Two or three frames in a row is the most common arrangement in any home and the one most often hung by eye. It does not need to be. A row is fully described by three numbers — the frame width, the gap, and the height of the centre line — and once you have them, every nail position can be worked out before you touch the wall.
Work out the row width first
Total width is the frames plus the gaps between them: three 50×70 with 6 cm gaps is 150 + 12 = 162 cm. Then each frame's centre sits a fixed distance from the middle of the row.
| Row | Gap | Total width | Frame centres, measured from the middle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two 21×30 | 4 cm | 46 cm | 12.5 cm each side |
| Two 30×42 | 5 cm | 65 cm | 17.5 cm each side |
| Two 50×70 | 6 cm | 106 cm | 28 cm each side |
| Two 70×100 | 6 cm | 146 cm | 38 cm each side |
| Three 30×42 | 5 cm | 100 cm | middle on centre, outer at 35 cm |
| Three 50×70 | 6 cm | 162 cm | middle on centre, outer at 56 cm |
| Three 70×100 | 8 cm | 226 cm | middle on centre, outer at 78 cm |
For a pair, the offset is half a frame plus half a gap. For three, the middle frame goes on the centre line and the outer two sit one full frame width plus one gap away. Every frame width you might need is in the size guide.
Finding the middle
The middle of the row is the middle of what the row belongs to, and that is rarely the middle of the wall. Above a sofa it is the middle of the sofa; on a wall between two doors it is the middle of the plaster you can actually use. Mark it with a pencil dot and treat that dot as zero.
Solid oak frame 21x30 cm
Black wooden frame 50x70 cm
Black wooden frame 30x42 cm
Black wooden frame 21x30 cm
Solid oak frame 30x42 cm
Solid oak frame 50x70 cm
Why you hang from the middle out
Because error accumulates in one direction only. Measure a row of three left to right and each gap carries its own small mistake; if every gap is 3 mm wide of the mark, the third frame lands 6 mm out and the whole row has shifted 6 mm off the centre of the furniture. Work outwards from the middle dot and the same two errors go in opposite directions. The row stays centred, and any inaccuracy shows up as a slightly uneven gap rather than a visibly off-centre arrangement.
From frame centre to nail
The nail does not go where the frame centre goes. Measure the drop — the distance from the top edge of the frame down to the hanging hardware with the cord or bracket pulled taut — and then: nail height = centre height + half the frame height − drop. A 50×70 with its centre at 145 cm has its top edge at 180; with a 6 cm drop, the nail goes at 174. Where the 145 cm centre comes from is explained in the guide to hanging height, and the single wall hook we make is in the accessories.
Frames of different heights
Align the centres, never the top edges. In a row of 50×70, 30×42, 50×70 all centred at 145 cm, the top edges land at 180, 166 and 180 and the bottoms at 110, 124 and 110. Nothing lines up except the invisible line through the middle — and that is the line the eye reads. Hang the same row by its top edges and the small frame appears to hang from the ceiling with a hole beneath it.
The same holds when you mix orientations: a 50×70 turned landscape among portraits has its top at 170 and bottom at 120, centre still at 145, and it sits in the row correctly. Measure gaps between frame edges rather than between nails, since unequal widths make nail spacing meaningless. Larger compositions are worked out in the gallery wall layouts; the frames are in the frame range.