This morning, my 2 year old decided it'd be a good idea to make a hoist out of his stuffed animals, climb 1/2 way out of his crib and attempt to rip the pictures from the wall. Not good. The large picture closest to him has been secured to the wall — top and bottom — since it was hung, but we thought these were far enough away. We were wrong.
This means today was spent securing these frames to the wall and it seemed like a good time for a DIY-tutorial… especially for folks in earthquake country.
I seem to recall seeing a securing system like this at an art gallery years ago, but I've never seen anything commercially available that is as simple. There are many more complex systems, but a security point at the bottom of the frame keeps it nice and secure to the wall… and in order to remove the frame, you have to unscrew the tab. A mending plate might work, but I wanted something a bit thinner and more discreet.
Combined with my favorite way to hang pictures — a french cleat — it provides for a rock solid mounting solution.
Today, I made my own securing tabs from some mirror handing hardware ($3) and some pin-nails.
1: Bend the hanger back at the first bend — turning it from a J to an L …
2: Mark the center of the bottom of your frame.
3: Drill a small hole for a pin nail to secure the tab to the frame… You might skip this and use glue, but a hard-connection is best.
4: Attach tab to frame.
5: Hang and level picture and secure tab to wall (you might need to use an anchor depending on your wall).
I did use a bit of quick-dry epoxy on the tabs (as well as nails) for extra security in attaching them to the frame. And, for the bottom screws, you might use a wall anchor, but I've found that screwing in the screw first, backing it out, coating the threads with glue, and re-screwing does a very good job of securing the screw (and tab) to the wall/wallboard — to each their own there.