3 Canvases 3 Looks: Your Go-To Guide to Beautiful Walls

It’s no secret that good things come in threes. But how can you display a three-piece gallery? We challenged ourselves to come up with three distinct looks using the same three canvases and furniture, and we delivered! Although they all turned out differently, many of the steps are the same. Take a look and tell us which one is your favorite!

Look #1: Horizontal row

This look is the easiest to pull off because you line up all three canvases in a row side by side. Here's a short video on how we achieved this look.

Step 1: Figure out the order

Just for reference, the three canvases are 12” x 12” and super light.

• Move canvases around - doing this on the floor will help you decide on the placement of each canvas and to determine the spacing.
  
  
• We decided to place the umbrella canvas in the middle to separate the yellow that was in the other canvases. The umbrella canvas is the busiest looking canvas, so it fits better in between the other two that are not as loud in color.
  
  
• There’s no right or wrong answer in finding the best combination. It’s just a matter of trying different arrangements. When you think you’ve found the look, take a picture of it and review. Pictures can often capture things the naked eye misses.
  
  
• Place one SpacingStrip™ between each canvas to test the spacing between each piece. Each SpacingStrip is 2” long. If you need more spacing, add two strips end by end.

Step 2: Install hanging hardware on the canvas 

We used CanvasHangers™ to hang our canvases. Simply place the brackets on only the top corners of the canvas and hammer in the nails. Make sure you don’t lose sight of which way the canvas should face up as you install the hangers. See this quick video on how to install CanvasHangers. 

Wasn’t that easy? Work smarter and not harder when it comes to hanging the art you love. Here are the perks of using CanvasHangers:

• Your pieces sit perfectly flush against the wall. The sightline is seamless when hanging a gallery and none of the canvases tilt forward.
  
  
• Many lightweight canvases tend to go crooked, but CanvasHangers keep your canvases straight.
  
  
• Easy to hang a gallery or grouping. The hangers make it easy to visually line up two or more canvases in a row.

Keep canvases close by

Since we’re hanging our display above a chair, we took advantage of it and used it to keep our pieces easy to reach for.

Step 3: Hang the middle canvas first

• We centered the middle canvas with the back of the chair and hung it approximately 8” from the top of the chair. We tried hanging it higher, but there was too much white wall space between the furniture and the art. We also tried to hang the canvas closer to the chair, but then it looked too cramped. Finally, we settled on 8” because it looked the most balanced. There’s no magic rule for these sorts of things and you have to do a bit of trial and error before getting it right.
  
  
• Having someone to help you determine the height can cut your guesswork in half. Have someone hold a couple of frames up while you stand back and assess what looks good.

Warning: the top of canvases are not always straight. Pay attention to how some canvases can be warped. When levelling, check that the bubble in your level is straight and double check with your eyes to confirm. It doesn’t hurt to be too careful.

Step 4: Hang the second canvas

After hanging the middle canvas, it doesn’t matter which one you hang next. You can go either left or right, so we went with the right side first. 

• Place a SpacingStrip from the edge of the middle canvas and position the next canvas in line with it, with the level on top. 

Tip: Because the canvases are only 2” apart, it’s easy to line them up. From an angle, squint to see the top of the frames. This makes it easier to tell if the frames are lined up properly, rather than looking at them straight on.

Once the second canvas is lined up with the first one, push it into the wall to anchor it in place. 

Step 5: Hang the third canvas

Repeat the same steps to hang the third canvas and remove the SpacingStrips. It’s that simple. Get perfectly straight canvases in a row in just minutes.

Pro tip: Hanging an odd number of frames is way easier than hanging an even number because you can center the middle piece with those on the left and right. The middle serves as your anchor or reference point.

Look #2: Side triangle 

Asymmetry is just as beautiful as symmetry. The second look we did was a side triangle, with two canvases vertically aligned and the third centered on the side. The steps to hang this arrangement are very similar to the horizontal row, with a few minor exceptions. Here's a short video on how we achieved this look.

Step 1: Figure out which canvas goes where

Test, test, test!

Start on the floor and arrange your canvases in an order that looks best. Like we mentioned earlier, there is no magical rule on how to decide this. It’s just a matter of trial and error. Starting on the floor allows you to avoid making mistakes on the wall. This is also the time to use SpacingStrips to judge the best spacing between canvases. One strip is 2” long and you can always use more for wider spacing.

