The no-panic guide to hanging art at home
We ship our prints without hanging hardware. This is intentional as hardware adds cost and weight to shipping, and most people already have what they need or can easily get it nearby. But if you're newer to hanging art, or you've just received your first poster or canvas and wondering where to start, this is the post for you.
There are three products in the shop: open-edition posters, mounted canvas prints, and gatorboard prints. Each one hangs differently.
Posters: frame them or float them
Posters ship rolled in a tube. Before you do anything else, unroll the poster and let it rest flat for a few hours—under a stack of books works well. This relaxes the curl and makes framing or mounting much easier.
The framed route
Framing is the most finished look and the most protective option. A standard frame with a backing board keeps the poster flat, protects it from humidity, and lets you move it without worrying about it. You'll need a frame sized to your poster (sizes are listed on each product page) and either a nail or adhesive picture-hanging strips rated for the frame's weight.
A single nail driven at a slight downward angle is all you need for most frames. If you'd rather avoid wall damage, good quality hanging strips hold reliably on most painted drywall and remove cleanly.
Frames: Stores like Target, IKEA, and most craft stores carry frames in standard sizes.
Hanging hardware: Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, and Target carry nails and adhesive strips. Hanging strips are available in the home hardware section of many grocery stores and pharmacies, too.
The frameless route
Adhesive mounting corners or poster strips let you put a poster directly on the wall without a frame, presenting the artwork in a clean, simple, and easy-to-rearrange manner. Apply strips to each corner on the back of the poster, press firmly to the wall, and hold for thirty seconds per strip. Posters are light, so you'll be well within the weight rating on any standard strip.
This option is available at any office supply or home improvement store, and at most Target and Walmart locations.
Mounted canvas: what you'll need to add
Mounted canvas prints arrive ready to display, but without any hanging hardware. Happily, the options are straightforward and typically inexpensive.
The most common approach is a sawtooth hanger, then a single nail or screw in the wall. Drive the nail at a slight downward angle to keep the piece from sliding off. For heavier pieces, or if there's no wall stud where you want to hang, a drywall anchor (these expand inside the wall and grip the drywall without a stud) will do the job reliably.
You can also use D-rings and picture wire: measure the height of your canvas and mark 1/3 of the way down from the top on both sides. Place D-rings at those marks on the wooden frame (inside the frame, parallel to the wall) and screw them in securely, keeping both sides level. For larger pieces, hang from two attachment points for better stability.
A basic stud finder costs under fifteen dollars and is worth owning if you don't have one already. Sawtooth hangers, D-rings, picture wire, nails, screws, and wall anchors are all available at Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, Target, and Walmart.
Gatorboard: lightweight and flexible
Gatorboard is a rigid foam board with a hard surface maiking it light, flat, and warp-resistant. Its weight makes adhesive strips the simplest and cleanest hanging option: no holes, no hardware, and they remove cleanly from most painted walls. Use the interlocking kind, not the single-tab kind as they are more secure for rigid pieces. Apply one pair to each top corner on the back of the piece, press firmly to the wall for thirty seconds, then remove it and let both sides cure for an hour before rehanging. That curing step matters as skipping it is why strips sometimes fail.
A single small finish nail or pushpin works just as well if you don't mind a small hole. Because gatorboard is so light, no anchor is needed.
One thing to watch for on larger pieces: gatorboard can bow slightly if hung from a single center point. For anything wider than eighteen inches, use two hanging points spaced evenly. Two strips, two nails, or one of each; each one will work.
Hanging strips are at virtually every Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Safeway, and home improvement store. Finish nails and pushpins can be found at any hardware or office supply store.
One last thing: the level
Every method in this post works better with a level. A small torpedo level costs a few dollars at any hardware store and saves you the five or ten minutes of stepping back, tilting your head, adjusting, and stepping back again that most of us have done more times than we'd like to admit.
If you don't have one, your phone does. iOS has a level built into the Measure app; Android has several free spirit level apps that work just as well.
