The Frame and Hang Kit

The FrameBug method for framing a print in a frame you can buy off the shelf, then putting it on the wall on hardware rated for what it really weighs

FrameBug's free calculators each give one honest number: a mat border, a frame's outer size, a sheet of glazing's weight, a hook's height. None of them meets the others, and none meets the wall. The Glazing Weight Calculator weighs the glass, which is one part of what the hook holds, and the Picture Hanging Calculator places one hook without knowing what hangs on it. The Frame and Hang Kit joins those tools into one path. Its worked 12 x 18 in print looks squeezed in a 16 x 20 frame and sits evenly in an 18 x 24 ready-made frame with 3 in all round, so no custom frame is needed. The glass for that frame weighs 3.1 lb, and a 10 lb nail-in hook looks like plenty; with the mat, the backing and the molding the finished frame is 7.0 lb, so at a 2x margin every link needs 14 lb and that hook fails. A wire strung with a 3.4 in rise pulls 1.35 times the frame's weight on each side; strung drum-tight it pulls 4.28 times. Over a 38 in sofa the frame goes on two fixings, both 64 in up and 17 in apart, each able to hold it alone. Every worked figure and hardware rating is an example you replace with your own, computed by the site's calculators, and rules of thumb are called rules of thumb. It recommends no brand. It carries the safety facts: a heavy or large frame, or any frame over a bed, crib, sofa or walkway, goes on two fixings into studs or rated anchors; use acrylic or safety glazing where children play; wear gloves to handle cut glass. 23 printable pages: seven steps, a frame card, a hardware card, a hanging layout, reference tables and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in the calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the kit, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Even Border Rule: your print against the ready-made frame sizes, and the smallest one whose mat borders come out even
• The Overlap Rule: the mat window from the print and its overlap, the frame opening, the outer frame and the molding to buy
• The Where-It-Hangs Rule: glass or acrylic chosen by what is under the frame and who plays nearby, with both weights
• The Whole Frame Rule: glazing, mat, backing and molding weighed at the heavy end, then checked on a bathroom scale
• The Rise Rule: how far the wire must rise above the D-rings, the pull it puts on each side, and the wire drop for the hook
• The Weakest Link Rule: the hanger, the wire and the wall fixing, each by its maker's rating at twice its load
• The Two Fixing Rule: when a frame needs two fixings, the center over a sofa or bed, and both hooks laid out level
• A printable frame card, a hardware card and a hanging layout
• Reference tables: glazing weight by frame size, glass and acrylic, and wire pull by rise
• A quickstart that closes the loop on your starting scores

The kit picks up where the free Glazing Weight Calculatorleaves off. It weighs the glass, which is one part of what the wall holds: on the kit's example the glass is under half of the finished frame. The kit weighs the whole frame, mat, backing and molding included, checks it on a scale, and rates the hanger, the wire and the wall fixing against it, each by its maker's rating at twice its load, so the weakest link is found before the frame goes up. Before that it fits the frame: your print against the ready-made sizes with the Mat Border Calculator, the mat window and the outer size with the Frame Size Calculator, and glass or acrylic by where the frame hangs. After it, the hooks: the wire's rise, and two fixings laid out level with the Picture Hanging Calculator. It carries the safety facts: a heavy or large frame, or any frame over a bed, crib, sofa or walkway, goes on two fixings into studs or rated anchors; use acrylic or safety glazing where children play; wear gloves to handle cut glass. The worked figures and hardware ratings are examples; your own measurements and the ratings on your packets replace them.