04 · Living with what you collect
Interior
Hanging height, gallery walls without the chaos, light that flatters a painting without cooking it, and how to take the colours of a room from the canvas rather than the catalogue.
Method
How to Hang Art at Home
Most pictures in most homes hang fifteen centimetres too high, because the person on the ladder was standing up and the person who looks at them is sitting down. The 150 centimetre line fixes it. So do six more rules.
3 further stories
The Gallery Wall Without the Chaos
Eleven frames on one wall can look like a collection or like a flea market. The difference is one rule, held everywhere, and an afternoon with paper templates and masking tape.
Light for Living with Art
A gallery lights a painting to be seen. A home has to light it to be seen and lived with and not destroyed. Thirty degrees, ninety on the colour index, two thousand seven hundred kelvin and a dimmer.
Colour from the Canvas
The wall colour of a room that lives with art is not chosen from a chart. It is lifted from the work: the quiet tone in the background of the painting, taken to the walls at a lower saturation, and the loud tone left to the painting.
From the Show
Four works
to stand in front of.
Every section of the magazine has walls in the Show. These are hanging in it now.
Objects from the Register that belong to this section, with the detail that separates the original from the copy.
The whole Register1947 · Herman Miller, Vitra in Europe
Noguchi Coffee Table
The designer's signature is etched into the edge of the glass on current production, and the base carries a medallion. Copies use thinner glass and a base that does not interlock.
1957 · Knoll
Tulip Table
Signature and logo under the top, and a base whose curve continues into the top without a step. Copies have a fibreglass base that dents.
1927 · ClassiCon
E1027 Adjustable Table
The maker's stamp and a serial number on the frame; the height adjusts with a chain on an original. Copies fix it with a screw.
1928 · Cassina
LC6 Table
Three signatures and a serial number on the base. The base of an original is aircraft-style oval tube, welded and painted.
1966 · Knoll
Platner Coffee Table
Signature and logo under the top. The rods of an original are welded to circular frames at both ends; copies rest loose.
1968 · Fritz Hansen
Superellipse Table
The maker's label under the top. The legs are eight steel rods held in tension; copies bolt on four.
01The 150 line
Hanging Height
Height of the work, the furniture under it, the hardware on the back. Out comes the hook height in centimetres and where the second hook goes.
02Paper first, on screen
Gallery Wall
Your wall, your furniture, your frames, drawn to scale. Drag them into a composition, snap the gaps, print the layout with hook heights.