Picture Hanging Systems and Hardware

Getting your art into a frame is only half the journey. The other half is getting it up on the wall where it can be seen, at the right height and in a secure way. We'd like to introduce you to a hanging system we have used in our own store for many years and one that we have sold to many clients and galleries: The Arakawa Hanging System.

AF3 Sliding Picture Hook CF1 Rail Clip CRE Aluminum Rail w/Cover

The Arakawa Advantage

The only problem with using a traditional picture hook is that you have to drive a nail into the wall. While this is a fairly tried and true system, its down side is that it is inflexible. If you select the wrong height or position on the wall, you have to pull the nail out and move it to a new spot. After doing this numerous times, you have to spackle and repaint the wall to keep it from looking beat up.

With the Arakawa System, you only have to put holes in the wall once. It consists of an extruded aluminum rail that gets permanently attached to the wall an inch below the ceiling. That's it. From that point on, you are hanging your art from the rail by means of stainless steel braided "aircraft style" cables cut to size. The cable attaches to the rail by means of a piece of hardware called a "rail clip" that grips the end of the cable with a one-way, spring-loaded gripper mechanism and hangs from the rail by hooking into a channel at the bottom of it. It can slide left or right easily with no tools.

Finally, once you have the cable where you want it, you hang your art on the cable by means of a sliding picture hook that is also equipped with a one-way gripper that grabs the cable where you slide it and easily adjusts from that point, again, without tools. What could be simpler?

Places We Have Installed The Arakawa Hanging System

Originally, we bought the system for use in our own frame shop. Not only did we use it to hang artwork and framing samples on the wall, but we also used it to hang these things in the window without a wall behind the art. We attached the Arakawa rails from a strip of wood attached to the ceiling grid. Eventually, Arakawa began referring people to us who wanted to purchase the system for use in their homes, offices and galleries.

One client with a home at Chicago's Marina City came to us and wanted us to install the system in every room in her 2 condo's she owns there. Marina City is an amazing 1960's vintage pair of buildings that resemble giant corn cobs that were designed by Chicago Architect Bertrand Goldberg. One feature of those buildings is that the walls are made of cast concrete. Try driving a nail into those walls to hang a picture! The Arakawa system was a natural for that sort of usage. 154 Tapcon Screws later, we had our rails in place.

Another client, a doctor, who had rehabbed an old industrial loft building for his home with tall ceilings purchased the system for his use there. With 14 foot tall, unpainted brick walls, it cried out for Arakawa rails to hang his artwork.

One of our earliest clients is a high-end gallery that used to be at the Drake Hotel and now resides in an upper floor of the John Hancock building. They use the system extensively for displaying the ever-changing inventory of framed art in their lovely gallery.

We've also installed it in corporate clients offices, where they have a body of design work that they display on their office walls for clients to view and change it fairly often.

You name it, no matter what the environment, The Arakawa Hanging System works and works hard. Never drive nails into a wall to hang pictures again.

ORDERING SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ARAKAWA SYSTEM

Please keep in mind that when you hang a picture in a typical room, you want the center of the picture to be at eye level. Use that as a guide for how long your cables should be. However, give yourself some extra cable for adjustment purposes. If you have excess cable, you can coil it up and secure it with a twister tie, hiding it behind your framed art.

Any framed art that is bigger than 16 x 20 should probably use 2 cables and 2 hooks to give the frame stability and keep it level. Vibration from foot steps, shutting doors and general household movement can make frames go out of level if they are hung on only one hook. 2 hooks insures that they won't.

You can, indeed, hang more than one frame on any set of 2 cables. Each cable and hook holds at least 50 lbs.

We can give you suggestions regarding the best fasteners for attaching the rails to different types of walls (such as drywall, plaster, brick, concrete, wood, etc.). If you wish, send us a sketch of your room and a list of frames you wish to hang, with their dimensions, and we can suggest to you how to put your order together.

For whole room orders, we can give you package pricing that is less expensive than purchasing elements ala carte. You can contact us for advice or a quote by clicking here.

As a general rule, here is the discount structure for quantity purchases of Arakawa product:

1. $0 to $249: NO DISCOUNT
2. $250 to $499: 3% off total
3. $500 to $999: 5% off total
4. $1000 to $1499: 7% off total
5. $1500 + : 10% off total
   

NOTE: SHIPPING CHARGES ARE NOT INCLUDED IN DISCOUNTABLE TOTAL. DISCOUNT WILL NOT SHOW ON SHOPPING CART TOTAL, BUT WILL BE DISCOUNTED AT THE TIME WE PROCESS YOUR ORDER IN-HOUSE.