Ask Madelyn: Wall Display Woes

Madelyn is just starting two weeks of classes at The Weavers' School so this week's Ask Madelyn is a classic, originally published March 9, 2011.

Hi Madelyn,

Do you have information on the best ways to hang weavings on the wall? How can I mount them to not cause damage or stretch out? I have several wonderful pieces from travels—rugs too.

*—Lori *

Hi Lori!

There are probably lots of ways, but my house is full of textiles on the walls, and here are my thoughts. The best way for health of the textile is to handsew a sleeve along the back of the top edge of the textile for inserting a rod for hanging. This distributes the stress of hanging all across the textile (although you have to attach brackets to the wall and find a suitable rod). If it works for your walls and textiles, another option is using Velcro strips, one on the wall and one sewn along the top back of the textile. I must confess, however, that the method I actually use is tiny brass finishing nails, lots of them across the top of the textile, maybe 1-1/2 to 2 inches apart for a heavy rug. This makes tiny holes in the wall (and in the textile) but I don’t believe it has really done any significant damage to my textiles and the wall is easy to restore.

—Madelyn