How to Hang Canvas Art in 3 Easy Steps
Do you have a blank wall in your house that you would like to give a facelift? In this guide I will show you how to hang canvas art and position a piece of furniture to really add some pizzazz to that boring wall.
What do I need to hang canvas art?
A Hammer
A Finishing Nail
A Tape Measure
A Piece of chalk
1.) Height
This can vary, based on a multitude of factors. Throughout my home staging career we found that most people tend to hang their artwork too high. You want your artwork to have a relationship with the room and the furniture in it, so that it is one cohesive unit instead of forcing the eye to split the room up into multiple segments. A good rule of thumb is to hang the center of the artwork between 58” and 60” high, which is eye level for most people. However, I believe that when you are working with larger pieces (36” high and greater) that if you split the image into thirds the bottom of the first third should be hung between 58” and 60”. If you are going above furniture you want to go somewhere between 8” -16”, depending on the height of the furniture and the wall space above it. In the example below I am working with a buffet cabinet which is a relatively taller piece of furniture.
2.) Marking Your Spot
You may have been wondering what the chalk was all about. This is a little insider trick that the pros don’t tell you about when instructing how to hang canvas art. All of Stretch and Staple’s canvas art prints have sawtooth hangers pre-installed on them. You may sometimes notice that the hanger is not mounted in the exact center. This is because we install the hanger at the center of gravity on the canvas art piece, so if the wood on one side is heavier than the wood on the other side your canvas print will still hang straight. You will notice a little raised bump right above the center tooth on the sawtooth hanger. Take your chalk and rub a little of it on the bump.
Now grab your canvas art piece and line it up on the wall where it is going. Gently make contact with the wall right where you have rubbed the chalk on the hanger and then remove your canvas art piece.
You will now be left with a spot on the wall where you need to put the nail.
3.) The Nail
What I love about hanging canvas art is that it is relatively light and can be hung with one finishing nail, so if you mess up slightly, you can easily adjust it and you only have one very small hole to spackle. For my purposes here today, I am hanging a 36” x 24” x 1.5” canvas art print that weighs about 5 lbs. For this size print, a finishing nail is more than enough to do the job ( just make sure that you put the nail in the sheetrock at a slight upward angle).
For plaster as apposed to drywall, you may have to cut this nail off halfway with a pair of plyers.
Now lets have a look at what we started with and the finished product.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Did you find these tips to hang your canvas art print helpful? Or do you have a special circumstance we can help with? We want to hear from you. Feel free to share your success or ask any additional questions in the comments.
**Don't leave your friends hanging. Share with someone you believe this can help too!
I am happy to share this tip from the four years I spent as a professional art installer and interior designer at a local staging and design firm.
The canvas art photo used was taken in Don Sak, Thailand, while I was awaiting a ferry to Koh Samui in the fall of 2011.
