How Far Apart Should You Hang Prints in a Set?

About 5 cm — two inches — between prints of the same size, and up to 7.5 cm (3 inches) when the frames differ. Hang the group as one object: measure the whole block of prints and gaps together, centre that block on the wall or the furniture, and keep every gap identical.

The gap is what makes three prints read as one picture instead of three. That is the short answer, and for most walls it is the only number you need. The rest of this is the reasoning, the arithmetic for a few real walls, and the two or three cases where a wider gap is the right call.

Why does the gap matter more than the size of the prints?

Because the gap is the only part of the arrangement you still control after the prints arrive. Size is fixed by what you bought, wall width is fixed by the room, but the spacing is yours, and it decides whether the eye takes in one object or several.

Five centimetres works because of viewing distance. Most people look at a wall from two to three metres away (seven to ten feet), and at that distance a 5 cm gap is close enough that the frames group together, while still leaving each print its own edge. Push the gap out to 15 cm and the group dissolves into separate pictures competing with each other. Close it to a centimetre and the frames look jammed, with the mouldings almost touching.

The other half of it is consistency. The eye is far better at catching a difference between two gaps than at judging any single gap, so a row where one space is 5 cm and the next is 6.5 cm looks wrong even to someone who could not tell you why. I cut a strip of card to the gap I want and use that same strip for every space rather than measuring each one. Measuring error compounds along a row; a spacer does not.

How many prints belong on one wall?

Start with the furniture, not the number. A group hung above a sofa, bed, sideboard or console should span roughly two-thirds of the width of that piece. On a free wall with nothing beneath it, go to about three-quarters of the wall and stop — the margin of empty wall on either side is doing as much work as the prints.

Once you have that target width, the number almost chooses itself. A single print suits a narrow wall or a space beside a door. A pair suits a bedside table, a narrow chimney breast or a sideboard. Three in a row is the workhorse over a three-seat sofa. Four reads best stacked two by two rather than strung out in a line, unless the wall is genuinely long.

One practical note, since it changes the arithmetic: my prints ship as prints on matte paper, not framed. Whatever frame you put them in adds its own width on every side, and that is the measurement that has to fit the wall.

What does a set of three above a sofa actually measure?

Here is the arithmetic for a wall I get asked about more than any other: a three-seat sofa about 210 cm (83 inches) wide. Two-thirds of that is roughly 140 cm, so that is the width the group of prints should come to, gaps included.

Take three prints at 16x20 inches (40.6 x 50.8 cm). In a slim frame that adds about 2.5 cm (1 inch) on each side, each one finishes about 45.6 cm wide. Three of those come to 136.8 cm, and the two 5 cm gaps between them add 10 cm, for a total of about 147 cm. Against a 140 cm target that is near enough — a few centimetres over looks generous rather than wrong.

Step down a size and the maths turns against you. The same three prints at 12x18 inches (30.5 x 45.7 cm) finish about 35.5 cm wide framed, so the group spans about 116 cm. Above a 210 cm sofa that reads as undersized, floating in the middle of the wall. It is the right span for a 170 cm (67 inch) two-seater, where the target is about 113 cm.

That is the single most common mistake I see: three prints that are each perfectly nice and collectively too small for the wall. Measure the sofa, take two-thirds, then work backwards to the size. Height is a separate decision with its own rules, and I have written up how high to hang art above a sofa rather than repeat it here.

What changes when the prints are different sizes?

Two things. First, widen the gap to about 7.5 cm (3 inches). Mismatched outer dimensions already give the eye plenty to do, and a tight gap in that situation looks like a mistake rather than a decision. Second, commit to one alignment line and hold it everywhere: either a shared centre line running through all the prints, or a shared bottom edge with the tops left ragged. Both work. Alternating between them does not.

A mixed group also looks better with the largest piece off to one side rather than dead centre, which is a symmetrical arrangement pretending to be a casual one.

Worth knowing before you plan a mixed wall: every print inside one of my sets comes in the same size, because the size is chosen once for the whole set. So a deliberately mismatched group is something you assemble from singles, not something a set of three will give you.

Is a row or a grid right for the wall you have?

Let the wall decide. Wide and short — above a sofa, a bed, a run of cabinets — wants a row. Tall and narrow — the pier between two windows, a chimney breast, the turn of a staircase — wants a grid, because a row there would run out of wall long before it filled the height.

A worked example for the narrow case: four prints at 8x10 inches (20.3 x 25.4 cm), framed to about 25.3 x 30.4 cm each. In a two-by-two grid with 5 cm gaps that comes to about 56 cm wide and 66 cm tall, which fits most window piers comfortably. The same four in a single row would stretch about 116 cm and read as a frieze rather than a picture.

Grids ask more of you, though. In a row, a gap that is a centimetre out shows once. In a grid it shows twice, horizontally and vertically, and the whole block tilts visually. If you are hanging a grid, mark every nail position on the wall in pencil before the first one goes in.

Which set should you buy for the space you have measured?

Once you have a target width, the choice is mostly arithmetic. For the two-thirds span above a three-seat sofa or a double bed, look at the sets of three prints — it is the largest group in the catalogue and the easiest to size, since all three prints share one size. For a sideboard, a bedside table or a narrow stretch of wall, the sets of two are easier to place and more forgiving if the wall is interrupted by a socket or a light switch.

If you would rather start from the room than from the layout, the living room wall art and bedroom wall art prints pages are sorted that way instead.

Every set comes in the same seven sizes — 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, 12x16, 12x18, 13x19 and 16x20 inches (12.7 x 17.8 up to 40.6 x 50.8 cm) — printed on matte paper and posted to you. Pairs run from about CA$26 to CA$84 depending on size, sets of three from about CA$38 to CA$124, and sets of four from about CA$44 to CA$158. Frames are not included, which is why the frame width belongs in your measurement from the start.

So: measure the furniture, take two-thirds, add up the frames and the gaps, and only then choose a size. The spacing is the easy part once the width is settled — 5 cm, the same strip of card every time, and the group hangs as one thing.