Atlanta, Georgia by the name of Anita Martinez. You can find her HERE on Instagram.  She created this beautiful charcoal and ink piece for Hannah's room.

Hannah's room had one wall that desperately needed something.  Anita's piece was perfect along with a few other items that Hannah already had like her macrame wall hanging that she created and a tiny mirror that needed a little paint.

FLOOR LAYOUT

Before you begin to do anything lay out all your pieces on the floor until you find the arrangement that you love.

Look at the wall where you want your ensemble to go and then find a place on the floor that is about that size.

A more precise way to do this is to measure the wall and then measure out the wall on the floor.  It helps some people to be more detailed on this part.  But if you are good at visualizing then you can skip the measuring.

TOOLS

Now that you have a design laid out on the floor go and collect the tools you will need.  The tools I needed to do this job are:

1. Hammer
2. Art Hanging Set
3. Level
4. Pencil
5. 30′ Tape Measure

You can purchase these items by clicking on the words.

STEP 1: MEASURE THE WALL

Measure the width and length of the wall or area you want the art to go and find the center.  Make a circle for the center mark.

STEP 2: FIND CENTER OF ENSEMBLE

Figure out the center of your ensemble.  Then select your main piece or largest piece.  In this case, the Anita Martinez art was our most important piece.

Lucky for us it measured outside of the frame to outside of frame 15 inches.  That means all we have to do is sit the art to the left of the center dot because our design was 30″ wide and half of that is 15″.

Now all I have to do is decided how high I want it.  Because I have the mirror going on top, I decided to make the center of the art a little below eye level.

Whenever you hang art, you should make the center a little above eye level.  But if you're short like me keep in mind that eye level for most people is 5'5.  Position the art on the wall and make a mark with the pencil on the top of the frame.

STEP 3: POSITION AND LEVEL

Place the art on the wall and make a mark with the pencil on the top of the frame.  Next, put the level on the mark and after it is level draw a faint line all the way across.

STEP 4: MEASURE FOR NAILS

This frame has two hooks on the back so you will need two nails.  Because the frame is very light weight, I will not need a picture hanger style hook.  If it were heavier, I would have needed a picture hanger like THIS.  These picture hangings come in different weight limits so see how much your art weighs before you shop.

Now I measured the width of the frame which was 15″.  Half of 15 is 7 1/2″ which is what I used to find the center of this piece of art on the wall.

Next, I measured over from my center dot on the wall the find the center of the art.  Then I measured the hooks on the back of the art and found half of that number which was 5.5 inches.  Now all I have to do is measure out on both sides of my center mark 5.5″ and that is where the nails go.

Because these hooks on the back of the frame are so close to the top of the frame, I didn't have to measure down but 1/4″.  Last hang this piece of art.

STEPS 5: REPEAT

Repeat step three and four to hang the other pieces.

STEP 6: CLEAN-UP

A job isn't complete until everything is tidy and clean.  Now that all the pieces are on the wall use your eraser on your pencil or use a magic eraser to remove all the marks that are showing.  Magic erasers really do work like magic.

Now that you have all your art on the wall you can sit back and enjoy it and read more at Life on Summerhill like Hannah's Room Tour which will show you the rest of her beautiful bedroom.

If you have any canvas artwork you need framed to hang on your wall, check out my post about Inexpensive Way to Frame Canvas Art: Step-by-Step Guide.

HAPPY DECORATING!

If you enjoyed these ideas, please sign up for emails, so you don’t miss out on more fun decorating tips and ideas HERE.