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 Many home decorators find themselves in the dark about how to hang art and/or group pictures on a wall.  Questions arise; how high, how many, what sizes, what happens when there is a chair rail, etc..  It can be a daunting task so I am going to help you simplify the process by giving you some of my helpful hints.

When grouping an arrangement of pictures you should think of them as one unit.  I typically lay everything out on the floor and play around with the arrangement until I have the balance just right.  You can play with the many combinations this way without committing to the wall.  Relate your art to your wall size, this is very important.  You don't want your art to look dwarfed or the other way around.  Relate art to furniture size.  Do not hang a work of art that is larger than the piece of furniture under it, keep it relative.

Here goes the first one, which is easy.  They maximized the drama of the fireplace by placing huge vertical art on either side thus, maximizing the effect.  I suppose they could have added a piece of furniture under each painting but, then the effect would have been compromised by the distraction of the furniture.

This is one of the more difficult hangs.  A grouping introducing other elements.  They could have hung this the easy way which would have been to eliminate the sconces and oval platter and hung four over four.  I happen to think that the sconces are a welcome diversion to make this grouping more interesting.  The added oval on the bottom gives what I call the odd number that makes it all work, eleven.

This one is typical of having an even number of prints and making them look like an odd number.  The two hanging above each other set the center and the outer four balance it out.  I like the staggered effect of the outer four.  Very smart.

Moving right along to one of the more difficult wall hangings.  If you analyze this picture you will see that the some of the smaller pictures are mimicking the slant of the risers on the stairs and then they become horizontal at the top.  The reverse Z, if you will, helped this person define his or her area and then filled in with what made some sense.  Note that the "equestrian" picture which holds the largest real estate is just where it should be, in the middle.  This is a really fun arrangement and it was done very well.

I love this photo and I have to say that symmetry is also very cool.  I am fickle in that you can't rely on me to say one look is better than the other.  It depends on what you have to work with and how it will work within your space.  In this photo the designer got the space just right for the artwork and it is extremely effective.  It almost acts as an additional headboard making your eye travel upwards.