Tips on how to hang 3-piece wall art
Hanging one wall art is practically a no brainer. Hanging a two-piece wall art set is a little harder, but hanging a three-piece set can be very tricky (and frustrating) if you don’t have a plan of action ahead of time.
Imagine having to hang two similar pieces that go together and you either want to 1) Hang them side-by-side or 2) hang them symmetrically on either end of some other item or divider (such as a door, or a headboard. You have to make sure that both items are evenly apart from the thing that separates them, or if you placing them side-by-side, make sure that they are hung at the same height.
Now imagine having to tackle hanging 3 pieces, normally a set, evenly apart from one another and hung at the same height.
If you just start swinging your hammer and putting nails in your walls, you’re likely going to end up frustrated and with a lot more holes in your wall than intended. In this post, I hope to provide some tips and tricks to hanging 3 pieces as nicely and evenly as the average eye can detect!
Step 1. Getting Setup
First things first is making sure that the wall you selected to display your art is wide (and high) enough. There are several ways to do this besides eyeballing it (which can leave you regretting doing so!). The two best ways are:
1. Measuring the full width of the wall, and measuring the width of one of the wall pieces then multiply it by three. Once you get the two measurements, decide how much space you want in between each frame and multiple that by two and add that to the total width of all 3 paintings. Subtract this total from the width of the wall to see how much space you have left for either end. You can either divide this by two for even space on either side or adjust accordingly if you don’t want to hang your art in the middle of the wall. Keep note of each measurement section (see image below).
2. [Easier approach]. Place each piece gently on the floor and leaned against the wall. Adjust the width of each piece until you have a width arrangement you like. Make sure that space in between each wall art is roughly even (you may want to measure to make sure). Keep track of all measurements as shown in the arrows below.
Step 2. Get your tools in order
Here are the list of tools you’ll need to get you started:
Step 3. Start measuring and marking
Depending on what hardware your wall art has, your measurements may vary. For example, if your wall art has D-Rings, you’ll need two nails spaced apart the width of the two D-Ring hardware on the back of the frame. If your wall art has sawtooth hardware, you’ll just need one. Sawtooth hardware (typically more common in wall art sets) are much easier to work with because you’ve only got one nail to hammer, and usually the sawtooth hardware is wide enough for you to have some wiggle room to adjust sideways. Just note that D-Rings hardware adds an extra level of complexity.
Start by taking a measuring tape and measure and measure up from the floor to an area of the wall you want the tops of the frames to be (you may need your step ladder if you want to go higher). Then measure from one side of the wall to the outer edge of the first frame you intend to hang. Place a small piece of tap there (see image below).
Then, starting from the piece of tape you just placed, measure from there to the other end of the first frame. Before firmly placing this piece of tape down, take your leveler and place it between the first piece and the second and try to level it out between the two pieces of tape. Here you may need to finagle the second piece of tape vertically until both pieces are horizontally aligned.
Next measure, the space you wanted between each frame starting from the last piece you placed (first green arrow above). Keep repeating this until you measure to the other end of the wall. These blue pieces will be your indicators for wall art that have D-Ring hardware.
If your wall art has sawtooth hardware, simply measure the center of each of the three sets of blue tapes and add a piece of tape there (depicted as pink tape in image). You may need a leveler to make sure that your pink tape piece aligns horizontally with the two blue pieces.
Step 4. Start Nailing and hanging – one at a time!
Hammer your first (or first two) nails in and hang up your first wall art.
When nailing, make sure to have your nail pointed up and hammer down to the desired point. This prevents the wall art from sliding down.
Once you get the first one set up, do the same for the second. My recommendation for the next two: when hammering them into the wall, hammer the nails in just a smidge higher than the marked spot. You can always adjust down if the frames don’t fully align, but you can’t adjust up 🙂
In the end, if hopefully everthing’s done right, you’ll get results looking like this:
Love my floral wall art in these photos? Check out my How-To blog post on how I made them and where to buy the materials.
I hope this has been helpful! Feel free to comment below if I’ve missed anything! 🙂
Happy decorating!
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