The Framers Forum

I am doing 30 framed prints for a customer that they want to hang in a grid formation.

If I wanted to make their lives easier could I fit something better than picture wires for them to self install?

Z bars might be good as the holes for both the wall and the frame are oval, so if they’re all screwed to their frames the exact same distance from the top and the holes in the wall are all in line and level, fine adjustment would be easy.

Ask the customer how they are planning to hang them.
If I'm doing a few the same I always make sure the wire is the exact same height from the top.

For wooden frames in grid, I'm a big fan of https://www.lionpic.co.uk/p/28488/CWH2- ... es-pack-50. Simple to attach and hang multiple images in the gallery.

Before the invention of Wall Buddies and other special hanging hardware, I constructed a gauge that went over the top rail of a frame that had adjustable 2 pins that would catch the wire/cord and allow for all of them to be set at the same distance from the top edge of the frame.

It was made of 4 pieces of scraps of wood and 2 wing nuts that allowed 2 of the sections(with grooves) to raise and lower as needed. Yes, a single pin could be used for a single wall hanger.

You can buy a gadget online making it very easily, mine cost £8.
I use it for exhibitions, and can hang a whole room in an hour or so.
Hang your picture onto the gadget hooks. Position it against the wall level with your other pictures (I have a £40 Stanley spirit level light projector). Press a button on the gadget, and it pricks a hole in the wall where you bang your nail/ picture hook in.

Nice and level, and if your fixings on the back of the pictures vary a few mm, it will correct the position upon the wall.

If may be ok for a temporary exhibition but Id be reluctant to use wire or cord for a grid of 30 frames, you’d be constantly straightening the things, especially all with just one hook!

Dusting and cleaning would be a nightmare.

In 15 years of hanging exhibitions, I've not met one show where the wires were all at the same height, which is why I ask the exhibitor, do you mind if I attach the saw tooth hangers. No-one has said no.

Swiffer dusters are pretty handy for gentle minimal contact cleaning (though not as good as a compressor...) when the frames are on wires.

Thx for tips all.

Customer now looking at a hanging system with a picture rail as they are going on a lath and plaster wall and don't think they can get fixings in straight.

I use the saw tooth hangers on a stass rail system very regularly - simple to get lined up and squared.