If you are a contractor finishing out the interior of a new office building as a spec home, you may find yourself in need of hanging pictures and canvas art. You want the skill to do this job quickly while making it look perfect every time. On the other hand, homeowners repainting a house also need this skill. This article teaches you how professionals hang pictures and other artwork so you can do the same.
In the 19 years I’ve worked as the Polk Museum of Art’s Exhibits Manager, I hung over 40,000 works of art. If you have ever wondered how museums and galleries get their pictures and canvases to line up so perfectly, I’m about to tell you all of our secrets!
Author’s Note: In the museum world, no one uses the word “pictures” or “canvas art”. These terms are, however, used by the general public. In the museum world, we say art, drawing, painting, prints, oil painting, works on canvas, etc.
Table of Contents
When hanging art, you don’t need a lot of tools, but the ones I recommend can save you lots of time and hassle.
- 25 foot tape measure – You want a big tape with a good stand-out so it holds its shape when measuring behind the art
- Small hammer – I prefer an Estwing 12 oz hammer for picture-hanging
- 12-inch metal ruler – The 12-inch ruler from a combination square is perfect
- Calculator or cellphone calculator app
- Torpedo level – For small pictures
- Stanley FatMax 24-inch level – This particular FatMax level holds the wire when taking measurements better than any other level on the market because of the shape of the rubber ends. It also won’t mar your walls the way many other levels will because of the ends. This makes it ideal for hanging large pictures.
- Laser Distance Measure (OPTIONAL) – These weren’t a thing when I was hanging art professionally, so they aren’t necessary, but they will save you time when measuring long walls with furniture in the way.
Floreat Hangers
You can drive a nail in the wall and it will be fine for something small and lightweight like photographs. I have done it myself many times. My house is 100 years old and has plaster walls, so I don’t use nails. I use drywall screws. That way, I’m not knocking off the plaster keys that bind the plaster to the furring strips inside my walls.
When hanging any picture or canvas art weighing more than 5 lbs, I recommend you buy actual hangers. Don’t use just any hanger, though. Use Floreat hangers. They are the only ones we ever use at the Polk Museum of Art. Floreat hangers are stronger than nails, with some being able to hold 100 lbs (45 kg) in drywall without needing to find the stud.
Another advantage is that they can hold extra weight, but the holes they make are tiny compared to other hangers. Because they are so small, you can often paint right over them, and the paint fills the hole without the need for spackle.
Laying Out the Pictures and Canvas Art Before Hanging
Before hanging a picture or canvas art, decide where you want to hang it. We tend to arrange artwork by color, theme, or even time period. To let you now how artists and studios feel about this, realize that most serious collectors will buy a sofa to match their artwork instead of purchasing art that matches the sofa!
When grouping artwork by subject or theme, you organize them by topic. I’m a professional photographer and display some of my photos in my house. On one wall I have all cityscapes, on another wall are landscapes. I have wildlife photos are in another room. Do you have art with a common subject? Group them together. Large collections get the largest wall or the biggest room. If you only have a couple of other subjects, they can cover the small walls in your bathrooms and alcoves.
A Note on Spacing and Orientation
When hanging pictures and canvas art, be sure to leave some space around the art. There is no one size that works every time. Three inches is the bare minimum. However, if the work is large, you need to leave more space. Open space serves as an additional visual frame around the art.
Also, when hanging photographs of people or portraits in profile, how you face them makes a difference. Never place a picture of someone looking into the corner. Instead, move that picture to the other side of the wall so the person is facing the middle of the wall. This includes pictures of animals. A picture or canvas art looking into the corner makes the art look depressing, uncomfortable, and cold.
Finalize the Placement and Decide on Double-Hanging
Once you know where everything is going, physically place the art in the final position around the room(s), leaning each piece against the wall where you want it hung. Be careful not to scratch the paint on the wall. Metal frames are especially prone to leaving marks on the wall. Sometimes, you may want to double-hang pictures. This means hanging one picture or canvas art above the other. This is particularly effective if the items are framed identically and are the same size. If they are not the same size, you generally place the small one on top.
