What is the Standard placement of a picture?

Answer 1

There is no one standard placement for a picture. The placement will depend on the type and size of the picture, and the relative position of the person looking at the picture.

The general answer, is hang the picture so that the focal point of the picture is at eye level of the observer.

In practice, this means, for example, if you have a large picture to put on a wall in a sitting room, where it will mostly be viewed by people sitting down, than hang the picture fairly low so that people don't have to look up to view the picture. It is a common mistake to hang pictures in sitting rooms at eye level of standing people (or even higher!).

On the other hand, if a picture is to be located so that it is viewed by people standing, for example in a hallway, or in an art gallery, then hang the picture at eye level, again so that people don't have to look up or down to view the picture.

Another factor which will influence the placement of a picture is whether the picture is to hang by itself or to relate to other pictures - there are a whole extra set of guidelines to be followed when hanging pictures together!