How high should you hang a poster?
A poster hung too high or too low stands out right away. The eye-level center rule, adapted for above furniture or in a hallway, to hang a poster in the right spot the first time.
Key points
- 18 posters in the Living room posters collection, all in the table below.
- From CHF 16.00 in A4, up to CHF 55.00 in A0, 5 sizes for each poster.
- Printed in Europe on demand, free delivery from €59.
The table
The 20 posters at a glance
Why hanging height changes everything
The same poster on the same wall looks completely different depending on whether it sits 10 cm too high or too low. Too high, and you have to look up, which breaks the link with the room. Too low, and it crushes the composition. One simple rule is enough to avoid this in most rooms.
The eye-level center rule
The most common convention in decorating, and in museums too, places the center of the poster 145 to 150 cm from the floor: roughly the eye level of an average-height person standing. To find it, measure 145 to 150 cm from the floor to the middle of the print, not to the top or bottom of the frame.
In practice, cut a paper template the size of your poster, tape it to the wall, step back a few paces to check the balance with the furniture around it, and only then drive in the nail or hook.
Hanging above a piece of furniture
Above a sofa, a sideboard, a dresser or a headboard, the eye-level center rule no longer applies as is: the furniture becomes the reference. Leave 15 to 20 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the poster. A wider gap feels empty, while a smaller one crushes the composition.
In a hallway or narrow entryway
A hallway is something you walk through, not something you stand and face: the viewing distance is shorter and the eye sweeps rather than fixes. Eye level (145 to 150 cm) remains a good starting point, perhaps lowered by a few centimeters if the hallway has a low ceiling or is very narrow.
For a wall of several posters
With several frames, the question is no longer the height of a single poster but the balance of the whole: the center of the group at eye level, with even spacing between frames. Design a gallery wall: 15 compositions that work details specific layouts, frame by frame.
The pink praline tart, above a kitchen cabinet
The Lyon poster, with its pink praline tart set on a doily in front of a window open onto Fourvière, illustrates the rule above: hung over a sideboard or a countertop, it follows the 15 to 20 cm gap between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the poster, in a room where its gourmet charm makes sense.
The Art Deco woman, at eye level in a bedroom
The “Golden Night” poster, a woman in a sequined golden dress crossing a ballroom under a grand chandelier, suits the eye-level center rule (145 to 150 cm) well in a bedroom or dressing room: a more intimate space, where you see the poster up close rather than from afar.
The poster for this part
Woman in golden sequin dress under ballroom chandelier poster
from CHF 16.00
Saint-Malo at low tide, in a hallway or entryway
The Saint-Malo poster, with Fort National and its flag at the end of the beach at low tide and a walker on the causeway, illustrates the hallway rule above well: a vertical, luminous composition, easy to spot at a glance for someone passing by rather than stopping, at the usual eye level (145 to 150 cm), lowered slightly if the hallway has a low ceiling.
Build this wall
3 posters from this article, at true scale
All 3 posters: CHF 80.00
Frequently asked questions
You often ask us
Should you measure from the floor or from the ceiling?
From the floor: the reference is the eye level of a person standing, around 145 to 150 cm, not the ceiling height, which varies from room to room.
Does the rule change if the poster is above a piece of furniture?
Yes: above a sofa, a sideboard or a headboard, start from the top of the furniture and leave 15 to 20 cm before the bottom of the poster, rather than applying the eye-level center rule.
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