Advanced options
The formula: hook height = centre height + half the frame height - the wire drop (pull the wire taut toward the hook to measure it). 145cm to the artwork's CENTRE is the gallery standard: most home pictures hang too high. Over a sofa or sideboard, ignore the formula and hang 15-25cm above the furniture instead: the picture belongs to the furniture group, not the ceiling.
What The Picture Hanging Height Calculator Works Out
- Fix the hook at: centre height + half the frame height - the drop from the frame top to the taut wire. A 60cm frame with a 15cm drop and the 145cm gallery centre wants its hook at 160cm. Measuring the wire slack instead of pulled toward the hook is the error that leaves frames an inch low.
- Frame will sit: where the top, centre and bottom of the frame land, so you can check it against light switches, radiators and the cornice before drilling.
- Above furniture: over a sofa, bed or sideboard the picture joins the furniture's visual group and hangs 15-25cm above it regardless of the centre rule. Galleries hang to 145cm (57 inches in the trade's original) because most home pictures hang a foot too high.
- Custom centre height (advanced): override the three presets, for example 150cm in a tall-ceilinged Victorian room or 135cm in a dining room where everyone is seated.
- Furniture-led hook height (advanced): enter the furniture top (a sofa back is about 85cm, a sideboard 80-90cm, a bed head 100-120cm) and the gap you want above it, and the calculator gives the alternative hook height and says how far it departs from the centre rule.
- Two-hook positions (advanced): for frames over about 60cm wide, two hooks at the inner thirds of the width stop the eternal tilt. The card gives the spacing and the offset from the centre line; D-rings use their own spacing.
- Fixing to use (advanced): matches the frame's weight to the wall: picture hooks on plaster for light frames, plugged screws for heavy ones, self-drive plugs or spring toggles on hollow plasterboard, long frame fixings through dot-and-dab, and adhesive strips within their limits for rented walls. Run a detector for cables and pipes first.
- In inches (advanced): hook, centre and frame edges converted for tape measures and US hanging guides.
- Height table (advanced): hook, top and bottom for the seated, gallery and tall-room datums and any custom or furniture-led height, so a gallery wall can be planned on paper templates before a single hook goes in.