How to Arrange Pictures on a Wall

Choose pictures with appropriate style for your room. This seems like a no-brainer, but it's easy to forget - different pictures will create different visual impressions in a given room. Unless you're going for an avant-garde, dissonant clash between your picture and the room it's hung in, try to match the picture to the purpose for the room. Classical landscape style paintings and portraits are great for living rooms, while smaller family photos are great for halls, staircases, bedrooms and bathrooms. Impressionistic paintings of fruit or cookware are an appetizing addition to kitchens. Use common sense - you know the impression you want your room to give visitors, so use pictures and paintings that help you achieve that impression.

• Abstract paintings can be incredibly vivid additions to a room - however, if you plan to hang a painting that's nothing more than an assortment of shapes and colors, you might want to make sure the colors match the rest of the room's décor (see: How to Match Colors.)

Respect the space by not crowding your walls. One of any room's biggest assets is its sense of space. A high ceiling can make you feel like you're in a chapel. Large windows can guide your sight toward the horizon. Don't let your pictures obstruct a room's natural sense of space! Too many pictures can give a wall a cluttered " police evidence board" feel. Try to leave at least 3 inches (7.6 cm) between each of your pictures.^[4]

• Pictures on a wall should never compete for space - if you have to move old pictures around to make room for a new one, you may want to consider a new home for your pictures.
• Many walls are best-suited by only one or two pictures. Or no images at all. If you've got great wallpaper, a killer rug, or an amazing centerpiece, don't be too hasty to distract attention with imposing collections of pictures.

Blow up small rooms with big pictures. A large picture can make a cramped room seem larger. Similarly, pictures hung high on the wall will improve a room's dimensions by distracting attention from the imposing wall surfaces at the viewer's eye-level. For instance, a gorgeous print high on the wall of a cramped bathroom will lend the stuffy room a sense of dignity.

• Use big pictures, if possible, but don't take up the entire wall space. Covering one of a cramped room's entire walls with one picture will have an overpowering effect.

Don't allow huge rooms to dwarf your pictures. Big, spacious rooms present problems of their own. High, plain walls with widely-spaced pictures look like they belong in a modern art museum, not a family home. Balance the arrangement of your pictures so as not to leave any huge barren patches on your wall. Furniture can be a huge help here - tall bookcases and wardrobes take up lots of wall space.

• If you've got an interesting wallpaper or even a monochrome painted wall, you can get away with more unused space when hanging your pictures. Plain, un-decorated walls commit the cardinal sin of making a room seem boxlike and cold.

Be conscious of furniture placement. Furniture and wall art work together to form a room's sense of space. Coordinate them intelligently to make to the most of your living space. Try to place pictures places people will naturally look without interfering with the normal functions of the room. Small pictures are great for slim stretches of wall in a kitchen, but not if you can't open cabinets because the picture's frame is in the way. Pictures are great above corner chairs and tables fo a stately yet-lived in feel, but not at heights where people are likely to bang their heads on them. Use common sense - make note of your daily routine to get a sense of where your eyes spend most of their time.

• Follow the two thirds rule - art placed above a piece of furniture should be at least two thirds as wide as the furniture itself.^[5] For instance, a ten foot wide sofa should have at least about six and a half feet of art above it. This rule applies to individual pictures as well as clusters of smaller pictures.

Tailor your picture placement to suit the room's function. For instance, many living rooms contain sets of couches facing each other so people can sit and talk. In this case, give your guests something to look at by placing pictures behind each couch (one designer recommends hanging pictures one palm width above the top of the couch.^[6] ). In the kitchen, a few small photos in the corner above a breakfast nook table can liven up meals and serve as great conversation pieces when you're having guests over.

Hang your pictures securely. A great picture or piece of artwork can be a source of pride, but it can also be a source of headaches if it simply won't stay put on the wall. Save yourself the hair-pulling that comes from constantly re-adjusting and re-hanging problem pictures by installing your picture right the first time. If you do, you'll also feel the savings in your wallet - when a picture falls out of the wall, the wall or picture can easily be damaged. For a detailed guide to picture-hanging, see our guide on hanging pictures professionally.

• When hanging anything on your wall, it's best to place the nail in the stud - the sturdy piece of wood supporting the wall. For heavier pictures or pieces of art, this can be a necessity. However, because studs are only an inch or two thick and fairly spaced-out, they're often not exactly where you want to hang a picture. For dainty and medium-weight pictures, you can get away with hanging in the space between studs.
• Whether you're hanging pictures off a stud or the drywall in between studs, drive the nail into the wall at a steep angle - 45 degrees or more.^[7] Doing this provides a much sturdier hold than a nail that's perpendicular to the wall - the are of contact between the nail and the wall is greater and the lever action of the picture on the nail is reduced.

Invest in alternate hanging options. For many pictures, a single nail will suffice. However, there is more than one way to hang a picture. A variety of hooks, anchors, and other products exist for the express purpose of mounting art on your wall. Some items you might consider are:

• Drywall hooks - small metal hooks designed to easily punch through drywall, providing a firm hold without a stud.
• Heavy-duty wall anchors - a small plastic sheath is installed into the stud using a drill, then a screw (supporting your art) is driven into the sheath. For heavier items.
• Toggle bolts - special screws with metal "wings" that open when they're driven into a wall, providing extra grip and hold.
• Adhesive hanging strips - sticky adhesive patches that attach to the back of your picture so you can stick it directly to the wall. No nails required.