What size canvas goes above a sofa
Two-thirds of the width of the sofa. That's the rule worth remembering, and everything else — how high, how many, how big a gap — follows from it.
Start with the sofa, not the wall
The wall is the wrong thing to measure. A picture is judged against the furniture beneath it, so a canvas that looks generous on a big empty wall can still look mean above a large sofa.
- A two-seater, around 150 cm (60 in), wants roughly 100 cm (40 in) of picture.
- A three-seater, around 210 cm (84 in), wants roughly 140–160 cm (56–63 in).
Anything much under two-thirds starts to look like it's floating, and that's the most common mistake by a distance.
One canvas, or a set?
Work out the width you want first, then find the nearest size offered where you're — the sizes available differ by country, and the list on the canvas page is the one that counts.
If the width you're after is wider than the largest canvas available, that's when a set of two or three earns its place, rather than settling for something undersized. The gaps count towards the total: three 50 cm panels with 5 cm between them span about 160 cm, which is right for a 210 cm sofa.
Sets have a practical advantage too. Three canvases go up a staircase and through a doorway rather more easily than one very large one.
How high to hang it
Two numbers, and when they disagree, the sofa wins.
- Leave 20–25 cm (8–10 in) between the top of the sofa back and the bottom of the picture. Closer and it looks like it's resting on the cushions; further and the two stop looking related.
- Aim to have the centre of the picture around 145–150 cm (57–60 in) from the floor. That's the gallery standard, and roughly eye level for most people standing.
Above a sofa, keep the gap and let the height land where it lands.
Make sure your photo can carry it
A big canvas asks a lot more of a photo than a small one does. Printerpix lists the figure it wants for each size in its image resolution guide — check your photo's width in pixels against it before you commit to a size.
If it falls short, Enhance rebuilds the picture four times larger in each direction, which is usually the difference between the size you wanted and the size you would have had to settle for. There's more on that in why your photo won't print big.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should it line up with the sofa or with the wall?
The sofa. Centre it on the furniture even if that leaves the arrangement off-centre on the wall — the eye reads the two as a pair, and it's the sofa it compares against.
Portrait or landscape?
It depends where it's going — match the shape of the picture to the shape of the space. Above a sofa that usually means landscape, since a sofa is a long horizontal shape and the two read as a pair. On a narrow wall, in an alcove or up a staircase, portrait is the one that works.
If the photo you want is the wrong way round for the space, Expand changes its shape by adding to it rather than cropping something away.
What if I want two or three instead of one?
Then you're adding the gaps into the total. Decide the overall span first — two-thirds of the sofa — and work backwards to the panel size, rather than choosing canvases and hoping.
How much gap between the canvases?
About 5 cm (2 in) reads as one piece in several parts. Much more and they start to look like separate pictures that happen to be near each other.
Will my photo be big enough?
Check its width in pixels against Printerpix's image resolution guide for the size you want. If it's short, enlarging it first is the fix.
What if the wall is much wider than the sofa?
The sofa still sets the size. Fill the extra wall with something else — shelves, a plant, a lamp — rather than by making the canvas bigger than its two-thirds.