Hanging Pictures Like a Pro

There's a curator's trick to making pictures look intentional rather than haphazard, and it starts before you pick up the drill.

Walk into a gallery and the art feels calm. Deliberate. Even when walls are packed with different-sized frames, there's a logic you can't quite name but your eye registers immediately.

Walk into most homes and the pictures sometimes feel... apologetic. Too high. Too far apart. Wonky. In the middle of the wall because no one was quite sure where else to put them.

The difference isn't budget or taste. It's method. And once you know the method, you can't unsee it, which makes every crooked frame in your house suddenly impossible to ignore. Sorry about that.

The good news: hanging pictures well isn't about having an artistic eye. It's about having a plan, the right fixings, and knowing a few principles which professionals use without thinking.

Plan first (this is the bit most people skip)

You wouldn't hang wallpaper without measuring. You wouldn't tile a bathroom without a plan.

But for some reason, we treat picture hanging like a spontaneous creative act. We hold a frame up, squint a bit, think "that looks about right," and bash a nail into the wall. Here’s how it’s done.

01 | Lay frames on the floor to design your grouping; photograph it.

Not against the wall. On the floor. You want freedom to move things around to try the layout without making holes, and you want gravity out of the equation so you can see the composition.

Try different arrangements. Tight and uniform. Loose and organic. Symmetrical. Asymmetrical around a central axis.

When you land on something which feels right, photograph it from directly above. This is your blueprint. You'll refer back to it constantly when you're three frames in and can't remember where the small landscape was supposed to go.

02 | Mark a centre line on the wall at 145–155cm from floor (roughly eye level).

This is the single most important measurement in picture hanging, and it's the one people skip. Eye level changes depending on the room: sitting rooms can go slightly lower (145cm) because you'll often be seated; hallways can go higher (155cm) because you're moving through them standing up.

The centre line isn't where the hook goes. It's where the visual centre of your picture (or your grouping) should sit. For a single frame, that's the middle of the image itself (not the frame edge). For a gallery wall, it's the midpoint of the entire arrangement.

Use a long spirit level or a laser level if you have one, and mark the line lightly in pencil. This is your anchor. Everything else relates to it.

03 | Use painter's tape to mock up frame positions.

Tape the actual perimeter of each frame on the wall. Step back. Live with it for a day if you can. You'll spot things in tape that you'd only notice after drilling six holes: the big frame which dominates too much, the spacing that looks even up close but cramped from the sofa, the layout which seemed balanced in theory but feels left-heavy in practice.

Tape is cheap. Filler leaves a mess.

Choose the right fixings (because the wrong ones will haunt you)

Most people assume the wall is the wall. It's not. What's behind the plaster determines whether your picture stays up or ends up in pieces on the floor at 3am.

01 | Masonry (brick, concrete, blockwork): wall plugs and screws.

This is the straightforward one. Drill the right size hole for your rawl plug, tap it in flush, screw in your hook.

Masonry walls are solid. They'll hold almost anything if you've sized the plug correctly. A yellow plug (size 5) and matching screw will hold a small to medium frame. Red plugs (size 6) for anything heavier. Brown plugs (size 7) for substantial weight: think large mirrors or multiple frames on one bracket.

Use a masonry drill bit, not a wood bit. And drill on the hammer setting if your drill has one.

If you're not sure what's behind the wall, tap it. Solid, dull thud? Masonry. Hollow sound? You're likely into plasterboard or lath and plaster, and you need a different approach.

02 | Plasterboard (most modern homes): push-in anchors or toggle bolts for anything heavy.

Plasterboard is deceptive. It looks solid. It's not. A standard screw will pull straight out under any real weight. You need fixings which spread the load or grip behind the board.

For light frames (under 2kg), a simple push-in anchor (sometimes called a plasterboard plug) will do. You push it through the plasterboard and it grips as you tighten the screw.

For anything heavier, use metal toggle bolts or spring toggles. These open out behind the board and distribute weight across a much larger area. They're fiddly to install, but they work. The trade-off: they leave a larger hole if you remove them, so you’ll need to commit to the position.

