Living with the work
How to hang a canvas: wall types, fixings and no-drill options
7 min read ▪ 30 August 2026
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A canvas this size is light enough that the weight is never the problem. Willem van der Krieken goes through the four walls it might be going on, and the rented one.
How do you hang a canvas on the wall?
Work out what the wall is made of first, because that decides the fixing. A stretched canvas at these sizes is light — a two-hand lift, not a heavy object — so nothing here needs engineering. Brick and concrete take a plug and a screw. Plasterboard needs a stud or a hollow-wall anchor. If you rent, a picture rail, adhesive strips or simply leaning it all work.
- Two hooks set apart, not one in the middle, on anything over 80 cm wide.
- Knock the wall before you buy fixings. It takes four seconds and settles the question.
- Felt pads on the bottom corners keep the canvas straight and let air behind it.
The weight is not the problem
Almost everything written about hanging pictures is written for framed work behind glass, and glass is what makes a picture heavy. These are stretched canvases on a wooden stretcher, with no glass and no frame — even the largest, at 120 × 100 cm, is a two-hand lift rather than a heavy object.
So the decision is not will it hold. It is what is this wall. Get that right and any ordinary picture hook rated well above the canvas weight will do; get it wrong and the fixing pulls out of the plasterboard six weeks later, with the canvas underneath it.
Two things do matter regardless of wall type. Do not hang on the wall above a radiator, and be careful with an uninsulated exterior wall in an old house — both are conservation problems rather than fixing problems, and sunlight, radiators and the walls you should not use covers them.
Finding out what your wall is
Knock it. A hollow, drummy sound over most of the wall with occasional solid spots means plasterboard on a timber or metal frame, and the solid spots are the studs. A dull, dead sound everywhere means masonry.
Look at the dust. If you have already drilled a test hole somewhere invisible, the dust tells you the rest. White and powdery: plaster or plasterboard. Red or orange: clay brick. Pale grey and sandy: sand-lime block or concrete. Very light, crumbly and almost white: aerated concrete block, which needs its own fixing and is the one that catches people out.
Find the studs. A small magnet dragged across plasterboard sticks where the screws are, and the screws are in the studs. Studs usually sit at regular centres, so once you have found two you know where the rest are. A screw into a stud is the strongest and cheapest fixing in this article.
The four wall types
| Wall | How you know | Fixing | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clay brick or sand-lime block | Dead sound, red or pale grey dust | Masonry bit, nylon plug, screw hook | Drill on hammer only if the wall is solid. Mortar joints hold less well than the block |
| Plasterboard with a stud behind | Hollow, with a solid line found by magnet | Screw straight into the stud, no plug | Studs are rarely where you want the picture. Shift the hooks, not the picture |
| Plasterboard, no stud available | Hollow everywhere you want to drill | Metal hollow-wall anchor or spring toggle, rated on the pack | Plastic push-in plugs. They spin in the hole and do nothing |
| Concrete or aerated concrete block | Dead sound; grey dust, or very light white crumbs | Hammer drill and nylon plug for concrete; a dedicated spiral anchor for aerated block | An ordinary plug in aerated concrete pulls straight out. This is the common failure |
The rule underneath the table: always match the drill bit to the plug, not to the screw. The plug packaging gives the bit size. A hole one millimetre oversized is a fixing that works on the day and fails in a season.
Renting, or not drilling at all
Three options, in descending order of how well they work.
A picture rail. If the room has one, it is the best fixing in the house: nothing goes into the wall, the height is adjustable afterwards, and you can move the canvas along the rail while you decide. Many older Dutch and Belgian houses still have one under the cornice, and it is often painted over rather than removed — worth a look before you assume there is not one.
Adhesive strips. They work within their limits and the limits are real. Every pack states a weight per pair; treat that number as a ceiling and not a target, and use more pairs than you think. What actually fails is the surface, not the adhesive: fresh paint that has not fully cured, textured wallpaper, and anything slightly damp or dusty will let go, usually at night. Clean the wall with alcohol, not with a household cleaner, and give new paint a few weeks.
Leaning. Underrated, and not a compromise. A canvas leaning on a shelf, a mantelpiece or the floor against the wall reads as deliberate, needs no fixing at all, and has one advantage nothing else offers: you can turn it around. For anybody still deciding whether to live with a particular painting where visitors walk, that is worth more than a hook. Put felt pads under the bottom edge so it does not slide, and check the lean is shallow enough that nobody can knock it.
One hook or two
Two, on anything over about 80 cm wide. Two hooks set apart share the load, but that is not really the point — the point is that a canvas on two fixings stays level and stops moving every time somebody closes the door.
Set them at roughly a third in from each side, level with each other. Measure the distance between them on the wall rather than on the canvas, mark both, then check with a spirit level before you drill the second one.
If the canvas has a taut cord rather than two plates, one hook is fine but it will need straightening about once a month for the rest of its life. Two plates and two hooks are half an hour of work and then never again.
The last five minutes
Work out the hook height before you pick up the drill: the centre of the canvas goes at 145 cm, and how high to hang a painting gives the arithmetic that turns that into a hook position. Sizes are listed height first on every painting, so the first number is the one that goes into it.
Then three small things that make more difference than any of the above:
- Felt or cork pads on the bottom two corners. They hold the canvas off the wall, let air move behind it, and keep it hanging straight.
- Tape a paper rectangle up first. A day of looking at a paper outline settles the position in a way that no amount of holding it up does.
- Check it from the doorway. That is where everyone else in your life will see it from.
If the canvas has just arrived, keep the box — flat, dry, and out of the way. It is the best packaging that painting will ever have, and it costs nothing to store. Moving house with an oil painting explains why that turns out to matter.
Still choosing? Natalee (Blue Light) at 70 × 50 cm is the size that fits almost any wall and any fixing, including a rented one.
Questions people ask
How do you hang a canvas on a plasterboard wall?
Find a stud with a magnet and screw straight into it, which is the strongest option and needs no plug. Where there is no stud, use a metal hollow-wall anchor or a spring toggle rated on the pack. Plastic push-in plugs spin in plasterboard and should not be used.
How can I hang art without drilling?
A picture rail if the room has one, adhesive strips within the weight stated on the pack, or leaning the canvas on a shelf or mantelpiece. Leaning is not a compromise: it needs no fixing, it reads as deliberate, and you can turn the canvas around.
Do adhesive hooks hold a canvas?
At these sizes, usually yes, provided the wall is clean, dry, smooth and fully cured. Use more pairs than the pack suggests and clean the wall with alcohol first. What fails is almost always the surface rather than the adhesive, and fresh paint is the usual culprit.
Should I use one hook or two?
Two on anything over about 80 cm wide, set roughly a third in from each side and level with each other. The reason is not load but stability: a canvas on two fixings stays level instead of tilting every time a door closes.
