Picture & Art Hanging near you

Before the visit, send the installer rough sizes, a photo of the back of each piece and, for anything heavy, an idea of its weight.

Every hook and anchor comes with a rating from its maker, and that rating applies only in the wall material the product was designed for. A good installer identifies the wall first, often with a small test hole somewhere hidden, and picks hardware with a comfortable margin, not the bare minimum.

The heavier the piece, the more its hanging method matters. A single wire over a single hook lets a large frame swing and tilt, and puts all its weight on one point in the wall. Two hooks set apart, D-rings screwed directly to the wall, or a French cleat, a pair of interlocking bevelled strips, spread the load and keep the piece level.

A screw into a wood stud is the most dependable fastening for a heavy mirror, but studs rarely line up with where the mirror should be centred. A cleat long enough to span two studs solves that, and so does a hollow-wall anchor rated well above the piece's weight for that wall. Steel studs and old plaster each need hardware made for them. Check the piece itself too: its hanging hardware must be as strong as the fasteners in the wall, and an old mirror with a flimsy back may need new hardware before it goes up.

Wiring usually runs up and down from outlets and switches and sideways between them, plumbing sits behind bathrooms and kitchens, and ducts or gas lines can pass through interior walls. A stud finder that detects live wires helps but guarantees nothing, so an experienced installer avoids the areas straight above and below outlets and switches and keeps the drilling shallow.

If the drill does hit something, stop. A tripped breaker, a spark or a burning smell means switching that circuit off at the panel and leaving it off until the cable is repaired. That repair is electrical work: in Ontario, only a Licensed Electrical Contractor, or an electrician working for one, can legally be hired to do electrical work in your home, and in Quebec, electrical contractors are licensed through the Corporation des maîtres électriciens du Québec. Water in the hole means shutting off the water and calling a plumber, and a gas smell means leaving the house and calling the gas utility from outside. Never fill a damaged pipe or cable with compound and paint over it.

Art is most often hung too high. Relate each piece to the people looking at it and the furniture beneath it: centred near standing eye level in a hallway, lower over a sofa, bed or sideboard so the two read as one group, and lower still where people mostly sit. Treat these as starting points rather than rules, and let windows, doors and ceiling height adjust them.

For a gallery wall, arrange the frames on the floor first, then trace each one onto paper, cut out the shapes and tape them to the wall with the hanger positions marked. Living with the paper layout for a day reveals uneven spacing, light switches in the way and pieces that clash, while there are still no holes to patch.

In a child's room, everything on the wall is judged by what happens if it falls or gets pulled. Many parents keep heavy frames, glass and mirrors off the wall directly above a crib or bed, choose lighter pieces or shatter-resistant glazing there, and use hangers that close around the wire so a bump can't lift a frame off its hook.

Furniture is usually the bigger hazard in these rooms. Health Canada notes that children may try to climb bookshelves, dressers, appliances and televisions, which can make them tip over. Its advice is to fasten furniture to the wall with angle braces, safety straps or other anti-tip devices, attached to a wall stud or with heavy-duty drywall anchors designed for that type of furniture, and to keep toys and other tempting items off the top. If the installer is already in the room with a drill, it's a good time to anchor the dresser and bookcase as well.