How to hang pictures on walls without nails

Quite often, some walls cannot handle nails if they are connected to the beam. Other times, you may just not have the heart to drive a nail through a texture finished wall. Some not so lucky walls may actually belong to your landlord, who may be strictly against a hammer going 5 feet near his belongings. In any case, using photo rails is a great way here to save your picture hanging walls, while converting them into master visual storytellers.

Picture rails are essentially stripes of moulding that run horizontally across the ceiling of a wall. From the rail moulding, you hang hooks which hold a strong nylon yarn, hooking them with your photo frames. Art mounting at galleries mostly happens using this technique. In some cases, curtain rails are also used at a lower length to hang photos.

Decorative picture rails are available in the market and need to be customized for size. Alternatively, you can also create your own rail as a DIY project. Rails are generally made of wood and are painted the colour of the wall. The first step is to select a decorative rail and hooks that go with them. Next, mark your walls 12 to 18 inches below the ceiling and one inch from each end.

The thing with picture rail is that it can be stuck with construction adhesive. So measure, cut and stick the picture rail to the trace mark lines you made earlier. If you want, use a duct tape for a minute or so to hold the rail up to check its alignment. But don’t leave it on too long or it will leave a mark on the wall.

The rail needs to be completely straight, so take some extra time to get this detailing right. Since the glue may take time to dry out, you’ll need to spend some time on a ladder holding the rail in place.

An equally easy way to have pictures on your walls is using photo mounting adhesive tapes. These strips are designed to be strong while not leaving a mark on your wall. Be warned that this is generally preferable for light-weight frames. To make your frame stronger, go for an L shaped strip instead of a straight double sided one. Put a part of the ‘L’ on the wall and the other art on the picture and stick together to give a ‘raised’ feeling to the frame.

Picture framing tapes or picture mount tapes come in two categories – one which is used to attach or hinge the artwork to the mount board, and the other to seal the frame back from dust and insects.

When you want to fill a photo mounting wall symmetrically, paper clips can be of huge help. In this, instead of high rails on the ceiling, you can run parallel rails horizontally across the length of the wall leaving a distance of a meter and a half between each rail. You can even replace the rail with a strong wire if your frames aren’t too heavy. This looks best if the wires match the wall colours.

Once the wires are in place, use hooked paper clips to directly hang your photos or frames. In either case, follow a uniform pattern, size and similar frames throughout to complete the look. Take a hint from this fun structure by The Pod Company from United Kingdom.

Hook spiders are another neat way to get multiple photos into a small space. Lined up by using multiple hooks on a railing, it is slightly tricky to use this with your photo frames as you need to measure out the distances accurately. The cool part is once you get it right, you can do up to 4 frames per suite and then continue. The key here is to not overdo it. Limit to one or a maximum of two per wall.

Need a central place for all you pictures which you can replace often to showcase your latest adventures and selfies? Then wall mounting a picture board is a good option for you. The advantage of a picture board is that, once it is set, you can easily change the photos as much as you like without the fuss of adjusting wires or frames. Just pin it. That’s all!

Ever thought how chic, colourful and bright ribbons can help you hang your pictures? This is a must try option especially if you have low picture rails which can be created using curtain rods. You can create a fancy look with each ribbon (try black if it matches with your frame) and finish with a nice bow tie on the top.

Another great option is to go vertical and use a long ribbon to hang frames one below the other. Get creative to hang two ribbons parallel to each other and photo frames along interjections. Create a thin ribbon mesh and accent it with a thick ribbon fitting the frames. It is almost like creating an art mounting wall in a gallery to put on a classic display.

When you get spontaneous and innovative, you can create a wall masterpiece without drilling a single hole. Now that’s what we call wow! Take a look at another ideabook for more fun ideas - Display your wall art like a pro.