DIY Hanging Frame

I have fallen in love with the print or poster hanging frames that seem to defy gravity. I looked around on Etsy and in department stores for them, but once again I found myself challenged to make one on my own and for a lot cheaper! I’ll give you the simple steps to create your own DIY hanging frame + a faux method for an even cheaper hanging frame.

Materials

2 inch width wood boards

Magnets

Jute twine

Super glue

Sand paper

Stain

Step 1: Cut your boards

The thickness of the boards is up to you. The length of the board will depend on your poster. You want at least one inch longer board than the width of your print/poster so that the frame isn’t as wide as the poster/print. You want the frame to extend a little further than your print/poster.

Step 2: Sand and Stain

If you need to sand your boards, do that next. However, a typical little craft board from Lowes or Home Depot doesn’t require sanding.

Next you’ll stain your boards to the color you want.

Step 3: Attach your magnets

If you want to take this step a little further and create divots in the board to place your magnets in, feel free to do so! However, if you don’t have a tool to embed the magnet in your wood, don’t worry! You can purchase slim mini magnetic circles or strips on Amazon. Simply peel and attach.

For a better hold of the mini magnetic circles, super glue them on. I found that the sticky stuff that came with the magnet didn’t hold well on the wood.

Step 4: Cut your twine

Taking your jute twine, cut the length of twine you would like to use as the hanging piece to attach to the wood frame. I recommend cutting the twine to only be about 3 inches longer than the length of the wood boards.

**Read the next step though before you cut your twine!

Step 5: Attach your twine

Because I didn’t want to mess with drilling a perfect hold into the width of my boards (and my boards weren’t thick enough for this), I simply tied the twine around the ends of the top connected boards. See the picture below for reference.

Faux Hanging Frame Method

I recently created a botanical print with a verse on a cheap but rather larger poster. I already had two boards that would fit perfectly for a DIY hanging frame, but didn’t want to buy more wood. Because this print is more permanent for the location I put it in (I won’t be changing it out any time soon), I was okay with attaching the wood directly on the poster to make it look like it’s a DIY hanging frame.

Step 1: Cut, Sand, Stain

Simply repeat steps 1-2 from above.

Step 2: Grab your 3M strips

Though this faux hanging frame is a little more permanent than the DIY hanging frame from above, you can still save your poster/print for further use if you decide you want to remove the wood later.

Simply get some 3M poster hanging strips and use those to attach the wood boards to the front of your poster. Place the end of the 3M strip (the part where you pull to detach the strip) facing out and touching the end of the wood board so it’s easier to grab and pull when you decide to remove the wood boards later on.

Step 3: Cut your twine

Cut the length of twine you want to use to hang your print/poster. Again, I recommend only cutting a few inches longer than the length of your wood board.

Step 4: Attach your twine

Either use the method above to attach your twine or super glue the twine to the back of the wood boards or print/poster. (I added a couple staples to the back because I made my twine too long.)

_____________

And that’s it! This project was really simple (once I made all the mistakes) and cost a fraction of what I would’ve paid online. The larger the print/poster, the more you’ll save doing this project on your own. The faux hanging poster was even cheaper and I was able to use everything I already had on hand without making any other purchases. This is DIYing paying off.

Let me know if you have any questions with this project! Drop your question in the comments below or shoot me an email.