Gene’s Rug Hooking Blog

While I don’t shoot a big rug every day, the need comes up often enough that my lack of a space to properly hang one for a good square shot is annoying.  Therefore, Big Momma provided the catalyst for me to finally bite the bullet and  install something that could be used for this sort of reoccurring need.   While my discussion concerns a set up that will allow me to move different rugs in and out of my studio, the procedure is one that anyone could utilize if wishing to permanently mount a rug in their home.

My new set up is in my studio … under my cork board.  Obviously, the first step was to remove the cork board from its place.  That was easily accomplished with my hand held drill.  In place of the cork board (which is 6′ x 4′) I installed a 3/8″ thick, 4 x 8 piece of ply wood painted a flat white.  This gives me a hard surface that I can use to screw mount frames to hang any rug I want, as long as it is less than 4′ by 8.’  Once I am done with a given shot, the screws holding the frame can be removed and the cork board quickly re-mounted on top of the ply wood base. (It’s only held up by 3 or 4 screws.)  This won’t need to be done very often as most rugs fit within the limitations of the 4 by 6 cork board.  If you want to permanently mount a rug, skip this first step and just do the following to your drywall surface.  (Since I will be removing and remounting rugs every so often, I wanted to work on the more durable plywood base.)

The frame I installed on the wall was made with cheap carpet strips – the kind that are nailed to the floor in order to stretch and hold wall to wall carpet.  These strips of wood hold rows of little carpet nails that all point in one direction.  They should be installed to point out from the center of the rug.  (There is also an instillation nail every so often that is supposed to be used to nail the strip to a floor.  Those nails must be removed because they are not long enough for our purposes.)  Since my rug is 31.5″ wide by 78″ long, top and bottom pieces 1 inch shorter (30.5) than the width were cut.  A good wood screw was used to fasten the strips to the wall.  (If I were installing this strip to hang a rug in my home, I would have used a long screw, applied so as to hit wall studs.  However, since my photo board is plywood, I could screw the strips in however I wanted.)

My level was used to get the top strip straight and my square was used to set the other side.

This procedure was repeated until a rectangle of carpet strips (the dimensions of which were one inch smaller for both height and width) were secured to the plywood base.  Again, you could do this, if you wanted a permanent application, directly to a dry wall surface.  To install, the rug is gently stretched over the frame and then pressed down.  It’s not unlike working with very large, wicked, gripper strips.  I like this sort of application because, even when mounted, a rug can easily be removed for a show … then brought  home and popped back into place without any fuss at all.

Now, I have a good spot to get a good shot!  When I am done, it will take about 5 mins. to remove the strips and then re-hang my cork board.