CART (How to Mount Artwork
Learning how to mount a picture in a frame isn’t difficult; however, the right hardware and a little knowledge can go a long way in helping you display your favorite pieces with ease.
Custom framing is as much about preservation as it is about style. Every custom piece from Framed and Matted ships to the customer with high-quality mounting materials like acid-free foam core backing, archival tape, and UV-filtering acrylic (in addition to a quick directions sheet on how to mount photos and artwork). These components not only simplify the process of getting your art up on the wall, but they help protect the photo or artwork you frame from the pollutants and acid in the air and on the wall that naturally penetrate it.
Your framing materials, including the foam backing, mat board (if you ordered one with your frame), and even your artwork, all contract and expand with temperature fluctuations too. Properly attaching and stacking these components will allow for microscopic movement within the frame that is crucial in preventing your piece from buckling or creasing over time.
How to Mount Artwork for Framing
Mount your custom-framed artwork at home in a matter of minutes with these six easy steps:
With clean hands, lift up the metal tabs on the back of your custom frame and gently remove the hanging hardware, backing, and mat board.
Affix your artwork to the mat board with the archival hanging tape included with your custom frame. You want to create a hinge-type effect by gently placing each piece of tape as evenly as possible over the top back surface of your artwork or photo and the inside of the top edge of the mat board window.
Carefully peel back the protective cover on the museum-quality acrylic included with your custom frame.
Organize and stack all your frame elements together including the foam backing with your artwork (and attached mat board) on top and finally the lightweight acrylic. Place them inside your frame. *Note: If you did not order a mat with your custom frame, simply place the acrylic, artwork, and foam backing in the frame.
Press the metal tabs back down so that they hold everything firmly in place. Then attach the wire to the d-rings and get.
Hang your prized piece!
Hanging Your Artwork
The first time you learn how to mount a picture in a frame, you’ll discover having all your supplies and materials at hand makes things much easier. Before you start hanging anything, assemble your framed piece and all the hanging supplies that came with it. You will also likely want to have a hammer, pencil, tape measure, and level within reach.
Decide where you want to display your favorite piece. Perhaps it is over a piece of furniture, centered on an accent wall, tucked into a gallery wall display, or asymmetrically aligned with a shelf.
Hold your custom frame up to the wall where you envision it living. Make a 90-degree mark on the wall around the top two corners of the frame in light pencil (or use blue painter’s tape). Quickly measure the distance between the angles and make a mark in the very center. Then take your tape measure and measure the distance from the hanging wire (held taut) on the back of your frame to the top of the frame.
Go back to your center mark on the wall and make a second mark further down that matches the distance you just measured (minus 1 inch for the height of the picture hanging hook). This point is where the wire on the back of your custom frame will rest on the picture hanger. Gently hammer the nail and picture hanging hook provided with your custom frame into the wall. If your piece is on the wider side, you may want to use 2 nails spread symmetrically apart from the center.
Framing Supplies
- lint-free acrylic wipe
- self-adhesive hinging tape
- two rubber bumpers
- vinyl-coated picture wire
- picture hook(s)
- two d-rings (on frame)