Table of Contents

• The wrong height: what "too high" looks like
• The right heigh to hang (the 145cm rule)
  
• How high to hang picture frames above furniture
  
• How to hang a gallery wall
• The exceptions (when to break the rule)
• Common picture hanging mistakes we see all the time

At a glance: the quick answer

• The sweet spot: Centre of the frame sits 145cm from the floor (around 57 inches from the floor)
• Above furniture: Bottom of the picture 10 to 20cm above the top of the furniture (roughly 4 to 8 inches)
• Gallery walls: Treat the whole grouping as one piece of art and centre it at 145cm
• Frame spacing: Around 5cm between each frame

Always: Tape measure first, pencil mark, then drill. Saves you the extra holes in the wall

The wrong height: what "too high" looks like

Walk into most Australian living rooms and you will see it. Wall art way too high. Floating up near the ceiling like it is trying to escape. The art looks lonely, the room feels strangely empty, and no one can quite tell why.

Here is how it happens. Someone told you to hang art at "eye level." You are tall, or you panicked about putting nails too low, so up it goes. And up. And suddenly the whole room is staring at the ceiling.

Get the picture hanging height wrong and the wall splits in half. When pictures are hung too high, your guests start tilting their heads back like they are watching a kookaburra in a gum tree. If that is the vibe in your living room, congrats, your art is up in orbit.

The right height to hang (the 145cm rule)

Here is the rule of thumb that actually works.

The centre of the picture should sit 145cm from the floor. It is the perfect height to hang almost any wall art, the ideal height for hanging in galleries, and the hanging point galleries use worldwide. It sits at average eye level for most adults.

Why does this work? Because 145cm is roughly where a human looks when they walk into a room. Galleries and interior designers figured this out a hundred years ago. We are just borrowing.

The 145cm rule works for almost everything:

• Wondering how high to hang art on a feature wall? 145cm.
• What height to hang a frame above a console? 145cm.
• A small picture on an empty wall? 145cm.
• A large piece on its own? You get the idea.

How high to hang pictures above furniture

Things shift slightly when furniture comes into the mix.

If you hang a picture at 145cm above a low couch or sideboard, the bottom of the picture floats too far from the furniture, and the whole arrangement looks disjointed. So ignore the 145cm rule here and use this one instead:

• Above a sofa: Bottom of the frame around 15cm above the back of the couch cushions
• Above a bed: About 8 inches above the top of the headboard (roughly 20cm)
• Above a console or sideboard: Around 15cm above the surface

For larger pictures, go closer to the upper end. For very small frames, two to three inches feels too cramped, so do not be shy with the gap. You want the art and the furniture to feel like a couple, not seated at separate tables wondering when the dessert menu is coming.

How to hang a gallery wall

Creating a gallery wall is where most people throw their hands up. But the rule is the same. Treat the whole grouping as one big piece of art.

• Find the centre of the grouping. That point sits at 145cm from the floor.
• Inside the grouping, keep around 5cm between frames.
• Lay it all out on the floor first, take a photo, then transfer to the wall using paper templates and painter's tape.

When you treat your gallery wall this way, it reads as one polished, professional picture arrangement instead of a bunch of frames squabbling for attention.

The exceptions (when to break the rule)

A few moments where the 145cm rule does not quite apply:

• Picture rail walls. Hang the frame 5cm above the rail. The rail becomes the anchor, not the floor.
• Very high ceilings. You can go slightly higher than 145cm, but not by much. Resist the urge to fill the upper half of the wall just because it is there.
• Stairwell walls. Follow the angle of the staircase. Treat each frame as if it sits in the room beside it.
• Tall furniture. When your sideboard is high, hang the picture 8 inches above the surface rather than at 145cm.

Common picture hanging mistakes we see all the time

• Hanging artwork way too high (the big one, every single time)
• Picking a small piece for a large wall space when a large picture would be the proper focal point
• Hanging so high that the top of the picture nearly touches the ceiling
• Spreading the frames in a gallery wall too far apart
• Eyeballing the height instead of measuring
• Drilling before doing the paper template test

Hang your art like you mean it

That is the whole guide.

145cm to the centre. 10 to 20cm above the furniture. Gallery walls treated as one piece. Getting the height right is honestly the biggest lift you can give a room.

At Mulbury, we make recycled timber frames in Melbourne, and what makes a room feel finished is rarely the frame style. It is the height you hang things at. The most common message we get from new customers sounds the same: the room finally feels right.

So before you hang your picture next time, grab the tape measure first. Mark 145cm. Step back. Pour something cold. Enjoy.

Get in touch - we'd love to help you!

To make an enquiry, please head to our Shadow Box Frame page, Custom Framing Page or Floating Frame Page and fill out the form or head straight to our standard size picture frames.

Prefer to pick up the phone? Call us on 03 9532 3424

Email: hello@mulbury.com.au

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