How to hang a 60 × 70 cm canvas

Before you drill: what you will need

Hanging a canvas of this size is a half-hour job for one or two people. Have the following to hand:

• a tape measure, a pencil and a spirit level (the level app on your phone will do);
• masking tape, to mark the wall without leaving pencil lines on it;
• a drill, if the wall is brick or concrete, and the right wall plugs for your type of wall;
• two hooks or screws rather than just one: the canvas will be more stable and stay straight;
• a cable and pipe detector, or at the very least some care around the areas above sockets and switches, where wires usually run.

The right height: the centre at about 150 cm

Museums and galleries hang works so that the centre is at the eye level of a standing person, between 145 and 155 cm from the floor. For a canvas 60 cm high, that means the bottom edge sits at around 120 cm and the top edge at around 180 cm.

There is one important exception: above a sofa, a sideboard or a bed, the furniture becomes the reference point. Leave 20 to 25 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom edge of the canvas. Any more and the painting seems to float, cut off from the arrangement; any less and it looks cramped and is likely to be bumped by heads and cushions.

If you are hanging two canvases side by side, line them up by their centres, at the same height, with a gap of 8 to 10 cm, and treat the pair as a single work: the centre of the pair lines up with the centre of the sofa.

Check how the canvas hangs at the back

Before you mark the wall, turn the canvas over and see what is on the back: a taut hanging wire, two D-rings, or simply the wooden stretcher frame the canvas is stretched over. This changes where your hooks need to go.

• With a wire: pull the wire upwards until it is taut and measure the distance between its highest point and the top of the canvas. The hooks will go that distance below the top edge you marked on the wall.
• With D-rings, or with just the wooden stretcher: measure the distance between the rings (or choose two points on the top bar of the stretcher, about a quarter of the width in from each side) and transfer it to the wall, using the level.

If you are not sure how your work will be prepared, ask us before it arrives: we will tell you what you will find.

Brick or concrete walls

This is the simplest kind of wall. Drill with a masonry bit of the diameter given on the wall plug packet, push in an ordinary plastic wall plug and screw in a screw or a purpose-made picture hook. For a canvas of this size, two fixing points with 6 mm plugs are more than enough. Vacuum up the dust as you drill and the job stays clean.

Plasterboard (drywall) walls

Plasterboard sounds hollow when you knock on it with your knuckles. An ordinary nail will not hold well in this kind of wall. Use fixings designed for hollow walls: metal cavity anchors (often called hollow wall anchors), which open out behind the board, or self-drill plasterboard fixings, which screw straight into the board. Choose a type whose load rating on the packet is well above the weight of the work.

If you find a stud (the metal or timber upright behind the board), you can fix one of the points into it, but you do not have to. Avoid adhesive hooks: over time, with the weight and the changes in temperature, they can come away.

Hang and adjust

With both points fixed, hang the canvas, rest the level on top of the stretcher and adjust it carefully, holding it by the sides and never by the front: a painting with relief, leaves or other applied elements should never be pressed. Two small self-adhesive bumpers on the bottom corners, at the back, protect the wall and help the canvas stay straight.

Finally, step back three or four paces and look at it from where you will see it every day. If it needs to go up or down, now is the time. Then, so that the work lasts, read How to care for a varnished acrylic painting.