Styling and art hanging
We help homes, cafés, restaurants and offices show their art at its best: choosing pieces and frames, planning the layout, and hanging and lighting it properly. Hanging systems such as Artiteq rails make it easy to change the display later.
Styling and hanging
$90 an hour, plus travel and any hanging hardware.
Installation
$90 an hour. Large or commercial jobs are quoted after a site visit.
Thoughts on lighting
Good light shows the true colour of a work. The wrong light, or too much of it, fades it for good. Light damage adds up over time and can't be undone, and works on paper, photographs and prints are the most sensitive. Oils and acrylics cope better, but nothing is immune.
Natural light
- Never hang art in direct sun. Its UV and heat fade colour and yellow paper.
- Avoid walls opposite large windows: glass and gloss pick up the glare, and you see the window, not the work.
- Use sheer curtains, blinds or UV-filtering window film in bright rooms.
- Rotate fragile works on paper and photographs every few months.
Artificial light
- Choose LED globes with a CRI of 95 or higher (90 at the very least). CRI measures how true colours look, out of 100.
- Warm white, about 2700 to 3000 K, suits most homes. Keep every globe on one wall the same.
- Aim lights at about 30° from the wall to avoid hot spots and glare. Light from above rather than below.
- Skip fluorescent (UV and poor colour) and halogen (heat). LEDs give off little of either.
- Dimmers and timers help: use as much light as you need, not as much as you can.
How bright?
Conservators use these as a guide: about 50 lux for works on paper, watercolours and photographs, and 150 to 200 lux for oil and acrylic paintings. You can go brighter at home for effect, but lower is kinder to the work.
Protect it in the frame
Glass is the last line of defence against fading. Even ordinary glass stops some UV, but the better grades stop almost all of it, and anti-reflective glass lets you see the work, not the room.
| Glass | UV blocked | Reflection | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | about 45% | normal | Posters, prints that are easy to replace, rooms out of the sun |
| UV-protective | 99% | normal | Originals and works on paper, where protection matters more than reflections |
| UltraVue | 70% | almost none | The happy medium: near-invisible and colour-true, with good UV protection, for a lower price than museum glass |
| Museum | 99% | almost none | Valuable originals, bright rooms and walls opposite windows: the best view and the best protection |
Figures are Tru Vue's published ratings. Acid-free mats and archival backing stop the frame itself from discolouring the work. Price every option in our frame calculator.
General guidance only. For valuable or historic works, ask a conservator.