This is a common hurdle for non-collector buyers, buyers who want to purchase artwork for their home or office. These potential buyers see some art, often by chance, they fall in love with it and they want to buy it right there and then but often they haven’t done their homework: finding out what art works well in their office or the home they live in. This includes the right size, the preferred subject, the mood and the framing.

While any doubts about the right subject or the perfect frame can be dissolved by having a variety of these options to select from, choosing the right size that suits the wall it’s intended for is one factor that requires you to do a little more planning prior to purchase.

Although your preference should have priority and you should purchase whatever size you believe fits best, there are three common rules that have developed from experience and from learning from the masters of the arts of the last few centuries.

Rule No. 1: The ⅔ to ¾ Width Rule

The most common rule suggests that you aim at an artwork size of around two-thirds to three-quarters of the space it will be placed in. So if your available wall space is 8ft wide, the total width of your artwork should range somewhere from five to six feet. But sometimes rules don’t work, or you have to adjust them to the circumstances. The ⅔ to ¾ rule, for example, may conflict with the rule below, which helps you place your artwork correctly:

Rule No. 2: The Eye Level Height Rule

This rule states that artwork should ideally be presented at eye level. To put a number to this, hanging your artwork at a height of around 60in from the center of the artwork to the floor below it seems ideal. Now, depending on whether your artwork is a horizontal or vertical format and the length of its longest side, you may not be able to apply the two rules above without adapting them a little.

Your Art and Your Furniture

If you hang your art above your existing furniture (or a fireplace, for example), you can (and should) apply the same rule. Two-thirds to three-quarters of the width of the sofa, for example, would be the ideal width of your artwork in that particular place of the wall. If you don’t want to have a single large piece of art filling that large empty space in your living room, you can follow rule No. 3, which helps you place your artwork correctly:

Rule No. 3: Treat Multiple Pieces of Art as a Single Piece

Follow this rule and add the numbers of the various widths of your individual pieces of artwork and allow for equal spacing between them, too. This spacing depends on the overall size of your artwork but for medium-sized art (above your sofa, for example) a gap of around 2in to 6in between the pieces should be okay.

Matters may seem a little more complex with groups of artwork of various sizes, but in fact the same rule applies here, too: treat the whole group as if it were just one single work of art. Just as with groups of two or three, add spacing between the various pieces to your calculations.

After all, we’re talking about generic rules of thumb here, so it really doesn’t matter if you follow them closely or give your instinct a little more weight. And if you see a piece of art that’s only available in a size other than the one your calculation suggests, what can you do? Buy it and ignore the rules!

See also:

Choose the Best Frame for Your Artwork
How to Hang New Artwork