If you have high ceilings, you can triple-hang the pictures or go even higher in the case of smaller photographs. In this case, lean the pictures or canvas art face-to-face and back-to-back against the wall in the correct spot. Be careful not to scratch or break any glass or plexiglass protecting the art. Use sheets of cardboard between the artwork to keep from damaging either the art or the wall.
You may not think a small scratch is a big deal, but I have routinely hung artwork worth six figures. Some of it didn’t look that special, so we always treat everything as if it is priceless. You don’t want to have to pay to have it repaired, which can cost thousands of dollars!
Find Your Center
If your wall is blank and you only have one work of art on it, measure the width of the wall. Then simply divide by two to find the center. When marking the center line on the wall, I make a draftsmen’s centerline symbol on the wall with the vertical part of the L being the center. This way I don’t accidentally think a different mark on the wall is my centerline and I avoid mistakes.
Pro Tip: If you have light switches, thermostats or other boxes on the wall, your usable wall space stops at the edge of these boxes. Don’t include the space past them in your measurments. For instance if your wall is 5 feet wide and you have lightswitch 1 foot from the edge of the wall, then when it comes to hanging art, treat it as if you have a 4 foot wall. You want the art centered between the edge of the wall and the lightswitch.
Locating the Nails on the Wall – Math Time
When you asked in algebra class, “When am I ever going to use this?” I bet you didn’t think the answer was hanging pictures and canvas art on the walls of your bedroom! Fortunately, it is not hard at all. Follow along step by step, and you won’t even know you’re doing algebra.
Locating the Drop
Before we begin, let me give you one definition as part of the formula. When I define the “drop”, I am referring to the distance between the top of the frame and where the nail or nails touch the wire or hanging point of the back of the artwork. When measuring the Drop, if you use one hanger or nail, put your tape measure at the center of the wire and lift the artwork off the ground by that point. Then, you can measure the distance from the hook to the top of the frame. This is your Drop or D in the formula below.
In museums, we almost ALWAYS use two hangers on the wall, just in case one of them fails. This prevents you from having to explain to the insurance company why the $400,000 drawing just fell off the wall! To measure the Drop here, use either the ruler from a 6-inch or 12-inch combination square. With larger artwork (3 feet or more), you may need a level or similar device with a built-in measure.
Place the ruler or level, spreading the wire to give you a flat section to measure your Drop. Keep the ruler centered. Then lift the artwork and measure from the ruler to the top of the frame. This will give you the Drop (D). Make sure you remember which device you used when taking that measurement, as you will need to know that when marking the location of the nails on the wall.
Centerline
Have you ever walked into a museum and everything looks so nice, neat, and perfect? Then you go to a small art gallery and things look disorganized and disheveled even though the walls are the exact same color. The difference is usually that the local gallery tried to hang the art so the tops or the bottoms of the frames were even. This is what most self-taught art hangers do. Museums, on the other hand, hang art so the center of the works line up with a common centerline. Most of the time this is 58-inches. However, if a museum has exceptionally tall walls (15-feet or more), they may choose 60 inches as the centerline.
This centerline means that half the work of art is above it and half is below it. No matter what size the artworks are, they always appear to be in a nice straight line because they are centered in the middle.
The Hanging Formula
Don’t freak out! I will walk you through exactly how this works, so you are just punching in numbers on the calculator, not doing algebra! The formula just tells you which numbers to do first.
The best way to walk you through this formula is to show you an example. In the drawing, we have an artwork 24 inches tall. 24/2 = 12 inches. What that is doing is putting half the art above our centerline and half below it. Now add 12 inches to the 58-inch centerline to get the top of the artwork as it will appear on the wall: 12+58=70. This puts the top of the frame at 70 inches. Now, we just need to subtract the Drop. In this case, it is 6 inches (70-6=64). Therefore, I make a mark on the wall at 64 inches high.
If this were the only object on the wall, say it is a small 4-foot wall, I would divide the wall in half and put a vertical centerline at the 2-foot mark. When I make my 64-inch mark, I want the two marks to form a + on the wall. That + is where the nail or the BOTTOM of the hanger goes if I used a single hanger.
