apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It's about time someone took a stand against the Times Select bully. I just hope they don't get angry at you for using their graphic. Very cute!

Doesn't 57" seem a bit low? In the US, the average male is about 5'9" (or 69"), and the average female is about 5'4" (or 64"), which means that average eye level should be somewhere between 60" and 65".

Jimmy, your number seem good. However, I've found that this number works really well and is a very pleasurable viewing height when put to work. I, in fact, am 6'1", and it works well for me, so I wouldn't worry too much about the worldwide average eye height.

On the other hand, the real point here is that you find a number you are comfortable with and stick with it.

Uh... it might also be that something about that height may work pretty work when seated? Just a thought about why a height that's below the average eye-level might have been determined to work well.

57" to me is like sitting on the front row at the movies to everyone else: too much neck-craning.

I'm 5'2", so even cabinets that are 18" above a standard height counter are out of reach.

Recently passed up an apartment that featured that because I realized only the bottom shelf would really be visible and accessible. And the shower head was so high up that I would have had to use a stepstool to adjust it!

Being short is fine with me, but I like my home environment to be both attractive *and* convenient. But hanging art 57" on center from the floor would drive me nuts.

Does anyone here remember 'Tiny Elvis' from SNL? "Man, take a look at that artwork. That sucker's HUUUGE."

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/28813

(I think I just officially dorked out. Not nerd, not geek, but dork.)

Man. The NY Times company is so going to send you a cease-and-desist letter.

Fight the power, Maxwell!

I'd always heard the number should be 60", so I like erring on the low-side at 57".

Now, any tips about groupings?

At the gallery we hang work centered at 59" - 60" inches, depending on how big the pieces are. 57" is great in an apartment, especially for smaller pieces. I think bigger paintings/photos/what have you would look a bit off kilter with a center as low as that. Just one girl's opinion and all that!

It's true. There's nothing tackier than a beautiful piece hung too high. It's like using a big, impressive word and completely mispronouncing it. As a smallish person (just barely 5'2") I never have problems hanging things too high, simply because I can't reach, but my husband, an average-height dude, always complains that I'm hanging things "too low." Now I can point him to this and say "HA!" Wonderful. Thanks AT :).

Thank you for this information. I have been in numerous conversations with a friend (Let's just call him Greg M.) regarding the standard height for picture hanging. He insists that there is no standard and always hangs pictures too high. I hope this information will influence his stubborn ways and add to his ability to do basic decorating in the future! Thank you again, Charlie B in South Carolina!!!!

Sounds like great advice. But, here is my question -- My husband is 6'6" and I am 6'0'. In our house, I think it would drive us crazy to have things that low. When in a home, not a gallery, should that be taken into affect?

Coming from someone who has hung thousands of pictures and paintings (I'm a fine art conservator) the general rule we use is the 3/4 point of a picture should be 60" up from the floor.

Does this apply to apts with low ceilings as well? My ceilings are only 80" high (basement).

I also disagree with my partner on how high paintings should be hung. He thinks that I hang them far to low. So, I couldn't resist getting out my measuring tape after reading this post. I checked all my wall hangings. I realize that this is a stupid thing to brag about, but the exact center of each painting was 57"

sweet.

I'm almost 5'1". From my feet to my eyes is exactly 57" so I LOVE this idea and that finally the world has given something to us shorter people and you freakishly tall people (5'2" and over) will just have to adjust! I say, pull up a chair and instead of making me stand on it to reach something you should have a seat and enjoy the art :)

Does it matter how high your windows are? One wall of our house has those weird half-sized, high-up windows. I'm 5'2" and the "centers" of these windows are significantly above my eyeline. My feller wants to hang pictures on the same line as the windows, but I think this makes them way too high. I like the 57" idea in general, and am happy to use it to combat him, but is he right that we should take the window height into consideration?

Great tip! I always wondered why my pictures look off.

I posted a link up at urban monarch.

I always hang center to 60.

55"-57" for artwork at my place. 1) I'm short. 2) I enjoy looking at the pieces from a seated position.

It is far more comfortable to look down at something, than to look up at something. That is why we hold books below us, instead of above us. I was told it has something to do with strain on the optical nerve.

If you look up you will feel more strain on your eye than if you look down.

It's a good tip, but I still have to eyeball stuff.

We have a 12ft angled ceiling in the living/dining room and three pieces of art on a far wall are hung higher than normal - centered at 72", since you see them when walking in and not sitting down - they face the back of the sofa and chaise, which are scaled for us because we're Amazonian.

We tried a few different heights and this is absolutely the only thing which works.

art ----------------
---- big piece of art
art ----------------

---wide bookcase-----

What about tv does this apply for that too. i mean hangin it so center is 57" from floor?

