October 3, 2026

How to Hang a Canvas Without a Frame

A stretched canvas is already a finished object. The frame most people look for is the wooden stretcher behind the image.

People search for how to hang a canvas without a frame as though something were missing. Nothing is. A stretched canvas has its frame already, it is just behind the image instead of around it. The wooden stretcher does the structural work, the image wraps the edges, and there is no glass and no mount to add.

What is on the back

Our canvases arrive stretched over a solid wooden stretcher with hanging hardware fitted. Depending on the size that is either a sawtooth hanger in the centre of the top rail or two small hooks set in from each side, sometimes with a cord between them. Look before you drill, because that is what decides whether you need one fixing or two.

One fixing, centred, is enough for the smaller sizes. Two fixings are better for a 60x90 cm canvas: they share the load, and more usefully they stop the piece rotating out of level every time a door slams.

Choosing the fixing

A stretched canvas is light for its size, because it is fabric and timber and air. The fixing is dictated by the wall, not by the canvas.

Plasterboard: a plasterboard plug or a self drilling anchor. A picture hook with a pin into plasterboard alone will loosen over time, especially on an interior wall that gets knocked.

Brick, block or concrete: drill and use a standard wall plug with a screw. Leave the screw head standing a few millimetres off the wall so the hanger can drop onto it.

Rented flat where you cannot drill: adhesive hooks rated well above the weight of the piece will hold the small and medium sizes on a clean, painted, sound wall. They will not hold on textured wallpaper, on fresh emulsion, or on anything dusty. For a 60x90 cm canvas, drill if you are allowed to.

Measuring so it lands where you meant

The common mistake is to measure to the top edge of the canvas and drill there. The fixing has to sit lower than the top edge, by exactly the distance from the top of the canvas down to the hanger.

So measure that distance on the back of the canvas first. If the sawtooth sits 4 cm below the top rail and you want the top edge at 185 cm, your fixing goes at 181 cm. For two fixings, measure their spacing on the back, mark both points, and check the two marks are level with each other before you drill either one.

For the height itself, the centre of the canvas at about 145 cm from the floor is the gallery default. When the piece hangs above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, the furniture takes priority and the bottom edge sits about 15 to 25 cm above it.

Keeping it flat against the wall

This is the one genuine drawback of hanging without a frame. A canvas hung on a single central hanger can tip forward at the bottom or drift out of level sideways. Two cures, both cheap.

Stick a small clear rubber bumper, the kind sold for cabinet doors, on each bottom corner of the stretcher. The canvas then rests on two points and stops rocking, and the bumpers also keep the timber off the paint.

Or use two fixings instead of one. Anything the eye reads as a large piece, roughly 60 cm wide and up, is worth hanging on two points.

If your canvas is not stretched

Some canvas prints arrive rolled, with no wooden stretcher behind them. A rolled canvas will not hang flat by itself, and tape or pins at the corners only make it ripple. There are three good options.

Have it stretched by a framer onto wooden stretcher bars. This is the most durable result and looks like a finished canvas.
Mount it on a rigid board with an adhesive made for canvas or fabric, then hang the board.
Hang it like a banner, with a wooden hanger clamped along the top edge and a second one along the bottom to keep it straight.

Our canvas prints arrive already stretched on a solid wooden frame with hanging hardware included, so none of these steps are needed for them.

Care

Dust the surface with a dry soft brush or a clean dry cloth. Do not use water or cleaning spray on canvas, because the fabric will absorb it and the stretcher can mark through from behind. Keep the piece out of direct, all day sunlight, which fades any print eventually, and off a wall that suffers from damp.

If you still want a frame

The frame made for this case is a floater frame, a shallow surround that leaves a visible gap between the frame and the edge of the canvas. It adds a line without covering any of the image. It is a finish, not a fix, and nothing about hanging the piece changes if you skip it.