If you are feeling that the task of hanging your art is daunting, have no fear. There are some easy methods to preview your ideas before you get to the holes in the wall. A few simple guidelines will help you have confidence to enhance your space with your image. The term picture mounts is how the United Kingdom refers to matting. Here again a few rules will help you get started so that the color choices will be the hardest decision to make in this vast world of hues and textures.
Instructions
Hanging Art
1. Hang artwork so the center of the picture is at eye level. This makes 60 inches from the floor a good starting point to have at the center of your image. Of course, this is determined by the size of the piece of art. Err on the side of hanging it too low, if in doubt.
2. Take into account the space on the outside of your framing. This area of the wall and the furnishings in your room become part of the total effect your wall hangings will project. Decide if you want to project a formal air or a more casual feel from your room.
3. Sit in a chair and have someone hold the picture against the wall. They can move it up and down so you can consider its placement.
4. Trace the outline of your framed art on scrap newspaper.
5. Tape this onto the wall at the place you plan to permanently hang the art. Use painters tape so that it will not mar the wall's surface.
6. Now you are free to stand back and enter from other rooms to see if you like the placement.
7. Use a digital camera to take a picture of these newspaper outlines on the wall. This will give you another perspective to view the placement and decide if you like it.
Picture Mounts (Matting)
8. To find the proper size for the opening of your mount, measure your artwork and subtract 6mm from each measurement. This will allow for an overlap so your picture doesn't fall through the cut out.
9. The outside measurements can be standard, such as 5x7, 8x10, or 11x14, or a custom size can be gotten for a particular frame. The outside of the mount will be the dimension of the inside of the frame. A "weighted" section can be allowed on the bottom margin of the mount. Three sides would then have a border that would be the same, and the bottom of the mount would be the thickest.
10. Consider colors for the picture mount board, both outside and core colors. This is a personal preference and may depend on the colors in your art.
