{"id":597,"date":"2020-06-12T14:01:47","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T14:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/?p=597"},"modified":"2020-06-12T14:05:44","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T14:05:44","slug":"how-to-hang-a-frame-perfectly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/2020\/06\/12\/how-to-hang-a-frame-perfectly\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hang a Frame\u2026 Perfectly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever been to a friend\u2019s house and wonder why all the picture frames are hovering mere inches from the ceiling or way above the couch? Or is that your house? Do you have trouble keeping your frames from sliding off center or have you put off that dreaded project of hanging all those pictures from your wedding and honeymoon?\u00a0 Well, fear not, my friends, this week\u2019s Tales from the Vault will give you some insider tips from over 20 years of installing works of art in The Trout Gallery.\u00a0 I\u2019ll even include hand-drawn illustrations, just like those I use in the museum.<\/p>\n

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First, let me say that hanging pictures is not inherently easy.\u00a0 For some unspecified reason the human eye can detect when something is even an 1\/8 of an inch off level \u2026 a skill our prehistoric ancestors must have needed, though the reason escapes me.\u00a0 That level of accuracy also means that you can see when a picture is not centered on the wall, or not equidistant between windows, door frames, other pictures, etc.\u00a0 When you decide to add a piece to your wall, take time to position it so that it is balanced between the wall features and any other frames \u2013 find the mid-point on the wall between the existing features and mark it with a pencil (this is your horizontal mid-point). You will need it later.<\/p>\n

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Now for the height \u2013 don\u2019t hang your pictures too high \u2026 seriously. It\u2019s ok to have a lamp in front of the lower part of your frame.\u00a0 It\u2019s ok to have flowers, a sculpture, a vase, your favorite vacation souvenir sharing space with your picture. And it\u2019s really ok to have your frame hang a handful of inches above the back of your couch.\u00a0 \u201cEye height\u201d is not six feet off the ground, it is about 60 inches from the floor. \u00a0And that 60 inches is not the top of the frame, or the bottom, it\u2019s the middle of the image. That said, remember using 60 inches is a general rule \u2013 not an absolute.\u00a0 If you are hanging something over a tall chair, a fireplace, or a stairwell, you will need to adapt.<\/p>\n

For our example, let\u2019s take that nice picture from your trip to the shore that\u2019s been placed in a 16 x 20 frame, horizontally.\u00a0 The middle of your image will be 60 inches from the floor, so the top of the frame will be at 68 inches (16 divided in half = 8, 60 plus 8 = 68).\u00a0 At this height, everyone coming into your house will be able to comfortably view your picture.\u00a0 Mark that 68\u201d height with a piece of blue painter\u2019s tape so that it won\u2019t leave a pencil mark you can see after hanging (a pro tip).<\/p>\n

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From here it gets really technical, and I\u2019ll admit it, a little boring to write about, so I\u2019ll keep things high level (send me an email for the specifics on how you can hit that perfectly measured mark if you are interested).\u00a0 When you\u2019ve got the placement for the frame all set, it\u2019s time for the fun part \u2013 actually hanging the picture.\u00a0 Use two hooks to prevent the frame from slipping \u2013 yes, two hooks even if the frame weighs only a few pounds.\u00a0 Hold the frame wire with two fingers and measure the distance between your fingers and from the top of the frame to wire.<\/p>\n

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Measure down from your 68\u201d the same distance that you had from the top of the frame to the wire. Put a level on the wall and mark the spots for the hooks using the measurement you recorded between your fingers.<\/p>\n

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Nail in the hooks, hang the picture, level it, step back and make the comment \u201cIt looks so good, you\u2019d think I do this for a living\u201d \u2026 I say this all the time.<\/p>\n

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Look around your house or apartment tonight and see if any of your pictures are floating up to the ceiling, drifting to the floor, or leaning like an old pirate.\u00a0 Rescue them and give them a better perch on the wall. They\u2019ll love you for it.<\/p>\n

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More soon from Tales from the Vault.<\/p>\n

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Ever been to a friend\u2019s house and wonder why all the picture frames are hovering mere inches from the ceiling or way above the couch? Or is that your house? Do you have trouble keeping your frames from sliding off center or have you put off that dreaded project of hanging all those pictures from … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4322,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302467],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales-from-the-vault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/trouttalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}