Forget the pictures.........I'm interested in the console/sofa table. Where can I get that?
Ths--Nicole

yana, i imagine that when mounting a flat screen, you should take into account that you'll do most of your viewing from a seated position. my 27" TV sits on a desk which is approximately 36 inches off the ground. eyeballing it, i'd say it's centered somewhere between 40 and 50 inches. it could probably stand to be lower, and my ideal media stand would be slightly lower than what i'm using right now.

this, incidentally, is what bugs me so much about that trend of people mounting their flat screen TV above the fireplace. unless you have a really low fireplace, that means centering the TV higher than 60 inches. NOBODY watches TV that way.

Great advice. We received similar tips from a friend who used to work in an art gallery. He said that most people make similar mistakes in how they hang art work. The great things about having a measurement is that you have a guide to go with. No more guessing about where to hang that nail! Another idea we learned is to experiment with grouping art work. If you have several pictures with the same theme or colors, try grouping them together to make a big impact.

My living room walls are 11 feet high and I am not going to hang pictures all the way up on both walls. If I have one large piece in one area, how high should I hang it? Hanging it at 57" would look really weird with all that space above it. thanks.

i guess it depends how big the piece is. for instance, if we're talking about something more than 36" long, centering it at 57" will put the top of the piece at " minimum, which is over 6 feet high. a perfectly respectable height on an 11 foot wall. you could even go a little higher, maybe 60", which would even it out if it still looked low. this is why big pieces are so nice in spaces with high ceilings. a 48" piece (still pretty small in terms of contemporary paintings) centered at 60" hits 7 feet, and so on.

the opoponax wrote:
> yana, i imagine that when mounting a flat screen,
> you should take into account that you'll do most
> of your viewing from a seated position. my 27" TV
> sits on a desk which is approximately 36 inches
> off the ground. eyeballing it, i'd say it's
> centered somewhere between 40 and 50 inches. it
> could probably stand to be lower, and my ideal
> media stand would be slightly lower than what i'm
> using right now.
>
> this, incidentally, is what bugs me so much about
> that trend of people mounting their flat screen TV
> above the fireplace. unless you have a really low
> fireplace, that means centering the TV higher than
> 60 inches. NOBODY watches TV that way.

HEY, I ACTUALLY AGREE WITH OPOPONAX ABOUT SOMETHING!

Our bedroom TV is actually hung above a fireplace (the fireplace is no longer functional), but it is a low fireplace. On an exposed brick wall, we've put our AV system *inside* the fireplace, and hung a flat panel TV above the fireplace with the bottom edge extending slightly over the opening of the fireplace- this way all the cables can run back into the fireplace to the back of the stereo/video system without showing anywhere on the wall. The fireplace is small. The bottom of the TV is about 34" off the floor. The screen about another 3" up. It hangs just high enough that we can see the screen over the top of our feet if we're reclining in bed.

As for artwork, everything we've hung so far has had to account for what it is hung over- sofa, credenza, low bookshelves, etc. We do have a long hallway that we plan to eventually hang artwork on. We'll heed the 57" to 60" rule.

I'm 6'2" and my apartment has 13' celings. I tried this technique a while back when I was hanging a group of pictures and it looked so bizzarre given the height of my celings. Also my larger works (about 18x24" frames) would fall behind furniture because they were so low.

Also a note: I took a trip to the Art Institue of Chicago to see what their standard was. Nearly every painting they had (except those extra small or huge 20' tall canvases) was hung at about 65" on center ... right in line with my shoulders. Perhaps we're just taller here in Chicago ;-)

And for those who don't live by the Imperial measure, that's 147 cm.

Just put it into Google: [58 inches to m]

I think it also depends on what room you're hanging pictures in...a dining room or living room where you are seated should have pictures at a lower height, as others have mentioned. The scale of the room also is a factor, you could probably get away with a slightly higher picture if the room has a cathedral ceiling for instance. When in doubt I always err on the side of lower, it tends to give a more relaxed and tranquil feel to the room for some reason.

I think you ment 5' 7" or 67". 57" is only 4" 9", miuch shorter than the average person.

If you're too lazy to hang it yourself David Kassel and his installers do an excellent job. Check out his site at www.ilevel.biz

Or if you'd rather some one else do the math and all the work, David Kassel and his installers do an excellent job. Check out his site at www.ilevel.biz

I have a collection of theme pieces that are all framed in a like frames. None of them are extremely large, maybe 20" or so for the large ones. I have about 20 or so that I would like to hang in one room.

