Hung straight, hung right: how we install on-site

The last step in framing a piece is hanging it. For most clients, this is a step they handle themselves with a stud finder and a level. For some pieces and some walls, that approach does not work. A heavy gilded frame on a brick wall is a different installation problem from a light archival print on drywall. A multi-piece grouping needs choreography. A wall full of varying frame sizes needs a hanging plan before the first hammer comes out. For these jobs, we install on-site, with our own people and our own tools.

How we hang what we built

We bring a kit to every install: stud finder, laser level, plumb line, three different tape measures, a full set of anchors and hangers sized for plaster, drywall, brick, and concrete, and a soft cloth for cleaning glass before we leave. Before we hang anything, we measure the wall. We mark the centerline of the piece in pencil. We confirm the height with the client. The standard art-hanging height of fifty-seven inches to centerline works for most rooms but not all. A room with high ceilings reads better with the centerline lifted. A room where most viewing happens from a couch reads better with the centerline dropped. We ask. Then we mark.

The next step is the anchor. The wall material determines the anchor, and the weight of the framed piece determines the anchor size. A plaster wall in a Chicago two-flat from 1910 is a different installation surface from a drywall partition in a 2018 condo. Both can hold significant weight if the right hardware goes in. The wrong hardware will pull out, sometimes immediately, sometimes after a season of expansion and contraction. We carry anchors for every wall type we have ever encountered. The drill, the bit, the anchor, the screw, the hanger, the wire. Each piece in the chain rated for twice the load. Then we hang the piece, level it, sight it from across the room, and adjust until it reads true.

Why install matters as much as the build

A frame is only as good as the way it lands on the wall. A perfectly built piece hung crooked reads crooked. A perfectly built piece hung at the wrong height reads wrong. A perfectly built piece hung with the wrong anchor reads fine for a year and then falls. The install is the moment when all the framing decisions we made in the workshop become real or do not.

When we leave a job, the piece is straight, level, anchored to wall material that will hold it, sighted from every angle a person looks at it from, and the glass is clean. The framing is finished in the workshop. The work is finished on the wall. We do not consider a job done until the wall does too.