How to Hang a Canvas Painting on the Wall

Instructions

With the right equipment and tools, you can hang a canvas painting in a few minutes and with ease. A few screws in the right place, and the tips below will help you hang the canvas picture to have a professional look and finish. Keep reading to see how to hang a canvas painting on a wall.

Top Tip: Flip the canvas over, so it rests on its side with the back open towards you. Place the canvas on a workbench or stool so you are not constantly bending and crouching.

Step 1: Measure Where the Hook Will Be Placed

Use the ruler to measure where you would like to place the first D-ring hook. Secure the canvas with your left hand and then place the left end of the ruler flush against the top beam of the canvas. Measure five inched from the top.

Step 2: Mark the Wood in the Center of the Panel

Grab one of the push pins and make a small hole at the five-inch mark. Remove the ruler.

Locate the small hole again and push the pin into the wood to make the hole visible. As most canvas frames are made of soft pine, the push pin should go into the wood easily and pull out without too much resistance.

Still using the push pin's spike, swirl the pin's tip in the hole to make it bigger.

Top Tip: The aim of swirling the pin in the hole is to make a hole big enough to fit the D-ring hook into it so that the thread will easily catch in the wood. Check the size of the D-ring hook and estimate how big the hole from the push pin should be.

Step 3: Screw the D-Ring Hook Into the Wood

Place the tip of the D-ring hook into the hole. Apply firm pressure downwards and begin twisting the hook in a clockwise direction. Begin slowly and gently until you can feel the thread of the D-ring hook gripping the wood.

Screw the hook in with your fingers until all the thread is below the surface of the wood.

Top Tip: Straighten the hook, so its face is parallel to the wood. If the hook is placed with the face at a right angle to the wood, it will not distribute the weight of the canvas as evenly and may bend the hook. If the hook is placed with its face parallel to the wood, the weight will be on the ring and distributed more evenly.

Step 4: Rotate the Canvas and Measure for the Second Hook

Rotate the canvas. In the same way that you measured for the first hook, place the ruler flush against the top edge of the canvas, measure, and mark five inches from the top.

Using the push pin, make a second hole big enough to fit the D-ring hook.

Step 5: Screw in the Second D-Ring Hook

Place the tip of the D-ring hook into the hole and twist it until the thread takes. AS you did with the previous screw, screw it in until the thread is below the surface of the wood.

Straighten the hook until its face is parallel with the wood.

Step 6: Thread Wire Through the D-Ring Hook and Secure It

Rotate the canvas so that the top of the picture is up and the back of the picture is facing you.

Before cutting the wire, take the end of the wire and thread it through the eye of the D-ring hook. Pull about two inches of wire through the eye and bend the wire over on itself. The wire should form a 'v' shape or crook in the eye of the D-ring.

Using your thumb and forefinger, twist the wire over itself into a double-helix spiral. Twist the full two inches of wire, so there are no loose ends.

Top Tip: Some picture hanging kits come with a wire crimp. This metal sheath allows you to thread the wire through the sheath, then through the eye of the hook, and back through the sheath. It is then crimped shut, holding the wire in place. While these are great tools and often look neater, the double-helix twisting method above is the simplest and most secure method of attaching the wire to the hook.

Step 7: Measure the Desired Height and Length of the Wire

On the top edge of the canvas, place the fingers of your left hand in the center, with your thumb hanging over the edge. Grip the wire with your thumb and the other end of the wire with your right hand. Keeping a firm grip on the wire with your thumb, measure how much you need.

Pull the wire in your right hand until it reaches the eye of the hook, and add about two inches extra. Mark with your right hand where the wire should be cut. Do not let go of the wire with your right hand, or you will have to measure again.

Top Tip: Use your left-hand thumb to gauge and adjust for how much space to leave between the wood and the maximum height of the wire. There should ideally be between one to two inches of space between the wire and the wood to allow the picture hanging hook to grip without interfering with the wire.

Step 8: Cut the Sire With Scissors or Wire Cutters

Using the scissors or wire cutters, cut the sire where you marked it.

Step 9: Thread the Wire Through the Second D-Ring Hook

With the wire shortened, it is time to secure the loose end into the eye of the second D-ring hook. Grip the center of the shortened wire with your left-hand thumb and pull it up to the center of the frame to the height you measured earlier.

Using your right hand, thread the loose end through the eye of the D-ring hook and fold a 'v' in the wire where it meets the eye.

Step 10: Twist the Second Wire Securely Into Place

Using your thumb and forefinger, twist the wire in a double helix until the loose end wire is twisted in on itself.

The wire is now complete and ready to bear the weight of the canvas on the picture hanging hook.

Step 11: Secure a Rubber Bumper to the Bottom Left Corner

It can be frustrating when a picture needs to constantly be adjusted straight because the bottom corners do not grip the wall sufficiently to hold it in place. For added grip on the wall, it is advisable to stick rubber bumpers on the inside bottom corners of the canvas to give it grip when it leans against the wall.

Pull a rubber bumper out of the pack and secure it to the wood of the canvas by firmly pressing the sticky side to the wood with your thumb.

Top Tip: Place the rubber bumper about one and a half inches from the side of the canvas. If it is placed on the corner join, it will likely fall off with some use.

Step 12: Secure a Bumper to the Bottom Right Corner

In the same way, as you secured a rubber bumper to the left corner of the canvas, secure one to the right corner.

Step 13: Check the Height of the Wire Is Correct

Lift the canvas by the wire to check that the D-ring hooks hold firmly. Check that the center of the wire remains where you had set it now that the weight of the canvas is resting on the wire. If it is correct, carry on with steps 14 and 15. If it pulls higher than where you had set it, untwist one of the sides and adjust the wire accordingly.

Step 14: Secure a Picture Hanging Hook to the Wall

Using a pencil, mark the place where you want the picture to hang on the wall. Use the hammer to knock in a picture-hanging hook.

Top Tip: Use a picture hanging hook rather than a nail, as it has an angled nail to give the hook extra strength on drywalls or gypsum board. The hook has a larger lip than the lip on a nail, making the canvas more secure.

Step 15: Hang the Canvas Painting on the Wall

Firmly hold the bottom of the canvas with your right hand, place your fingers over the back, and grip the wire at the back of the canvas with your left-hand fingers. Pull the wire up and use them to hook the wire on the lip of the picture hanging hook.

Ease the picture downwards so that the weight of the canvas rests on the wire.

Straighten as necessary.

Top Tip: Place a spirit level on the top edge of the canvas while straightening it, so it is perfectly straight.