Do you ever feel there’s always one of your photo frames on your wall that never seems right? That something feels off?
Sometimes the problem is easy to identify but fixing it can seem an impossibility. To ease your frustrations, take a look over these three common problems with picture frames hung on a wall and find out how to fix them easily.
3 Common Photo Frame Problems and the Fix for Each
Too much forward tilt on the frame
When you’re using D-rings and frame hanging wire, there’s always going to be some amount of forward tilt, but too much and it’s going to be noticeable. Enough to cause a sheer amount of frustration because it makes viewing the piece difficult, and it affects the amount of light reaching the art.
The most common piece of advice to fix forward tilting picture frames is to tighten the wire. That can work, but not always.
In most cases when there’s far too much forward tilt on a frame, it’s because a single hook system is used. That’s when one D-ring or screw eye is used in the centre of the frame; then the frame balanced from that one centre point.
The simple fix, in this case, is to remove the centre hanging hook and switch to a two-hook installation using D-rings. With the D-rings attached roughly a third of the way down from the top of the frame, there won’t be as much forward tilt.
If that doesn’t solve it, there is additional hardware you can add to the frame to keep the wire tight and balanced. That’s to attach the D-rings 1/3rd of the way down both sides of the frames and install two picture hanging hooks to the back of the frame, equally spaced, and use that to keep the wire straight behind the frame.
Prints moving inside the frame
When prints are moving inside the frame, it’s because it hasn’t been secured. All too often, people will get a frame and sandwich a print between the mount board and the backing board expecting that to be enough to hold everything in place. If you’re lucky, the print won’t move, but most times it will, and that’s just because it’s not been secured in place.
The easiest way to secure a print to a mount board is using acid-free tape and making T-hinges to hold the print in place before sealing the frame.
If you’re finding your prints moving inside the frame, take a read through this post that explains how to secure your print to mount board with a T-hinge.
Picture frames hanging crooked
Crooked frames, in particular in a gallery display, are an eyesore and constantly having to straighten the frames on walls is frustrating. Similar to fixing forward-tilting frames that tilt too far, a two-hook hanging system can help; however, the simplest way to keep your frames hanging straight is to fix the bottoms to the wall using self-adhesive bumper pads or just felt pads, depending on the size of your frame.
These simply attach to the two bottom corners of your photo frame and then attach to your wall. The adhesive keeps it in a fixed position, and because it also adds space between the wall and the bottom of your frame, these can also help with air circulation around your frames.
You’ll likely find the frames you have that need to be repositioned a lot, are those that are hung close to windows or doors where there are more air circulation and vibrations that cause the frames to move. Keep them hanging straight by attaching bumpers or felt pads to the bottom of the frame and fixing those to the wall to keep your frames straight.