I want to hang a poster on the wall, but how high should I hang it? Here’s a story based on my recent struggles.
How high should I hang a poster?
Pathos?… kinda
What does my gut tell me? Eye-level.
But what even is eye-level? It changes depending on if I’m sitting or standing, and it’s affected by what shoes I’m wearing. Even my height differs throughout the day — and yes, the details matter when it comes to perfection.
Okay, let’s pretend that my height never changes, so sitting vs. standing is the only variable to consider. Maybe I should pick an in-between height? Well, no — instead of sometimes enjoying the poster to its fullest, now I can never enjoy the poster as such. Given that I sit at my desk around 80% of the time, should I hang the poster at my sitting height? But posters look much better from below than from above, so they’ll look extra bad when I’m standing up… Yeah, my instincts really aren’t helping right now .
Logos?… not really
What to do next? Maybe experimentation — like scientists! Well, I don’t want to apply the scientific method to hang a poster, so I guess trial-and-error will have to do.
Do I test out a few heights and pick the best one? I’ll be using Command Strips, which cost me $1.50 per attempt (yeah, the poster’s heavy) — this won’t do. Maybe I can use nails? My posters are metal — it would be… difficult… to nail through them. Besides, I don’t have any wall filler to patch the extra holes.
Ethos?… not sure about that
Suddenly, I remember seeing an old Reddit post discussing the ideal picture frame height.
So I went through the Reddit thread. The first 5 answers? 57″, 65¾″, 66″, 63″, and 60″. Great, a 9-inch range, half the height of my poster. Granted, the answers were trying to accommodate people of all heights (which maybe somewhat models sitting vs. standing?), but the point remains that no one can agree on how high, relative to one’s own eyes, a poster should hang.
What about art galleries? A few replies mentioned them. You’d expect them to be experts on the matter, and after some Googling… I couldn’t find any reliable information on the matter .
Conclusion
Now that begs the question, how do you determine how high to hang a poster when
- your instincts don’t make sense;
- trial and error is not an option; and
- no one else can agree on the answer?
Is there no way to win?
What did I do? I gave up lol. I hung it at a random height ¯\(ツ)/¯.
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