Dealing with Two Hangers
If I am going to use the much more secure two-hanger method, I still mark the + on the wall at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical centerlines. But now I need to add half the length of the 6-inch, 12-inch ruler or my FatMax 24-inch level to each side of the vertical centerline. In other words, if I used the 12-inch ruler when I measured the Drop at the beginning, I now need to measure 6 inches left and right of the centerline and make a vertical mark. Then, make a level mark that intersects those marks. That is where the nails go. Tip from a Pro: Circle them, otherwise, you will occasionally drive your nail into the centerline intersection by mistake. Ask me how I know!
Let me show you one more example of what I actually punch into the calculator. In this case, we have a 32-inch painting with an 8-inch Drop. I would type 32/2+58-8=66. That means I place my nails 66 inches off the ground. Told you it wasn’t hard!
Double- and Tripple-Hanging Art
Now, let’s make it a little more complicated by double-hanging two works of art. In the example below, they are both 24 inches tall, and each one has a Drop of 3 inches. I like to always put 3 inches between artwork hung this way. We are going to treat these as ONE work of art as far as the formula goes. This means first I need to add them together. So 24+24+3=51-inches. In the calculator, I type 51/2+58-3=80.5 inches to the height of the nails for the top artwork. I ignore the Drop on the bottom artwork in the formula for now.
After hanging the top artwork, I can then locate the nails on the bottom work by simply taking the Drop (3 inches in the case) and adding it to the 3 inches of space I am leaving between the artwork. Make a mark there. Then, mark your vertical centerline either by measuring it or by using a level and drawing down from the marks above. Where they intersect is the location of your nail/hanger(s).
In this final example, we are triple-hanging, and each one is a different size. It does not matter as long as you treat the group as one large artwork.
Spacing Pictures and Canvas Art
Once you have all the small walls hung, it is time to tackle the large walls. These walls will require you to space out the artwork an equal distance apart. Once again, we will use math for that. Layout the wall approximately where you want each piece. Then go down the line with your calculator and add up the horizontal measurements of each work of art. Write that total down.
Next, measure the total distance of the wall and subtract the total measurement of artwork that you previously wrote down.
Take this number and divide it by the number of spaces on the wall (usually one more than the number of artworks on the wall). This will give you the spacing between the artwork.
Next, physically space the artwork out with that measurement to make sure you did the math right. If you did, you are ready to start hanging from one end of the wall. Divide by two and add the layout space to get the centerline mark to start hanging the first piece. Once you hang one work of art, treat the edge of that artwork as you did the edge of the wall. Divide by two and add the layout space to get the centerline mark of the next piece. Hang one piece at a time all the way down the wall.
Diptychs and Triptychs
Sometimes, you will run across artwork made of multiple pieces. If there are two parts, they are called diptychs, and if they are in three parts, they are triptychs. If I am not given instructions, I will hang these one to three inches apart, depending on what looks good. Sometimes they may need to be butted up against each other, though. You will have to pay attention to the design of the artwork to be able to tell (or look for instructions on the back).
On large walls where you have a diptych or triptych, treat these as one work when counting the spaces and doing the math for the layout spacing.
Hanging Pictures and Canvas Art – Hiring a Pro
There are some instances when you may want to hire a professional art installer. I was once subcontracted to hang about 80 to 100 artworks in a brand-new multi-story office building while a law firm was moving in. I did it in just a few hours and I charged $60 an hour. The artwork was expensive and I could do it without damaging it. Most importantly I could get in, then get out fast so the art was not in the mover’s way.
I have also been hired to hang art in private homes. These were too large, heavy, complex, or delicate for anyone inexperienced in art handling to tackle. 100 to 200 lbs paintings are routine for museum staff.
If you decide to hire someone, your best option is to call an art museum if you are lucky enough to have one in your area. Ask for the preparator, which is the person that specializes in hanging art. Most preparators will hire out on the weekends as a side gig. If you don’t have an art museum nearby, try calling around to local frame shops. They usually offer hanging services though they will not be as experienced as a preparator who is hanging hundreds, sometimes even thousands of works of art each year.
Hanging Pictures and Canvas Art on the Wall: Summary
As you can see, there is much more to hanging art than throwing a few nails on the wall. There is an artistic side to make it look good, but there is a lot of math to get that artistic side to work out properly. Bookmark this page for future reference the next time you need to hang pictures and canvas art.