I was planning on hanging them over the entire area of the wall and putting the ones near the ceiling at a slight downward angle.

I haven't read anything from you that goes past the 57" rule. Any opinions or suggestions regarding my idea?

Please let me know!

Check out google.

http://www.sleektools.net/sleekview.html

This question is for all the art curators out there. Im putting on my first art show w/ a friend & boy would it be alot easier to find a venue if i could rent some sort of mobile fixtures to set up and hang my work on. Ive seen them around, they look like dividers, but im not building them and i have no idea what they are called or where to rent them. Please Help!

Great info for hanging pictures....BUT....how do you hang a portrait over a fireplace? Picture is 20x24, 8 foot ceilings and big crown molding.
Do you eye it from the top of the mantle...because when you try to measure the wall space between the mantle and the crown molding, its only 3 feet or so...you naturally want to center it in that space. However, when I did, the picture looks too high. It's particularly tricky because the frame is a dark mahogany, while the fireplace and molding are white, and the wall is pale blue.The dark horizontal line of the picture frame is accentuated...which makes you want to center the picture in the space above the mantle...So what is the rule for hanging pictures over the fireplace?

Thanks for any advice!!!

The ergonomic factor supporting equal to or less than eye-level hanging is our eyes rest comfortably lower than it does to raise them higher.

The paintings I'm about to hang in our apartment are my gf's, so I'll run with the 57". Nice article, the best I found in my search for "how high should I hang my paintings"!!!

What New York Times graphic?

Kathy,

Whenever I hang a piece of art over a piece of furniture or a mantel, I always have the bottom of the frame hit somewhere around 4-6 inches above the furniture/mantel. This ensures that the art relates to the piece below it and doesn't "float" above it.

You'll also want to consider the objects you may want to display on the mantel. They can bridge the gap between the mantel and the art.

Hope that helps!

What New York Times graphic?

If memory serves, this article originally came with an "AT Select" logo that used the T from the "Times Select" logo as a joke about premium content. The NY Times did send something along the lines of a cease-and-desist letter, which is why the graphic is gone.

And now Times Select is also gone. Such is the rhythm of life.

How high I hang my art work depends on how it will be viewed. If it will be viewed while seated (in the dining room) it goes a bit lower. If its viewed where people are standing up its a bit higher. Im 5'10 so I hang it to whats comfortable to me. I do have a series of pieces on a half wall. They are not intricate so they can be appreciated from a standing position. I like having pieces in unexpected places.

I just dont agree that there is one standard height for all art.

I use a special formula based on the rule of thirds and avergae height of the adults in the family. It's a bit complicated to cover in this format, but all the details are available at our site- http://www.scotttribe.com. We have also posted a height hanging calculator to simplify the process - the page describing the principles and link to calculator can be found at http://www.scotttribe.com/content/index.php/Latest/What-height-to-hang-pictures.html

Jeff- The Chicago Art Institute does hang its art higher than most east coast museums. I also think it's true that the midwest population is for the most part taller than east coasters. I don't know if this accounts for the difference but it's something to think about. We use approximately 57 but I think most people hang their art & their flat panel screens way too high, esp. if they have high ceilings.

HOW many times has this post been recycled? Is this the third?

I use 60" also. You can imagine my chagrin when I went to my boyfriend's place for the first time and there was no consistency whatsoever. He used somewhere between 72" and 80" for 36x48 posters. In a 8' room, everything seemed to be inching towards the ceiling, like they were trying to escape. Some topped out 6" from the ceiling. Ugh.

gallery hanging is one thing, but inside your home? why not just use your eyes and your sense of taste to determine where a particular piece should be placed in particular surroundings. using a rule like this seems like a crutch to create arrangements that are likely to be inoffensive but unlikely to be entirely well-suited to individual space and aesthetics.

but then, i suppose it would come in handy for those people who just don't have a sense of taste. then by all means let 57" rule your life.

57" on center generally makes sense in many situations, but for modern/low furnishings you might need to mount mirrors/art even lower: I have a long low sectional sofa that's only 24" high - when I tried hanging a 36" diameter mirror at @ 57" on center it was much too high - the mirror frame needed to drop to within 12" of the top of the sofa to relate to the sofa.

On the other hand when mounting a tall piece over a high-backed sofa, credenza or headboard, the center of the artwork could be well over 57" high - but as long as the bottom of the frame is within 12" of the top of the piece of furniture below (and closer to the top of the furniture than it is to the ceiling above) it would still relate well

Ivy, I think what you're looking for are A-frames with pegboard sides? That's what we use for our student exhibitions. Like these, perhaps?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimsart/287179067/

I'm a museum curator at an accredited fine art museum and I can assure you that all museums do not follow the exact same rule. We have one gallery that we hang at a 59" centerpoint; another with much higher ceilings has a 60" centerpoint. Several others have chair rails at about 40", so we have to work around that.

