Easy techniques for your home
Pictures make a home your own, but nails mark the walls, and it is hard to get the position right first time. If you rent, or simply like to change things round, there are ways to hang pictures without nails. From adhesive strips to hooks and shelves, there is an answer for most frames.
The essentials
Three things decide whether hanging pictures without nails works: the spot, the product and the wall.
Choose the spot
Take time over the position. Ask someone to hold the frame against the wall while you stand back, check it with a spirit level, and mark the top centre lightly in pencil.
Choose the right product
- Adhesive picture-hanging strips. These come in pairs that press together like hook-and-loop tape, one on the frame and one on the wall. The best-known are Command strips.
- Adhesive hooks. A hook on a removable adhesive pad, from which the frame hangs by its cord or hanger.
Every pack states the weight it will hold. Weigh your picture and stay well inside the limit, using more strips if the instructions allow, and follow the maker's instructions exactly.
Know your wall
- Smooth painted plaster or plasterboard. Adhesive products work well on clean, dry, sound paint. Fresh paint needs a week or more to cure first.
- Wallpaper. Avoid it. The strip may hold to the paper, but the paper may not hold to the wall, and it will tear when the strip comes off.
- Bare brick, concrete and textured surfaces. Adhesives do not grip rough or dusty surfaces. Use another method.
- Wood, tiles, glass and metal. Smooth, sealed surfaces are fine. Bare or waxed wood is not.
Adhesive strips are best for small and medium pictures. For anything heavy, valuable or glazed with glass in a place where it could fall on someone, a proper fixing in the wall is safer.
Step by step
- Prepare the wall. Wipe the area to remove dust and grease, and let it dry completely. Many makers recommend wiping with rubbing alcohol, not household cleaner, which can leave a film.
- Prepare the frame. The back must be flat, so remove any hooks, cord or fittings that stick out.
- Attach the strips. Press the pairs of strips together, then stick them to the back of the frame, at the top corners and, for larger frames, lower down as well.
- Position the picture. Peel off the backing, line the frame up with your pencil mark, check it with the spirit level and press it firmly to the wall for about 30 seconds.
- Let it set. Some products ask you to lift the frame off, press the wall strips again and wait an hour before hanging the picture. Do as the pack says.
- Fine-tune. If it is not quite right, a little adjustment is usually possible. If it is well out, remove the strips properly and start again with new ones.
Other ways to do it
Picture rails
If your house has a picture rail, the wooden moulding that runs round the room below the ceiling, you already have the best nail-free system there is. Rail hooks sit on the moulding and the pictures hang from them on cord or chain.
Hanging systems
A modern version of the picture rail is a slim track fixed once along the top of the wall or to the ceiling. Pictures hang from it on adjustable wires and can be moved at any time.
Shelves and ledges
A picture shelf lets you stand frames and overlap them, and change the display whenever you like.
Leaning
For a relaxed look, lean a framed picture against the wall on a mantelpiece, a sideboard or the floor. It takes no fixing at all. A strip of non-slip matting under the frame stops it sliding.
Cleaning and removing
Cleaning
- Dust the frame with a soft brush or a microfibre cloth.
- Clean glass with a cloth dampened with water and a drop of vinegar, or glass cleaner. Put the liquid on the cloth, not on the glass, so that it cannot seep into the frame.
- Dry with a lint-free cloth to avoid streaks.
Removing adhesive strips
- Lift the frame off. Take hold of the bottom of the frame and peel it gently up and away from the wall, so that the two halves of each strip part.
- Stretch the tab. Hold the tab at the bottom of the strip left on the wall and pull it slowly straight down, parallel to the wall, not towards you. It stretches and lets go cleanly.
- Remove the strips from the frame in the same way.
- Clean off any residue with a little rubbing alcohol on a cloth. Test it first somewhere out of sight.
EasyFrame offers a wide range of made-to-measure frames, and with long experience we can advise on the right frame for your artwork and on how to hang it. Call us on 01234 856 501 or email sales@easyframe.co.uk. We are always happy to talk, whether or not you want to buy.