Everything you have ever read on hanging pictures, art, or mirrors, tells you to hang pictures eye-level+ and that is correct, but that does not have to be eye-level. Hanging pictures at eye level is a great rule of thumb, and is almost correct, until you start considering different people are at different heights.
As a general rule, you are best off hanging your pictures 60 inches off the ground at places that they will be seen standing up, like in a hallway. For smaller pictures, you may want to hang them slightly higher, around 65 inches. For example, if you wanted the artworks center of the painting 60 inches from the ground, and the frames for the painting are 28 inches high, then you would hang the upper part of the painting 74 inches higher. If hanging artwork over a piece of furniture, place the lower frame edges between eight and fifteen inches higher than the piece.
Use the rule that if a work of art is over 36 inches high, you want to have CENTER hanging about. If a piece of furniture that you are hanging your piece on is lower than 30 inches, your pieces center should sit approx. If you are hanging art over large pieces of furniture, you should line it up with the middle of the furniture.
When it comes to hanging art, the Eye Level Rule says your artwork should be hanging at about 58-62 inches off of the floor, centered. When the art is hanging by itself on a wall, hang at eye-level, with the pictures center placed 56-60 inches from the floor. To make sure that your art looks stunning no matter who is staring at it, the standard height to hang art eye-level is 57 from the center of the photo to the floor.
Hanging artwork anywhere from 57″-65″ will let most adults stand eye-level to your art or photo. When hanging art in rooms where people are most likely to stand, it can make sense to choose a hanging height that is a bit higher than the recommended 60-65 inches.
For example, if you are hanging an art or painting above your couch, you might need to hang it slightly higher in order to leave sufficient space in between your couch and art. If you are decorating above the couch, then the couch is going to be the priority target, so place the artwork or gallery wall above the couch. This way, both are visually related, and it does not look like you have just placed an artwork or gallery wall arbitrarily in order to fill up space above it. The most common rule of hanging paintings over your couch is to place your artwork or gallery wall eight to 10 inches away from the highest point on your backing.
Because of the architecture design of staircases, space above a sofa is not ideal for hanging larger pictures or pieces of artwork. Artwork should also relate spatially to furniture, meaning that a small work of art hanging six inches above a long couch would look out of place.
If the painting or mirror is hanging over a cabinet in the buffet style, which is more than 30 inches high, then use the rule that leaves 4-6 inches of wall space between art/furniture. When hanging several pieces of art together as part of a group, like in a gallery wall, use 1- 3 inches space between pieces. When hanging a single painting directly over another, consider both pieces as a single larger painting, with a central point 56-60 inches off the floor between them. As a general rule, when pictures are primarily seen by people standing in areas like hallways and foyers, hang the art with the center hanging between 60 and 66 from the floor.
If you have cabinets or benches below 30 inches, like shown below, you will want to skew toward the guidelines for hanging artwork so the center is at about. Aim at the lower end of that range if most members of your family are shorter; artwork may hang slightly higher than 60 inches from the floor in rooms that are higher than eight feet. We recommend hanging artwork with its vertical centre, (the center of the frame) 57 inches (inches) above the floor, or eye-level, if in a hallway or an entryway that you will regularly pass by.
The suggestion of hanging paintings eye-level to an average person, or 60-65 inches from the floor, is a good guideline, but by no means is it a strict rule. While eye level is the most common practice when hanging art, there can be a few exceptions to this rule, and several places where this rule simply does not apply.
If your painting or mirror is hanging on a blank wall in your dining room, it needs to be in-line with your lighting/dining table and, unless it is over 36 inches tall, its middle needs to sit about 60 inches off of the floor. You also need to take into account whether the room has high ceilings, and make your placement of your painting a little higher in order to balance out space above. If you are hanging smaller frames, look to find walls that are narrower, or mount an array of pictures so that the walls are balanced. Hang art so the frame is at least eight to 10 inches below the couch or headboard; the art should visually be connected to that, rather than floating above it.