Hang It Up

After the Hayley House Party, several folks asked me about the method I'd used to hang a certain photo in our water closet.

Truth be told, it was another project that I’ve planned to share with you all because I wish that I’d had a web how-to before tackling this tricky situation. I just hadn’t had time while caught up in preparing for our party.


How To Use a Drawer Pull to Hang Photos

While shopping for frames to use on the Hayley travel wall, I found some delightful mini-frames with ribbon hangers at Michaels.

I’m blaming the next *great idea* moment on my (at that time) recent curtain hanging escapade. To make the curtains work in the bumped-out window space in the breakfast area, I had to remove four of the six rod finials. I’d been mulling on what to do with the extra finials ever since. (I still haven’t decided…I’ll let you know how they eventually reappear in the Hayley House!)

However, while I was looking at the mini-frames I thought, “Gosh, these would look really cute hanging from some sort of decorative piece on the wall, like a drawer pull!"

So off I headed to Home Depot (and Target and Lowes and back to Home Depot) where I picked out two appropriately sized drawer pulls. One would hold a black frame to add some texture and interest on the Hayley travel wall. The other would go to hang an even smaller frame in our downstairs water closet.

Side note: The previous owners left all manners of screws in the wall of the downstairs water closet. I happened to like the wall paper in that room, so it’s the only room (other than the garage) that did not get repaired and repainted before we moved in. That necessitated some creative décor while working around the existing screws.

I was a happy woman – in possession of a great plan and all of the supplies I needed to quickly pull it together in time for the house party.

Or so I thought.

Finials, you see, are designed be screwed into a rod. That means they come with a finial screw. Drawer pulls are designed to be attached to a drawer face via a standard screw. That’s not a problem – unless you want to install a drawer pull into a wall and can’t use a standard screw.

I thought about removing the screw head that came with the drawer pull but didn’t know if I had the proper tools at home, had no desire to purchase the proper tools and, perhaps most importantly, wasn’t sure I could remove the screw head without injuring myself.

Off to Home Depot I headed to purchase headless screws. (My term, not theirs.)

Did you know that they don’t sell headless screws? After fruitlessly searching the shelves, I sought assistance from a Home Depot Guru. He kindly refrained from laughing at my request for headless screws and took me instead to the selection of bolt connectors.

We started digging through the drawer for an “8-32” (the size that I needed). No luck. Apparently, there aren’t enough normal people looking for 8-32 bolt connectors so they aren’t kept in stock.

I didn’t cry, but I did explain that I had a very important Open House Party coming up in less than a week and couldn’t very well walk people around showing them holes in my walls.

My Home Depot Guru lived up to his mantle and devised a creative solution.

He found a long metal thingy with threads that weren’t quite right, but could be...ahem... encouraged to screw into the wall.

He screwed my drawer pull onto one end, inserted the other end in a vise grip and used a hack saw to cut the metal thingy to the correct length. (Who know that the only tool I needed was a hack saw? I own one of those! I don’t have a vise grip though…)

Problem solved! I had two drawer pulls with screw posts, ready to twist into my wall anchors.

Look at how the black ribbon frame balances out the various shapes on the travel wall.

And the water closet ribbon frame works wonderfully with the wall paper colors and this lovely shot of a pocket garden, taken by The Boy during our last visit to Paris.

There you have it! Be bold and courageous – try a different method to hanging frames!