Often in our homes we have a blank space on the wall that we want to fill but don’t know how. Paintings are pieces that make perfect sense to you, but you don’t know how to group and organize them, right? Art galleries at home are a trend increasingly appreciated in interior design, for the sophistication it carries, the aesthetic look it occupies and the memories that can be deposited in them.

We leave you today with some tips and guidelines on how you can decorate your home with paintings, maintaining the harmony and balance you are looking for. Find out how.

Choose a protagonist

When you want to position a set of paintings, it can be difficult to know where to start. The best advice we can give you is to choose a favourite. Which picture do you most want to highlight? Position it first and then choose the rest you have left over in order to highlight your favourite.

Principle 145

When it comes to the arrangement of paintings, decorators and designers often refer to the key rule of 57 inches from the centre. This means that you should hang the painting or the ensemble so that its centre point is 145 centimetres from the floor. This point of reference makes it easier to contemplate the work, because the image is at a harmonious level for the beholder.

Medium line

Hang the frames at one time with a common centre line as a guidepost. Adjust the height of the nail, hook or tape so that the centre of the frame is on the same line as the centre of the frames in the set.

Bottom row

Apply the frames in a common line at the bottom as a start. Adjust the height of the nail or hook so that the bottom edge of the frame aligns with the bottom edges of the frames of the other frames in the set.

Aligning by top

Place the frames in a common line with the top edge as a starting point. Adjust the height of the nail or hook so that the top edge of the frame is aligned with the lower edges of the frames of the other frames in the set.

Guideline

Suspend your frames and choose the images in your set so that the eye follows a slanting direction. Mix pictures vertically and horizontally and adjust the height of the nail or hook so that the frame of all pictures is at the same distance from the frames of the other pictures in the set.

Curved lines

A trick for creating picture sets with many rectangular frames without causing that austere feeling, hang the frames along imaginary curved lines. Choose a frame that serves as a centrepiece based on that frame creating a unity that is graspable by the eye

Practical tips for picture sets

• Place pictures, frames and larger and visually heavier pictures on the left side of the wall or set. Most people read from left to right and therefore look at a combination of pictures in the same way.
• You should hang large pictures taking advantage of the weight point in the lower half of the ensemble.
• If you hang large pictures by applying the point of weight in the lower half of the ensemble.
• If you hang a picture behind a sofa, make sure the frame is 15-35 centimetres above the back of the sofa, otherwise you run the risk of someone bumping into the picture when sitting on the sofa, or a larger frame becoming a nuisance.
• If you hang pictures near a dining area, make sure the centre point of the set is at a height that allows people to enjoy the pictures even when they sit down to eat.

Floor trick

Before you start assembling a set of pictures, you might want to test out different compositions of frames and pictures on the floor in front of the surface you plan to decorate. Put all the frames and artwork you are thinking of combining in front of you before arranging them, in search of the best combination. This way, you can try out different distances and positions without piercing the wall.

Text and image source: Ramstedt, Frida “Feel at Home: The Interior Decorating Handbook

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