Don’t forget to take a picture of your arrangement once you’ve found the one. Our eyes often miss things, especially after testing multiple arrangements, and the perspective of a photo will capture everything.

Step 2: Install hanging hardware on the canvas

Here’s a recap of how to install CanvasHangers. 

Step 3: Finding the right height

Know someone who has a hand to spare? Recruit someone to hold up the frames while you step back to assess the height of the entire display. This will make the process easier and quicker. In this look, the display is centered with all the furniture below.

Step 4: Hang the bottom canvas first

We placed the bottom canvas approximately 6” away from the top of the chair, far enough to still feel connected to the chair. Hanging the canvas is easy using CanvasHangers. Place the canvas at the desired height, level it, and push it into the wall to hang it.

Step 5: Hang the second canvas

We hung the second canvas perfectly centered with the bottom one and then placed a SpacingStrip from the bottom canvas to evenly space the top canvas.

Step 6: Hang the third canvas

Repeat the same steps to hang the third canvas and remove the SpacingStrips. It’s that simple. Get perfectly straight canvases in a row in just minutes.

Pro tip: Hanging an odd number of frames is way easier than hanging an even number because you can center the middle piece with those on the left and right. The middle serves as your anchor or reference point.

Here's a recap of the order we hung each canvas:

Look #3: Pyramid 

The third and final look we created was a pyramid, with a single canvas hanging over two canvases side by side. We love the hierarchical structure of this gallery, as it makes the best use of wall space and guides your eyes to look from top to bottom. Watch this short video on how we achieved this look.

We centered the wall display with the total width of the furniture below. Always place your furniture first before hanging the art.

Like with all our looks, our starting steps are the same - begin on the floor and decide where you want each canvas to be in this layout. However, with this look, instead of only using one SpacingStrip between each canvas, we used two (4”). Not only does this create wider spacing between the canvases, but it also covers more wall space, which achieves a different look than the rest. Do you notice a big difference?

Install hanging hardware

Here’s a quick rundown on how to install CanvasHangers, the simplest way to get your canvas up and hanging on your wall.

Hanging the first canvas

With this arrangement, hang the bottom canvases first. Then center the top canvas with the two below. Simply place and level your canvas, and push it into the wall to hang it.

Hanging the canvas on the right

Add two SpacingStrips side by side to get a total spacing of 4” between the canvases. Place, level, and push the canvas into the wall.

Hanging the third canvas at the top

We added two SpacingStrips for the right side and centered the top canvas with the two at the bottom. Remove the SpacingStrips and you’re done! 

Recap: this is the order we hung our canvases in.

Advantages of using CanvasHangers

• Your pieces sit perfectly flush against the wall. The sight line is seamless when hanging a gallery and none of the canvases tilt forward.
  
  
• Many lightweight canvases tend to go crooked, but CanvasHangers technology keep your canvases straight.
  
  
• Easy to hang a gallery or grouping. The hangers make it easy to visually line up two or more canvases in a row.

Décor and styling notes

You don’t need to look far for inspiration on how to decorate your space. We pulled the yellow from our canvases and made it the featured color of our decor by adding a harvest gold cushion and mustard yellow throw. Harvest gold and mustard yellow are the hottest colors this year, especially during fall, and it instantly energizes a space. It’s hard not to love such bright, happy colors. We were also inspired by the blues in the art and pulled together a striped blue rug to create this look. 

No room is complete without a touch of greenery, so we chose two Monstera leaves to add extra life into the space and height to draw our eyes up to the wall art.

Rice tip:

No, you didn’t read it wrong. Our decorating hack really involves rice! If your greenery is not tall enough for your vase, simply fill up the vase with rice and move the leaves around until they’re the right height you want. Bet you didn’t think how handy rice could be, huh?

Tools we used to create our gallery

Having the right tools is half the battle but it’s a must to get the job done. Believe it or not, that’s all we used to get our canvases on the wall. We truly make decorating easy. Shop our online store for all these tools.

We love designing products to make decorating easy. Click on the live chat below or email us at: questions@utrdecorating.com, and we’ll do our best to help you Create the home you love™

-The UTR Team