A Better Way To Hang Printique Metal Print Photos

Favorite Photos

Sep 2

When I get photos accepted into art shows, these days I have Printique print everything on metal prints. Their shop in Brooklyn is a couple blocks from my old apartment, and their quality is excellent.

However, the one thing I didn’t like about the photos is the mounting they provide. They include a little piece of Z-channel and two screw anchors (see photo): This is fine if you’re permanently mounting the metal print, but then you have to get the mount perfectly level and you’re left with two pretty large holes in the wall. This isn’t great for a rental apartment or a gallery, and using normal picture hooks and things like that doesn’t work very well on the flat sides of the aluminum extrusion on the back of the photo (see below).

And when they fall, inevitably the corners get smashed and the expensive photos are basically damaged beyond repair.

So, I decided to try and figure out an easy way to attach a picture wire to the back of the metal print frame, and I think I found one. At first, I tried self-adhesive plate hangers, with picture wire between them. These worked great at first, and I hung a bunch of photos with them to test it out. After a couple weeks, unfortunately, the hangers pulled apart in various ways.

So, I decided I had to bite the bullet and make a more serious mount using eye bolts. It’s a bit of work but it’s solid and gives all the advantages of the picture wire approach: the metal print can be hung on a normal picture hook; the picture stays flat to the wall; and—best of all—it’s easy to level them out after hanging.

To mount the eye bolts, I drilled 3/16” holes. They don’t have to be perfectly level because the wire—hanging from a single point—will accommodate differences. Since it’s metal, it’s important to center punch the spot you want to drill before you start so the bit doesn’t slide around.