A number of museums are starting to lower labels and centerpoints to be more accessible to those in wheelchairs, and more accessible to children. If only tall adults on two legs come in your house with 18' ceilings, hang those puppies high, for heavens' sakes.

I confess: NOTHING in my house is hung according to my museum's rules, because I'm so sick of being limited at work. I eyeball everything and move it if it bugs me.

I agree with the hang it where it looks right's.

Rules, rules, rules. Hang it where it looks good.

Just lean the suckers against the wall and be done with it.

I'm with Taureg. We've seen this content before, and very recently, too!

"I won't even mention art hung in a stairwell ... that would be a Pandora's box type question, right?" she cheekily types ...

Perfect advice for the type of person that doesn't care what they hang just so there's "something on the wall".

hah! that's old navy wrapping paper in the frame up there. i papered our bar area in it!

http://isuwannee.blogspot.com/2008/05/yes-its-crooked-i-know.html

who knew!

it's supposed to be 5 *FEET* 7 inches.

god, i hope nobody hung their art below the light switches.

i can't believe nobody pointed out this error.

whatever height you want to hang something is personal preference, but what i think one should take away from this post is how to figure out where to place your nail/screw/whatever.

I'm vertically challenged. I've always hung pictures the way I was taught: if most people sit in an area, the pictures should be hung low enough to view without neck-craning. If it's a hallway, entry area or somewhere most people would stand, the art should be hung for straight on viewing for average height people.

I can't believe how many design savvy people don't know this. The most common mistake I see in people's homes is hanging art too high.

such a useful tip. I'm such a picture hanging klutz!

The "Rule":
Imagine that the artwork is a mirror. You want to be able to see your face in a mirror without bending down or stretching up.
Now, break the rule if/when you want to make a (more) dramatic effect.

I'm with Teresa and Le_Sacre. The art should RELATE to other things in the room--a credenza, a sofa, a window, whatever. It has very little to do with the standing height for viewing that is commonly used in galleries. In my experience, people who are following the rules in this article almost always hang their art too high. It's floating on the wall and is not anchored to anything. I prefer to look at the "vignettes" created by different views within my house. No one is standing six (or more) feet away admiring my Rembrandts. They are being drawn in to various "scenes" within my house because of the way each one surprises and engages (at least, I hope that's what is happening!)

I have salon-style arrangements that cover entire walls. Saves me from having to measure so much.

I never understand why people apply art gallery hanging rules to homes. The purpose of an art gallery is purely to display art, so pictures should be hung at the optimum height for viewing that art. One of the reasons there is little or no furniture in art galleries is because you're not supposed to sit down and relax in an art gallery, you're supposed to nothing except stand and focus on the art on the walls.

The purpose of a home is not purely to display art. It's to relax, feel comfortable, socialise, play, study, whatever. Anything hung on the walls should facilitate those activities. And often, if not most often, that means the art should be hung to fit in with the proportions of a furnished room and provide visual balance to the room as a whole. Step away from the measuring tape!

My take on this rule and I DO think it's 5' 7" roughly, not 57" is it gives you something to go by when measuring, it's found to be the average IME height of any given room with 6" being the max for extra tall ceilinged rooms and for super huge art.

That said, since much artwork is hung at home, you DO need to ground it to whatever it's next to or near, such as furniture, shelves etc and there, no more than 6"-12" for the bottom of the frame to the back of the piece of furniture. I have one tall, narrow painting that rests on a LACK shelf unit and just leans against the wall, works just fine and when that same painting hung over my old dining table, I let the bottom of it hang about 6" from the table top, I have a series (not finished) of vintage 60's era Jazz album covers in black album frames where the bottom row's frames are no more than 6" or so from the top of the sofa's back (a red leather Klippan), otherwise, roughly 5'7" is a good average height and if you measure, I think you'll find most prints hung as I hang them will run more or less at that point at the center to 2/3 up the frame from the bottom.

I can't tell you how many times I see too many people hand artwork etc much too high on walls.

Very tall ceilinged rooms, be it flat or cathedral I find do best with larger artwork for small or many small items may feel lost and cluttered no matter how you try to avoid it and if need be, you CAN put larger artwork up a tad higher - especially when there is nothing to relate it to. At the same time, at home most artwork is viewed from a seated position so it needs to be a bit lower than in most museums for that reason. Nothing worse than having to crane one's neck to view something and I WILL often notice the artwork etc in a home and will note how it's all pulled together (or not)