How to Hang Contemporary Wall Art Like a Pro

If you have too small a space in your room to add an interesting piece, like a colorful table or unique chair, consider getting wall art. They come in a wide range of sizes, colors and styles to suit every space. However, the joy of buying a new piece of contemporary wall art can immediately turn to stress when it comes time to hang it. How high should you mount it? How can you arrange it with other pieces to create an inspired statement? To help answer these questions, we turned to art placement and installation professionals. Here are the rules of thumb to choosing where each piece should reside.

Have a helper will hold the pieces together against the wall before you start hammering in the picture hooks. Take a step back and see what the space will look like with the piece there. This should give you sense of colors and proportions, and see it against all the other design elements of the room.

When hanging a single piece on the wall, like the Doug Bloodworth Batman Peanut Butter on Canvas by Photorealism, the center of the picture should be about 60 inches off the ground. This should place it at eye level.

When hanging a pair of works, one above the other like the Mediterranean Square I & II - Set of Two by Uttermost, treat them as one large picture (whether they are the same or different sizes). Fine the center point between them, and use the same 60-inch rule.

For the spacing between pieces of art on the same wall, generally, you should use 2 inches between larger pictures. If they are all smaller family photos, you can use an inch and a half between them. This goes for the spacing, above, below and on both sides of every frame.

When arranging multiple pieces like the Massena Photo Collage Decorative Wall Art by Uttermost, do not just think in terms of a grid. What is really becoming popular now are salon installations, which are a group of usually disparate frames or images that are clustered together. These installations mostly stretch from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. There is no right thing to go with this style; just start in the middle and work your way out. It should be something that you will feel proportionally, or you can decide based on whether Uncle Jim should be next to Aunt Rose.

The most important tip is to just have fun when hanging art, and not to worry too much about getting things perfect. Remember that you are not doing anything structural to your walls, and your house will not fall down if you do not hang the pictures right. If you hang something and you want to remove it, it should be easy to fix the problem. Consider changing displays of art once in a while. Move your pictures around, just as you would move your furniture around to freshen things up.