How to Hang Wall Art Without Nails, by Weight

Weigh the piece first

Every method below is rated by weight, so put the piece on a bathroom scale before choosing one. A gallery wrapped canvas at 24 by 16 inches weighs about 2 pounds and a 48 by 32 about 6, because there is no glass; the same 24 by 16 as a framed print behind glass is 6 to 8 pounds, and a 36 by 24 framed print with glass can pass 15. A large mirror or a framed oil painting is heavier again. Weight decides the method; the size of the piece only decides how many fixings.

Every method, by weight and wall

The ratings are the makers' own for a clean, painted, smooth wall at room temperature, and every one of them assumes the wall was wiped with rubbing alcohol first and the adhesive was pressed for 30 seconds and left an hour before the piece went up. Skip either step and the rating roughly halves.

What can I use instead of nails to hang things?

Adhesive strips for anything light and framed, adhesive hooks for a piece with a wire or a sawtooth hanger, a picture ledge or a rail for anything heavier or for a group you want to rearrange, and the floor or a mantel for leaning. Which one depends on the wall as much as the weight: strips need paint, a ledge needs somewhere to fix, a rail needs a ceiling line or an existing picture rail, and leaning needs a surface. In a rented home the strips and the leaning are the two that leave no mark at all; a ledge and a rail each need a few screw holes, which is usually fewer than the pictures would have needed.

How to hang heavy pictures without nails

Above about 16 pounds the adhesive options run out, and above 30 there is no adhesive product with a rating that covers a framed piece behind glass falling on someone. Three routes remain. A picture ledge fixed with screws into studs or rated anchors carries a heavy framed print with the weight resting on the shelf, not on the hanger, and a lip stops it sliding forward. A rail and cable system, the kind galleries use, hangs the weight from a track at the ceiling line, so the wall below stays untouched and the piece can slide sideways or move up and down without a new hole. And leaning a heavy piece on a console or mantel puts the weight on the floor, which is the safest place for it; the only rule is that it cannot lean above a bed or anywhere a child or a door can knock it.

Screwing a ledge or a rail into a stud is not hanging without nails, strictly, but it is two or four screw holes in the wall for a whole run of pictures instead of one hole per picture, which is what people asking the question usually want. To hang something that weighs 30 pounds on drywall with no stud behind it, use a toggle bolt or a self drilling metal anchor rated above the weight, never a plastic plug and never adhesive. Large canvas wall art is the exception: at 48 by 32 inches a gallery wrap weighs about 6 pounds, so it stays inside the strip rating that a framed print of the same size has long left behind.

Plaster, brick, tile and wallpaper

Painted plaster takes strips like painted drywall as long as the paint is sound; test one strip on a hidden patch and pull it after a day, because old distemper and chalky paint come away with the strip. Brick and stone take nothing adhesive that holds, and the answer there is a rail from the ceiling line, a ledge, or leaning. Smooth tile and glass take strips and hooks well, so a bathroom or a kitchen splashback is one of the easier surfaces. Wallpaper is the worst case: the strip holds the paper, not the wall, and takes the paper with it on removal. On wallpaper use a rail, a ledge or a hook on the picture rail if the room has one. Textured paint fails strips for the same reason; there is not enough flat contact.

Are command strips better than nails?

For a light framed print or a canvas on a painted wall in a rented home, yes: no hole, no filler, no repaint, and the piece comes down clean if the tab is pulled straight down rather than out. For anything over 16 pounds, anything behind glass above a bed or a sofa, a textured or papered wall, or a piece you expect to keep in one place for years, a nail or a rated anchor is better, because it does not depend on the paint or the humidity. Adhesive strips lose grip in a steamy bathroom and on a wall that takes direct sun through the afternoon, and both failures happen slowly and then all at once.

Applying strips so they hold, and removing them clean

Wipe the wall with rubbing alcohol and let it dry; do not use a household cleaner, which leaves a film. Press each strip to the frame for 30 seconds, then press the frame to the wall for 30 seconds, then take the frame off the wall strips, leaving them in place, and wait an hour before hanging it back. That hour is what the rating assumes and the step everyone skips. Use four strips on anything over 12 inches wide so it cannot pivot. To remove, hold the frame and pull the tab slowly straight down, parallel to the wall, until the strip stretches free. Pulling it toward you is what takes the paint off.

Where each method belongs

A rented apartment: strips for the framed prints and the canvas, a leaning piece on the console, nothing above the bed. A child's room: strips only on light unglazed pieces, a ledge for anything else, nothing heavy anywhere it can fall. A hallway: a rail along the ceiling line so the run can be rearranged, or a ledge above head height. A staircase: ledges do not work on the diagonal, so strips on light pieces or a rail; the staircase wall decor guide sets the line to hang them on. A gallery wall of many small frames: strips, because the gallery wall layout will change, and a multi panel set from 3 piece wall art takes strips on every panel because each is light on its own. Framed prints behind glass from framed prints are the ones to weigh before choosing, and anything from canvas wall art is light enough for strips at every size we sell.