How to Hang Pictures Without Nails

There are two frustrations I’m hearing form art lovers lately:

• How can I hang pictures without nails?
• How can I hang pictures without damaging the wall?

Which I guess is really just one question disguised as two…

There’s lots of reasons why you wouldn’t want to put nails in your walls; you like to swap out your art frequently (yay!), you want to move things around a few times until you can finally decide on the perfect spot, you have a really cool accent wall that wouldn’t be easy to patch, you’re renting and don’t want to forfeit your deposit because of a few nail holes.

Whichever your reason, I’ve got ideas for you!

If you don’t want to leave any marks on your wall, then 3M has got you covered.

Command Picture Hanging Strips

Image – 3M

3M’s Command Hooks have been around for a while and are super handy for hanging up all kinds of things, in fact you may already be using them somewhere! If you haven’t heard of them, they’re a damage-free way to hang things on your wall. We use them on the inside of our kitchen cupboard doors for hanging towels and on our exterior doors to hang wreaths.

They’ve since started making picture hanging strips for an easy, damage-free way to hang your art. I was going to make you a video showing you how they work, but their commercial pretty much says it all…

I came across a few other products on their site that seem like they could be useful, though I’ve never tried them. They have a picture ledge (though keep an eye on the maximum weight it can hold, scroll down for a conventional ledge that will take more weight), special hooks for hanging pictures with wired backs,  hooks for hanging frames that have a sawtooth on the back, and a kit with a mix of picture hanging products, which might be handy to keep tucked away somewhere.

If you know which wall you want to hang your art on, but you’re not confident about the placement or if you like to change things up often you can:

Use a Picture Ledge

Image – Crate & Barrel

Picture ledges can be used on their own, or mixed in with a gallery wall (see it there in the upper left?) and come in all kinds of styles and colours so you can pick one that fits perfectly with your decor. The one shown here is from Crate & Barrel, but you can get them at most home decor stores including Pottery Barn and Ikea.

Use Picture Rails

Image – A Beautiful Mess

I use these now and again at gallery shows and they’re a great way to hang a lot of art without making any additional holes in your wall. Basically there’s a rail that runs at the top of the wall near the ceiling, a hook hangs from the rail, a wire from the hook, a hook at the bottom of the wire, then your art on the hook. It sounds confusing, but it’s actually pretty simple. There’s all kinds of DIY instructions around the internet, or you can order the whole system as a kit.

Which of these solutions have you tried? What works best for you?

Got questions about decorating your home with art? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them. Looking forward to chatting!