How to hang a painting

You may be able to tell apart a Duvet from a Monet, but it doesn’t quite hit the nail on the head when it comes to hanging up your art collection. Ladies of yore were quite the art connoisseurs, especially if they had a good old man to buy it for them and proudly display their acquisition in their living room. Today, thanks to reinforced concrete walls and the concrete wills of men against doing anything concrete, the fine art of hanging a painting costs more than the painting itself.

However, not all is lost. For people who have more paintings than the walls in their house, it is wise to invest a little in the right tools to hang up a painting so that you don’t have to call in the carpenter yet again or bribe your man into doing it for you.

But before you go striking away a nail into that wall, there are a few things to ensure:

·         The first one is simple. Does it look good on the wall or is it an unnecessary addition? Sometimes a simple wall is all you need.

·         Will putting up the painting on that particular wall let it have sufficient emphasis and attention? You put up a painting for the world to see. Make sure it is seen. Do not put up a painting on some non-descript location behind a door or a shelf.

·         Some paintings have to be sufficiently illuminated for their beauty to come out. Will there be enough natural light for this purpose or can you put up artificial lighting? Remember than some paintings are sensitive to sunlight and humidity so you might need to shield them away from these elements. What more, some paintings even need an air conditioned atmosphere in order to last long.

·         How high will you hang the painting? Ideally most paintings are hung at eye level, so that they can be best appreciated. Some large paintings can be hung higher up too. Never hang a painting so low that your neighbourhood kid uses it as a headrest.

·         Check for the spacing, alignment and direction in which you intend to hang the painting. This is more important if you’re planning to hang more paintings, either on the same wall or the corresponding wall.

·         If you really care about Vaastu, Feng Shui etc., now is the time to identify which position is the best to hang a picture in order to derive maximum benefits out of it, say, the picture of a waterfall or a mountain hung facing a particular direction to create a calming atmosphere.

·         I wouldn’t do it, but here it is anyway! Ask the people in your home where they think it should be hanged. I am sure you will end up never hanging it after all, but democracy has its own benefits. Chances are your teenage daughter may want it and you may be able to negotiate with her or your man to do the honors of hanging it up. Phew!

·         Mark the chosen places with a pencil, keeping in mind the number of nails you have to strike in for each painting.

Basically, there are three ways to hang up paintings:

The Nail and the Hammer:

The old fashioned method is time consuming and perilous for your not-so-deft hands, if they are indeed not-so-deft hands. But it is actually easy.

·         Take a nail. The nail should be thick enough to withstand the weight of the painting. Make sure the nail head fits the hook of the painting. At least about 3/4ths of the nail should be inside the wall, so pick the right length of the nail.

·         Place it at a point directly in line with your eye level. I assume you have the good sense to use a ladder in case you don’t stand as tall as where you want your painting to be.

·         An inane mention again, but necessary. Please do keep the pointed end of the nail towards the wall only.

·         Take a hammer. (Did you take it along when you climbed the ladder? I hope you did!)

·         Hold the nail in the middle of its shaft. Strike the nail head with the hammer. The force applied by you must be perpendicular to the wall, that is, it must be along the direction of the nail. Any minor deflection and the nail bends or breaks.

·         Make small repeated strikes, forceful enough to move the nail into the wall but not too strong yet. When you’re holding the nail shaft in the middle, you will be able to feel it moving into the wall. Repeat this until at least the tip of the nail is embedded into the wall.

·         Take your fingers off the nail shaft. Now strike in the same direction, but more strongly to drive the nail further inside the wall.

·         Sometimes the nail may bend. Just lightly strike it back into shape.

·         Drive the nail in deep so that only enough of it is projected to fit the painting’s hook. In essence, the length of the nail projected must be equal to the distance between the hook and the base of the painting.

·         For safety, you may strike the projected part of the nail from the bottom so that it is slightly bent upwards. This tilt will ensure that the painting’s hook fits the nail head snugly and doesn’t come out easily.

·         You may use a screw instead of a nail. The grooves on the screw are lodged stronger inside the wall than smooth nails.

The Electric Drill:

I have a Bosch electric drill at home. Provided you know how to use them, electric drills are indispensable at home for a variety of purposes, including driving nails inside the wall. Some walls are difficult to hammer into, so, drills come in handy to make the job easier. Some drills even let you directly drive the nail inside or lodge the screw.

For basics, the electric drill has a few important parts:

The drill bit is the actual part which interacts with the wall. Drill bits are usually made of high impact steel or cast iron and coated with titanium, zirconium or tungsten to withstand impact and heat. Depending on the usage, they are of several sizes, shapes, widths etc.

The chuck is attached to the drilling machine and is used to grip this drill bit at its shank.

The drill bit has spiraling grooves on its surface. The drill when switched on rotates and causes the drill bit to bore into the target surface in a screw like mechanism, thus creating a hole.

The rate of rotation can be adjusted near the chuck with a torque adjustment knob. Drills come with triggers for switching on the drilling and also have reverse buttons for reversing the direction of rotation of the drill bit. Some drills come with hammering features. In this, the drill bit in addition to rotating, also moves forward and backward as if it were being used as a hammer.

Coming back to paintings, this is how I do it:

·         Select the right drill bit. Remember how you chose the nail for the painting. The drill bit’s diameter is the same as your nail or lesser and it is shorter than your nail. You can also stop drilling midway when you have bored deep enough, but it is much easier to adjust the drill bit length at the chuck.

·         Hold the drill’s arm like a gun. Then, position another hand beneath the main drill behind the chuck. This will give you better leverage, especially since the drill is going to be operating at a high speed and force.

·         Position the drill bit at the right point, perpendicular to the surface. Switch on the trigger. Drill deep enough as required and switch off. In case the wall is too strong, increase the force or add the hammering action. The user manual of your drill will be more instructive for you choose these parameters in different drills.

·         Hammer in a plastic wall plug. Wall plugs are shaped look like small grooved cones. These once inserted into the hole created by the drill, can hold in the screw stronger. These are especially useful for thicker screws. Alternatively, you may also hammer in a chip of wood or cardboard into the drilled hole.

·         Hammer in the nail or the screw into the wall plug. The grip is tighter and stronger. Follow the rest of the instructions for driving in nails inside a wall.

Stick on pegs:

I have had a bad experience with a precious painting of mine getting shattered on the floor thanks to a peg getting detached days after I hung the painting on it. Stick on pegs look strong when you first hang something, then deceive you when you least expect it. From my experience, they do not withstand much weight and are good only for hanging up a lightweight calendar. However, for hanging light things like your kid’s cartoon, especially in a rented house, stick-on pegs are handy. Start using them only at least two hours after you stick them on the wall. Never try to reuse a detached peg.

Now that you have done the necessary, do not forget to hang up the painting, flop down on a couch with a cup of hot chocolate and admire your handiwork. You may not have painted it, but you have mastered the art of hanging up one, and believe me, that makes you great!