What size art should go above a queen bed?

About 40 to 48 inches wide, roughly two-thirds of the 60-inch mattress, according to the print retailer Fine Art America's sizing guide, which says never to go below half the bed's width. Over a king (76 inches) it gives 50 to 60 inches. Park West Gallery states the same two-thirds rule for art above any piece of furniture.

How high should art be hung above a bed?

Measure from the headboard, not the floor: the bottom of the frame 8 to 12 inches above the top of the headboard, as Fine Art America's guide puts it. The usual 57-inch rule for the centre of a picture, which Park West Gallery's professionals use, is for open walls; above a bed the headboard sets the height.

Is it safe to hang heavy art above a bed?

Keep it light. The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) advises that any item over 20 pounds hang on hardware that goes into the studs, that items over 50 pounds be hung professionally, and that heavy objects never go over beds, sofas or seating. In earthquake areas it recommends closed hooks and putty on the bottom corners.

Can sunlight damage bedroom wall art?

Yes. The National Park Service's conservation guidance notes that ultraviolet light from sunlight and artificial sources has a cumulative effect and can fade paper, textiles and other organic materials. Keep originals and photographs off walls that get direct sun, or frame them behind UV-filtering glazing.

Should bedroom art be one large piece or several small ones?

Over a bed, one large piece or a pair usually looks calmer than many small frames, because the bed is a wide, simple shape. A gallery of smaller frames works better on a long wall facing the bed, where it is seen from a distance and has room to spread.

Wall Art for the Bedroom: Size, Height and Safe Hanging

The short answer: make wall art for the bedroom about two-thirds of the bed's width, which is 40 to 48 inches over a queen and 50 to 60 over a king, and hang the bottom edge 8 to 12 inches above the headboard. Keep anything heavier than 20 pounds off the wall above the bed.

Bedroom art has a problem that art in other rooms doesn't: the obvious place for it is the wall you sleep under. That decides three things at once. The size has to relate to the bed, the largest object in the room. The height has to relate to the headboard, not to standing eye level. And the hanging has to be good enough that you don't think about it at 3 a.m. This guide works through those three, then the other walls.

Size: Two-Thirds of the Bed

The rule designers and galleries give for art above furniture is the same everywhere: about two-thirds of the width of the piece below. Park West Gallery's rules for hanging art put it simply: "artwork should be about two-thirds the width of the furniture below it." Above a bed, the furniture is the mattress (or the headboard, if it is much wider).

The print retailer Fine Art America's guide to art above a bed turns that into numbers: "Aim for roughly two-thirds of the bed and never less than half", which is "40 to 48 inches over a queen, 50 to 60 over a king."

Bed	Mattress width	Art width (two-thirds)
Queen	60 in	about 40 in, never under 30
King	76 in	about 50 in, never under 38

A pair or a trio counts as one piece: measure from the outer edge of the first frame to the outer edge of the last. Two 20-inch prints with a gap between them make a 43-inch group, which is right for a queen.

Art that is too small is the most common mistake. A 16 by 20-inch print centred over a king bed looks stranded on all that wall. If you love a small piece, give it a large mat and frame, or move it to a narrower wall.

Four framed botanical prints in a row above a black iron bed, with a hanging woven textile on the adjoining wall — Four prints counted as one piece: the row spans about two-thirds of the bed.

Height: Measure From the Headboard

The usual height rule for pictures doesn't apply here. Park West Gallery's professionals hang art with "the artwork's center 57 inches from the floor", a figure based on average eye level. That works on an open wall. Above a bed, the headboard is the reference, and the art should look connected to it.

Fine Art America's guide gives the number: "Put the bottom edge of the frame 8 to 12 inches above the top of the headboard." It adds that measuring up from the headboard usually puts the centre of the art somewhere around 62 to 70 inches high, higher than 57 because a bed and headboard are taller than a sofa.

How to do it:

Measure the headboard height from the floor to its top edge.
Add 8 to 12 inches. That is the line for the bottom of the frame. Closer reads as one composition with the bed; further looks like a picture floating on its own.
Find the hook position. Measure from the bottom of the frame to the hanging wire pulled taut, and add it to the line from step 2. Our hanging height calculator does this arithmetic, including the wire drop, from the furniture height you enter.
Centre on the bed, not the wall. If the bed isn't centred on the wall, the art follows the bed.

