Flexible picture hanging system ???

[RzB]

OK - I need some good ideas for a flexible picture hanging system...

Requirements ============ I want to be able to hang some pictures on a wall (plastered breeze block), but to have the ability to remove the picture and the hanging mechanism and have a nice blank wall left behind. Then some time later to hang some pictures again, but in different positions...

for example see

Current thoughts ================ It seems to me that I'm not going to manage to get a completely blank wall left behind when I remove a pictures. So the question is how to minimise the "damage"...

One plan is to embed some sort of screw threads into the wall in a grid across the wall, that can be blanked off when not in use. This will enable me to attach/detach whatever hanging mechanism I choose. When detatched I'm left with a hole in the wall that needs to be covered in some fashion. Perhaps something along the lines of the mushroom thingies like these...

Not sure exactly how to implement/procure all this - ho hum...

Any ideas/problems/guidance/thoughts would be appreciated...

Thanks, Roy

[Colin Wilson]

Shops often suspend pictures by wires that run from ceiling to floor - would it be possible to adapt something like this ?

...something like a small channel iron hard up against where the ceiling and wall meet - you could vary the width by sliding the "hanger" drops to suit...

The fixing in the channel iron could be something as simple as a washer or coin with a hole drilled in it (anything wide enough to stop it sliding out of its own accord) with a length of cord knotted on one side

Forgive the crap ascii art below, but it might give you an idea what I mean... (the hanger

_________CEILING_______ || _&_ | ||_ { _|

[John Rumm]

Check most victorian properties - handy thing called a picture rail! Stick hook on it where you want and susspend piccie from it.

The modern equivilent would probably be track and vertical wire system.

[Colin Wilson]

(that`s what I was trying to describe :-} )

[meow2222]

picture rail, horizontal strip of velcro round the room, blutack, etc. If youre more determined you could embed some steel in the plaster and fit the pics with magnets. Depends on the app really, you dont say why and therefore how much effort is worthwhile to achieve your ends. Pegboard is a butt ugly option.

NT

[RzB]

Colin/John, Thanks for your responses.. I was trying to do without the rail - sort of magic levitation stuff :-)

Normally when I hang pictures that don't need to be changed occasionally, I would hide the hanging apparatus behind the picture. That's the look I want to create, but I also want the flexibility to change.

Hence my thoughts of having a small button on the wall that is removed to reveal a threaded hole. I can then attach some hanging mechanism that will end up behind the new picture.

Wall has got to be plastered in the near future so I can hack about at will. I was considering burrying a small stainless steel bar into the length of the wall with tapped holes in it a regular intervals. This would be screwed to the breeze block then covered with plaster but with the tapped holes clear. Then there would just be a row of small buttons showing along the wall. Might be an interesting feature in itself :-) I wonder if I could manufacture some square headed buttons...

I wonder if the plaster would crack as the temp went up and down?

As you can see I'm going off into all kinds of weird fantasies :-) I suppose a rail would be easier...

Hmmm... Roy

[RzB]

Ahh - our posts crossed...

Magnets - now there's a thought...

I would need to do some calculations re the pull offered up by these rare earth magnets vs. the heaviest picture I might hang...

Excellent idea - thanks very much.

I will investigate and fantasize a little more :-)

Roy

[Owain]

Just clad the walls in stainless steel (very fashionable, wipe-clean, and means the l33t script kiddi3 next door can't watch what you're watching on telly with a Tempest scanner) and get your pictures printed on magnetic vinyl by a signprinter.

Owain

[Andrew Gabriel]

Wouldn't it be funny if someone really went to all this effort, only then to discover stainless steel isn't magnetic ;-)

[John Rumm]

No but it can be smooth, so rubber suckers on the back of the piccies ought to work! ;-)

[Owain]

Oh, arse!

A quick test with a 1" dia. magnet reveals that (compared to the fridge door) "stainless steel" saucepan is 50% magnetic, "stainless steel" cutlery is 100% magnetic, and "stainless steel" sink is maybe 5% magnetic.

And there was I, imagining Paradise Lost along the lounge wall in "magnetic poetry" words.

Owain

[Andrew Gabriel]

Depends on the alloy. Good quality stainless steel isn't magnetic, except for knife blades which have to use a different alloy to avoid rapidly going blunt. Just did a quick check around my kitchen of all the stainless steel (hob, oven, sink, cutlery, microwave), and except for the knife blades and microwave liner, none of it is magnetic.

[Owain]

My saucepans are Argos "shiny metal" :-)

Owain

[Bob Eager]

We had this problem at work...two piece solution..

1) Fit a nice wooden strip to the wall (about 5cm wide, perhaps) running horizontally. But fix it so that it's packed out about (say) 2.5cm from the wall, and densely populate the reverse size with small cup hooks.

2) There is a hanging system you can buy for this, but basically thin metal rods or wires, loop in the top end, varying lengths. Clamps on the wires to hold anything you like (hooks, cords) for the pictures; clamps can be moved to accommodate a particular picture. Or use very thin cord.

[Colin Wilson]

I suppose fishing line is about as close as you can get to invisible if you're suspending from above - and it is quite fine relative to the breaking strength...

The hardest thing with that would likely be how to fine-tune the drops to the pics hang properly level, but it could probably be done quite well by simply wrapping a few turns around a matchstick behind the picture...

[meow2222]

fine clear fishing line or invisible sewing thread could be used with a Victorian style piture rail, or a simple rectangular section wood rail higher up. Staple into it on the top side and those staples arent seen, and nor is the nylon.

NT

[RzB]

hmm.. that's interesting... as I said before I am trying to do this somehow without the rail.

However this has sparked something in my mind, because I have been considering having "coving" at the wall/ceiling join. Not the normal quarter round coving, a sort of contemporary stepped section. Perhaps this could somehow be used as a picture rail...

There must be a good way to fasten the picture to the fishing line. This I see as the biggest problem here..

Some of the pictures might be quite heavy. Probably max 10kg. Any idea what sort of static weight, a lightweight near invisible fishing line will carry?

I feel some experiments coming on!!

Many thanks for the thoughts...

Roy

[Bob Eager]

That's the attraction of the clamps and rods - the rods are very thin and, although not invisible, look reasonable.

[Colin Wilson]

like 26lb line is 0.56mm thick or thereabouts

[meow2222]

you could always embed a wood rail in the plaster, flush, and have some wall-coloured emulsion mixed with lime as a filler in an airtight tube, just rub a little on over any staple holes. Ensure the wood's stable though.

fishing line is weight rated. You need clear for light walls, smokey for dark.

NT