Q&A: Is this picture too big?
From time to time, I like to answer our readers’ questions on the blog to help out others who may be experiencing similar design problems. One of our readers recently asked:
Q: “I have a framed canvas that I want to hang over my bed. The top of my headboard is 47″ from the ceiling. The picture I want to hang is 29″ tall and approximately 40″ long. Is the picture too big?”
A: I didn’t get a picture of the room so I mapped out the dimensions with painter’s tape to help me visualize the measurements. The reader didn’t mention the size of the bed so I assumed it was a queen, which is 60” wide. I centered the yellow tape frame with the headboard in green and left 6” between them to make sure the frame hangs closer to the headboard than to the ceiling. You should always anchor your artwork in relation to the furniture sitting below, and never with the ceiling itself.
As you can see, the picture frame (in yellow) is the perfect size: it balances out the size of the pretend queen size bed quite nicely. A good rule of thumb to remember when hanging pictures is to make sure that the total width of a piece (or pieces) you choose is a least equal to 2/3 of the width of the furniture that will be displayed below. This way, the artwork and furniture will visually counterbalance each other perfectly.
If you have any questions about picture hanging, don’t hesitate to ask. We’d love to help you!
Liette Tousignant
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