Living with the work once we have gone
Five things worth knowing. None of them require special equipment, and most of the damage we see could have been avoided by one of them.
Light, humidity and placement
Direct sun is the one thing that cannot be undone. Watercolours, works on paper, photographs and anything with organic pigment will fade in a few seasons on a south or west wall, and no glazing stops it entirely — UV-filtering glass slows it down, which is not the same thing.
Humidity matters almost as much. Paper cockles and canvas slackens when a room swings between damp and dry, which is why bathrooms, kitchens above a range, and walls backing onto an unheated garage are the three positions we most often talk clients out of.
The steady, boring middle of a house is where art lasts: interior walls, even temperature, no direct beam at any hour. If a piece must go somewhere bright, we will tell you what it will cost it.
Hanging heights that actually work
The gallery convention is 57 to 60 inches to the centre of the work, which is eye level for a standing adult. It is a good default and a bad rule. A dining room is looked at while seated, a stair while moving, and a bedroom while lying down.
Above furniture, the gap is what your eye reads, not the height. Six to ten inches between the top of a sofa or console and the bottom of the frame keeps the two things related; more than that and the piece appears to float away from the room.
For a group, hang the arrangement as one rectangle: pick the outer edges first, keep two to three inches between frames, and let the centre of the whole group sit where a single work would have.
Cleaning and what never to touch
A dry, soft brush — a clean natural-bristle paintbrush is ideal — over the frame and the top edge, twice a year. That is the entire routine for most collections.
Never spray anything at a work. Glass cleaner wicks under the glazing by capillary action and reaches the paper, and there is no recovering from that. If glass needs cleaning, mist a cloth away from the piece, wipe, and dry immediately.
Never touch the surface of an unglazed painting, even with a cloth. Varnish scuffs, impasto breaks, and fingerprints are acidic. Gilded frames are softer than they look: brush only, never wipe, and never wax them yourself.
Before a move or a renovation
Painters, floor sanders and anyone with a compressor should not be working around hung art. Dust from sanding is abrasive and gets under glazing; solvent vapour reaches varnish. Take the work down first, even for a single room.
Wrap face-out with glassine or unprinted paper, then a soft blanket, and stand pieces upright on their long edge — never flat and never stacked. Corners take the damage in transit, so protect those specifically.
Photograph each wall before anything comes down, and keep the hardware with the piece it came off. It sounds obvious and it is the step everyone skips.
When to call a professional
Anything genuinely heavy, anything you would not want to catch, and anything going into plaster, stone, tile or concrete. Also anything you have already tried to hang twice.
Call before, not after: a hole in the wrong place in original plaster is a repair, and a piece that comes off the wall is often not repairable at all. If you are unsure whether a wall will hold something, that uncertainty is the answer.
If we have installed for you before, a new purchase or a repaint is usually a short return visit rather than a fresh project — we already know the house.
Quick reference
Worth printingSomething already on the wall you are unsure about?
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