One note: never hang very heavy items (mirrors over 10kg, large artwork) on plasterboard alone. Find a stud (a vertical wooden support behind the board) using a stud finder, or use multiple fixings to spread the weight.

03 | Lath and plaster (older homes, pre-1950s often): always use two fixings; go light on weight.

Lath and plaster is thin wood strips with plaster spread over them. It's less stable than either masonry or plasterboard, and it's brittle. Drill too hard and you'll crack it. Hang too much weight and it'll sag.

Use two fixings minimum for each frame (even small ones) to spread the load. Choose lightweight frames where possible. And go gently with the drill: slow speed, light pressure, stop as soon as you're through.

If you're hanging anything heavy on lath and plaster, find a joist (the ceiling beams) or a stud in the wall. Otherwise, you're asking for trouble.

Hang for stability (because nothing looks worse than a picture that won't sit straight)

You've planned the layout. You have the right fixings. Now the actual hanging, which is where small details make a disproportionate difference.

01 | Two hooks per frame stop tilting.

One hook in the centre of a frame means it'll tilt every time someone walks past it with intent. Two hooks (spaced apart, each taking a corner of the wire or D-ring) lock it in place. This is especially important for large frames, frames on picture rails, or any room where doors slam and floors vibrate.

If the frame only has a single wire or hanging point, you can still use two hooks on the wall and rest the wire across both. Adjust the height of each hook slightly until the frame sits level.

02 | Add felt pads on bottom corners to protect paint.

Frames sit flush against the wall, but not quite. Over time, the bottom edge rubs as the frame shifts, scuffing paint, leaving marks, sometimes even taking plaster with it. Stick small adhesive felt pads (the kind you'd use under chair legs) on the bottom two corners of the frame back. They create a tiny buffer, protect your walls, and stop the frame slipping sideways.

03 | Fine-tune with a spirit level and tiny adjustments.

Put the level on top of the frame, not on the side. (Frames aren't always perfectly square, so a side measurement can lie to you.) If it's off, don't try to eyeball the correction: you'll overshoot and end up adjusting six times. Lift one side very slightly, check again, adjust again. Patience here saves you from the maddening experience of a frame that's almost level but not quite, and you can't tell which way to move it anymore.

Gallery wall guide:

Gallery walls are ambitious. When they work, they look fantastic. When they don't, they look like indecision frozen in time.

01 | Match spacing between frames.

This is the non-negotiable. Whether you're going for a tight grid or a loose salon-style hang, the gaps between frames need to be consistent. 5cm is a good standard gap for a cohesive look: close enough to feel connected, far enough to let each piece breathe. Measure it. Don't guess.

02 | Mix sizes but keep one horizon line.

A gallery wall can include different frame sizes, orientations, even styles, but it needs something that holds it together. The easiest anchor is a horizon line: a visual through-line where the tops, bottoms, or centres of several frames align. Your eye will follow that line and read the rest as intentional variation rather than chaos.

You don't need every frame to align. Just enough that there's a structure underneath the variety.

03 | Step back often.

You're standing 30cm from the wall with a drill. Your partner, guest, or future self will see it from 3 metres away, from the sofa, in different light. Step back every time you hang a frame. Walk to the doorway. Sit in different places.

And here's the thing nobody tells you: it's okay to take a frame down and move it. The wall will forgive you. The picture which looked perfect in position three might look better in position five once the others are up. Gallery walls are puzzles. Sometimes you don't know the solution until you see it.

04 | Take a photo.
If you ever move house or rearrange, having a photo of the final layout which worked saves you from starting from scratch somewhere else.

When to call in help

Not everyone has the time, tools, or (frankly) the patience for this.

Hanging one picture is manageable. Hanging twelve in a precise arrangement while also making sure you're not drilling into pipes or cables? That's a different project.

If your DIY ability is limited, your tool kit leaves a lot to be desired, or you simply want it done right without the trial-and-error, Consider it Done can arrange a professional who will work under your instruction but make sure everything is solid, straight, and safely fixed.

They'll have the right tools for your wall type. The full range of fixings. A laser level, a stud finder, and (crucially) the experience to spot a problem before it becomes a crack in your plaster or a frame on the floor.