Care & Hanging

Out of direct sunlight. This is the one that matters. Pigment inks are rated for decades indoors, and a few hours of afternoon sun a day will shorten that dramatically. A wall that faces away from a window is worth more than any coating.

Avoid bathrooms and anywhere else that swings between damp and dry. Paper moves with humidity, and a framed print in a steamy room will eventually ripple behind the glazing.

Centre of the piece at 57 to 60 inches from the floor. That is where galleries hang, because it is average standing eye level, and it is why a room of pictures at that height feels calm, because the centres line up even when the frames do not.

Over furniture, raise it: leave 6 to 10 inches between the top of a sofa back or headboard and the bottom of the frame. Any more and the piece floats free of what it belongs to.

A piece over furniture wants to be about two-thirds of its width. Over an 84-inch sofa that is around 56 inches, which usually means either the largest size or a pair hung together. Under half looks like an afterthought, however good the photograph is.

Canvases arrive ready to hang and are light enough for a single picture hook in most walls. Framed pieces are heavier: use two hooks rather than one, spaced about a third in from each side. Two hooks stop a frame drifting out of level every time a door slams, which one hook will do forever.

Into drywall with nothing behind it, use a proper anchor rated above the weight of the piece. A nail alone holds until it does not.

Dust a canvas with a dry, soft brush or a clean microfibre cloth. Never a damp cloth and never any cleaner. The surface is ink on a coating and both come off.

Glazing on a framed print takes a barely-damp microfibre cloth. Spray the cloth, not the frame, so nothing runs down into the mat. Avoid anything with ammonia in it.