The best height to hang pictures is a question with so many possible answers…
Sometimes, the best height to hang pictures depends more on personal tastes than on any rules or guidelines about aesthetics or interior design. Then again, if some general rules aren’t followed, the image might not have maximum visual impact as it hangs on the wall.
So, let’s take a look at what options you have to hang your favorite photos.
Table of Contents:
- Eye Level Height to Hang Pictures
- Multiple Prints and Sizes
- Use Different Heights to Hang Pictures
- Wall Art Ideas
- Recommended Photography Gear
Eye Level Height to Hang Pictures
Most of the time, we think about eye level as being the optimal height to hang pictures. The question is, what is eye level? What’s eye level for a 6-foot tall person won’t be the same for a 5-foot tall person or a 4-foot tall person. You get the picture.
Thankfully, the proper height to hang pictures is not an absolute, nor is there a rigid formula for determining that height. Just getting inside a range will often suffice for calculating eye-level height.
The thing is, eye level is simply one of the options for the best height to hang pictures. Depending on the type of subject, how large the print is, and even what type of print such as a canvas wrap or an acrylic print, can change the optimal height to hang pictures on the wall.
The intended viewer makes a difference as well. For instance, the right height to hang pictures in a corporate boardroom may be radically different than if we're decorating a child’s room. Even how large or small the room or hallway is can affect the height we choose for mounting any type of art on a wall.
Ace Hardware has a great YouTube video explaining some of these ideas in the video below:
Multiple Prints and Sizes
Using multiple prints in the same size or of different sizes holds out some more possibilities for the best height to hang pictures. One line of thought is to hang the photos at a uniform height. This works exceptionally well when the photographs are all the same size and orientation.
What gets tricky at times is when we are mounting pictures that are different sizes or some with portrait orientation and others as landscape orientation. What do we do now to hang at a uniform height?
We could decide on using the center or midpoint of each image as being the uniformity for this wall. Going this way, the tops and bottoms of the separate images won’t match up with each other, but having a common center point creates a balance.
Alternatively, we could opt for using the top or bottom of each frame or print as the common height. This can create a dynamic display and can be surprisingly effective for certain styles of photography.
Use Different Heights to Hang Pictures
Sometimes, the best height to hang pictures is completely fluid, depending on what we’re attempting to accomplish. For example, deciding on whether to standardize a wall-mounted image or two (or more) as portrait or vertical orientation or as landscape or horizontal. Bonus hint: we can print images as square prints, too!
Several smaller square or portrait-oriented prints can be mounted in orbit around a very large landscape-oriented print, or vice versa. We all know how a portrait looks great hanging as a vertical display. Well, a horizontal or square portrait can capture attention too.
Likewise with images of places, not all landscapes need to be mounted as a landscape print. Play around with images and their cropping or final output in order to see all of the possibilities available to you. Sometimes a different point of view can really enhance an image.
Different heights can mean from a little below eye level to a little above or it can be from floor to ceiling. Additionally, a diagonal display or a geometric shape can really enhance a group of images and you can mix and match sizes, print types, even the types of art such as oil paintings with photographic enlargements.
Wall Art Ideas
There are more ideas for the best height to hang pictures once you see some of the specialty prints and wall art available from CanvasPrints.com, one of the best places to print your photographic art.
An idea for wall art that really caught my eye the first time I tested out CanvasPrints.com are the triptychs, which are one image printed across three different canvas wraps. You can print as three vertical prints that become a landscape display or three horizontal prints arranged as a portrait display. You can then hang them as a level display or vary the display to non-aligned edges.
Some other ideas from CanvasPrints are their wall display and collage options which works well with multiple images, whether you want to completely fill up a wall space or a smaller area.
The best height to hang pictures is an open question. Much of it depends on how many prints you’re using as well as their sizes and style of printing. Try out various ideas and show us on our forums here at Photography Talk. We’d love to see them!