Hung up on home decor
Hanging art and photographs made easier with the right fasteners and a few simple tips
Lisa Arntz thinks of room accessories as jewelry — the finishing touches that pull together the fabrics, furnishings, flooring and paint colours on your walls.
They complete the mood and inject a shot of your own personality, so they should be things you love, says the Guelph interior decorator.
And while Arntz said most people hang pictures too high on the wall, “if people are happy with it, then it’s right.”
That said, there are some general guidelines to follow when hanging art on the wall.
“You always have to consider scale, balance, contrast and style,” she said.
In her own home, Arntz has a metal wall sculpture gracing the entrance hall. The metal is welded to look like lacy tree branches that reflect her own love of nature.
Even though metal could be heavy-looking as well as heavy in weight, the open weave of the piece makes it bright and airy and emphasizes the huge picture window and its view just beyond.
“I love that it’s different from a picture,” she said.
Over her living room couch hangs an oriental screen. Although it has a black background that could weigh down the room, the dark contrasts with the light-coloured design on it, giving the opposite effect. And the image imitates the pattern on her couch.
It is centred over the sectional sofa about six inches above it, so heads don’t bang against it and yet it still looks right.
“A lot of what I do is intuitive. I don’t measure any more — I go by eye,” she said. “It helps to have someone else hold the art in place while you see if you like it there.”
Common wisdom says to hang pictures at eye level, but given that people come in all sizes and sometimes we look at pictures while seated, that’s a difficult height to calculate.
Arntz said to think about the negative space — that is, the space around the picture — instead. It depends on the size of the wall and the picture, but generally you want the artwork to be what catches the eye and not the blank space.
If you’re planning on grouping artwork, mark out the size of your wall on the floor if you have space and experiment. Or you can draw the wall on graph paper and play around with paper cut-outs sized to scale. Four small prints can be as dramatic at one large one, for example.
“I tend to favour asymmetrical arrangements,” Arntz said. “They seem less formal. For me, decorating needs to be comfortable, livable, and hide soil.”
Chandeliers should hang between 30-inches and 36-inches above the dining room table — high enough for unobstructed views of your dinner guests but low enough for an intimate atmosphere.
Mirrors can be tricky business. While they reflect light and can make a room seem larger, you have to remember they double the view.
That’s great if it’s a lovely view, but if a mirror is reflecting the pile of shoes at the front door or the jumble of mail and papers on a side table, you might want to rethink its placement.
In her home, Arntz has a large mirror hanging over her basement stairs that’s across from a picture window. She measured and carefully centred the mirror, only to realize it reflected the bare wall and not the view at all.
“Thank goodness my husband is a patient man,” she said. “It only had to be moved two inches, but it really had to be moved.”
jshuttleworth@guelphmercury.com
HANDY HANGING POINTERS AND PROPER EQUIPMENT
Don’t get hung up on the hangers. Brian Dunn, owner of Mr. Handyman, says when you have the right hook for the job, it’s easy.
The heavier the item, the more consideration you have to give to screws, anchors, rods and wires. Tapestries, for example, are much heavier than drapes and require heavy-duty rods. As well, hanging objects from a stud or joist is always more secure than trusting a wall plug.
Your best friend is a level, Dunn said, especially if you’re hanging several pieces of art together.
Ceilings are usually level while floors, notoriously, are not, so measure down from the ceiling rather than up from the floor, Dunn advises.
And if you are hanging cupboards or shelves, use a paper template to mark where to place screws and anchors.
“It’s quick and easy if you’ve done it before,” he said. “It’s always a good idea to practice on scrap wood first. And if you hang your items before you prep and paint, it’s much easier to disguise your mistakes.”
1. The standard picture hook or sawtooth hook work well for light pictures, like diplomas, family photographs or calendars, but anything heavier than five pounds requires a more heavy-duty hanger. The sawtooth bracket gets attached to the back of the picture frame and is held on the wall by a nail that catches in the “teeth.”
2. Anchors away! Dunn ranks these wall anchors as bad, better and best. The yellow anchor breaks easily as it’s poked into the wall and doesn’t offer much support. The black anchor is better but still kind of flimsy. The white anchor, that screws into the wall, is your best bet Dunn said. They come in sizes large enough to support kitchen cupboards and heavy book shelves.
3. The toggle bolt is used to hang things from the ceiling like plants, chandeliers, children’s mobiles etc. The toggle piece has a springlike hinge that allows it to bend in half. Drill a hole in the ceiling, screw the bolt into the toggle and poke it through the hole (in bent position). The toggle will open once it is through. Toggles and bolts often come in kits that also include a hook.
4. There’s a vast array of mirror hangers available at the hardware store. What you choose depends on the size and weight of the mirror. The hooks pictured here will support a mirror that’s not in a frame. The hooks with two holes hold the bottom of the mirror. The piece with the single large hole slides up when positioning the mirror and down once it’s in place. Screws should be anchored to the wall. If you can find a wall stud, so much the better.
