A frame is the easy part. The wall decides everything else, and most homes have more than one
kind of wall. We do not supply plugs or tools and we cannot see your wall, so this is general guidance rather
than instructions for your particular room.
Work out what you are drilling into
Tap the wall. A solid, dull sound usually means brick or concrete; a hollow drum sound usually means a
partition board or a false wall. Solid walls take a plastic wall plug with a masonry bit. Hollow walls need a
toggle or butterfly anchor that opens out behind the board — an ordinary plug in a hollow wall will pull
straight out, often months later and without warning.
Two hooks, not one
From roughly 11×14 inches upward, use two fixings spaced about two-thirds of the frame width apart. One
hook lets the frame rotate every time a door slams; two hold it level and halve the load on each fixing.
Check with a spirit level, or the level app on a phone, before you let go.
Height, and where not to hang
The usual rule is eye level: the centre of the picture about 145 to 150 cm from the floor. Above a sofa,
leave 20 to 25 cm of clear wall between the seat back and the bottom of the frame. Avoid hanging framed glass
directly above a bed, a cot or a child’s desk, and avoid a wall that gets damp in the monsoon — damp reaches
the backing board first and buckles it.
Sunlight is the slow risk
Direct afternoon sun will fade a photographic print within a season or two, whatever the glazing. Hang
anything you care about on a wall that gets indirect light, and if the only option faces the sun, treat the
print as a copy rather than the original.
Check it once a year
Fixings loosen. Lift the frame slightly, feel for movement at the hook, and re-seat it if there is any.
It takes a minute and it is the difference between a frame on the wall and a frame on the floor.