How To Install Picture Frame Wire
Your home decor creates the ambiance that guests experience when they enter your home. While furniture and table-top displays can make a significant impact, walls can seem bare without art, photographs, and other decorations. Hanging a picture is not a difficult task, but it's important to use proper materials and techniques when you prepare frames for hanging. Here's how to install picture frame wire correctly to ensure that your wall art is sturdy, stable, and safe.
Tip
Heavy picture frames should always be secured to a stud when hanging. If you plan to hang the frame with two hangers, test it that way when installing the wire to properly adjust the slack. Without a small looped knot at the d-ring the wire ends can untwist. The weight of the picture keeps the knot snug and the twisted ends hold it securely.
Things Needed
1. Choose the Right Wire
Select the picture frame wire gauge based on the size and weight of your frame. Thicker wire is needed to support heavy or large frames, while thinner wire is best for small or very light frames.
2. Mark Where Wires Will Go
Place the picture frame face down on a clean work surface. Measure the vertical sides of the frame. Place a pencil mark on the back of the frame one-fourth of the way down from the top on the left and right sides of the frame.
3. Drill a Pilot Hole
Align the hardware with the measurement marks you made. Using the hardware as a guide, make a pencil mark through the hardware holes onto the back of a wood frame. Drill a shallow pilot hole exactly on each mark, being careful not to breach the frame's finish. Metal frames often have grooves to accommodate picture frame wire, and no drilling is necessary.
4. Secure D-Rings
Secure the 2-hole triangle d-rings in the pilot holes with the screws provided.
5. Cut Picture Frame Wire
Measure and cut a piece of picture frame wire approximately 1 1/2 times the width of the frame.
6. Put Wire in Rings
Thread the picture frame wire through each d-ring. Position the wire so it extends past the sides of the frame equally through each d-ring.
7. Secure First Wire
Secure the picture frame wire to one of the 2-hole triangle d-rings. Bend and loop the end of the wire back over the d-ring to create a small knot. Use needle-nose pliers to twist the end around the wire several times.
8. Secure Other Side of Wire
Pull the center of the wire towards the top of the frame to create slack in the wire. Secure the free end of the wire to the opposite d-ring.