No headboard? Hang the bottom of the art about where a headboard would end, so it still reads as part of the bed rather than a picture in the middle of the wall.

Hanging: The Wall You Sleep Under

Art above a bed has to stay on the wall when the bed is bumped, the door is slammed or, in some parts of the country, the ground moves. The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes' fact sheet on securing hanging objects is the clearest guidance we found. It says to make sure that hooks or hangers holding "any item that weighs more than 20 lbs. penetrate both the wall and the studs behind it", to consider "professional help with any item weighing more than 50 lbs.", and to "never place heavy objects over beds, sofas, or seating areas." It recommends closed hooks rather than open ones, and putty or hook-and-loop tabs on the bottom corners so a frame can't swing off.

Applied to a bedroom:

Under 20 pounds above the bed. A canvas, a print in a wooden frame, or a textile hanging stays well under that; a large mirror or a framed print behind glass may not. Weigh it on a bathroom scale.
Acrylic instead of glass in a frame that hangs over a pillow. It weighs less and doesn't shatter.
Two hooks, not one. A frame on two hooks stays level and can't swing off a single point.
Closed hooks or D-rings with screws into a stud for anything heavier. A single nail in drywall is fine for a light print and nothing more.
Corners fixed. A dab of removable putty or a hook-and-loop strip on each bottom corner stops the frame from shifting every time the headboard touches the wall.

Light: Keep Originals Out of the Sun

Bedroom walls often get the strongest morning or afternoon light in the house. That matters for anything on paper or fabric. The National Park Service's conservation guidance (Conserve O Gram 1/9) notes that "ultraviolet from both artificial sources and natural sunlight has a cumulative effect" and "can cause damage and fading of items such as textiles, paper, and other organic objects."

In practice, original art, family photographs and textiles belong on walls that don't get direct sun, or behind glazing that filters UV, and the curtains can be drawn on the sunniest afternoons if a precious piece has to hang near the window. Our guide to curtains for the bedroom covers which fabrics actually block that light, and how wide the panels need to be. Prints you can replace can go anywhere; the free StyleFusion image library has 150 images you can print for exactly that kind of wall.

Large framed abstract bird print above a bed with neutral bedding, a throw and a tufted bench at its foot — One large print in a light frame: easy to keep under 20 pounds, and simple to see from the door.

The Other Walls

The wall above the bed isn't the only place for art, and it isn't the one you look at while lying in bed. That is the wall facing the bed, the first thing you see when you wake up. The open-wall rule applies there, with the centre of the art about 57 inches from the floor, and it is the best place for a gallery of smaller frames, because it is seen from across the room.

Bedroom with a gallery wall of mixed framed prints around a dark headboard — A gallery of mixed frames: it suits a long wall seen from a distance better than the narrow strip above a pillow.

In a dining room the same rule is measured against the sideboard instead of the bed, and the art hangs a little lower because everyone looks at it from a chair; our dining room wall art guide has the numbers. Above a dresser, the two-thirds rule works again, with the bottom of the frame a short distance above the top so the two read together. And a narrow wall beside a window or door is the right place for the small piece that looked lost over the bed: one tall, narrow frame, or a vertical stack of two.

Color ties it together. Art picks up the wall color, or contrasts with it on purpose; our bedroom paint colors guide explains how a bedroom's evening lamplight shifts both. For the bedroom as a whole, see our bedroom decor ideas.

The Short Version

Size: about two-thirds of the bed's width: 40–48 in over a queen (60 in), 50–60 in over a king (76 in). Never under half.
Height: bottom of the frame 8–12 in above the headboard; centred on the bed, not the wall.
Groups: measure a pair or a row as one piece, outer edge to outer edge.
Safety: keep anything over 20 lb off the wall above the bed (FLASH); two hooks, acrylic not glass, corners fixed.
Light: UV damage builds up over time (NPS); originals and photos away from direct sun.
Other walls: centre at 57 in on open walls; the wall facing the bed suits a gallery.