You hang a picture. It’s quite large, about 2.5 meters wide by 1.5 meters tall. As far as measuring devices can determine (you use a good quality level as well as using a tape measure to measure up from the floor at both ends), the picture is level. But when you stand back and look at it, it looks slanty. Do you manually fine tune the level until it looks right or do you disregard your lyin’ eyes and trust that little bubble in your level?
(In my particular case I’m getting ready to mount a projection screen on the wall, so there won’t be any option to tweak it once it up.)
One of the first things I learned about graphic design and layout is that it’s more important for elements to look centered than it is for them to be centered. I line things up with grids and guidelines, and then if they look wrong, I adjust them manually. This happens frequently with funky display fonts or irregularly-shaped pictures.
For a projection screen, I think in needs to be level. When the picture which should be level is projected onto the screen, it will in essence highlight any non-squareness.
When I’m just hanging a picture, I adjust to the eye. Sometimes the house isn’t perfectly square. Say you are hanging a picture over a bookshelf that sits on a floor that has a slight slant. The picture may be perfectly level, but the space between the shelf and the picture will show the slant. I’d rather my picture and shelf be parallel to each other rather than the picture be perfectly level.
For a picture, it should look level. But for a screen you’re going to project an image on, it should be level or the image won’t frame correctly (assuming your projector itself is level).
Check the floor to ceiling heights, too. One or both might be out of level, making the picture appear to be out of level. Or, just check both floors and ceilings with a level.
This is what I was going to say. I realized my level was worthless the day I checked the floor and found that it wasn’t level at all. So if I hang anything up and level it, of course it’s going to look crooked.
To make sure, place your level on a solid service. Take note of the bubble’s location relative to the right side of the level. Then flip the level end for end, keeping the same side on the surface. Check the bubble again, if it’s in the same position relative to the right side then your level is true. Otherwise, it’s a giant paperweight and should be replaced.
This thread is making me have bad flashbacks to the several times that I have been in someone else’s home and had to look at an unlevel picture (shelf, wall hanging, etc) only to find out that they did it on purpose so it would look “right” to them.
Yes, I’m a little OCD on this, but really, it’s hard to bear!
As a general contractor, I explain this to clients all the time. It’s about creating the illusion that things are plumb, level, etc. whether they actually are or not, is a separate issue.
Years ago I learned this lesson while renovating the front hallway, staircase and coat closet in a 100-year-old house. My flooring, cabinets, door frames, stairs, etc. were perfectly plumb and level, unfortunately the ceilings were not giving the whole space the crooked kitchen look.
Luckily, I was able to adjust some trim and add some crown moulding to compensate for the skewed ceiling creating the appearance that everything was level.
I used to live in an old house where the floor was level but the ceiling dropped five inches in twenty feet. At first I tried adjusting so that the top of the picture matched the line of the ceiling. But then the bottom was markedly crooked in comparison to the couch, TV, etc. I set it level and grew accustomed to it.
