Using Leather Straps to Hang Wood Frames in the Mission or Arts & Crafts Style.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This website makes no guarantees as to the suitability of your frames nor your abilities to perform these functions. You are responsible for your own actions. If you destroy the leather hanging strip during this process, or cut it wrong, or whatever, we will send you a free replacement...you need only pay $2.50 shipping and handling. If you destroy your frame, that is your responsibility. You need to determine whether or not this will work for you. If your frame is wood, and if you have the required tools and are reasonably intelligent, you should have no trouble.

You should read every section of this page, and review every photo -- whether or not they apply to your specific circumstances -- to best familiarize yourself with the project.

You've received A 6' (72 inches) of this leather, 1/2" wide. 3/8" is smooth-out top grain finish (dark brown) the other 1/8" is unfinished rough-out per my original requirements. You can use it as is, which is a true mission look, or you can trim the 1/8" of rough off the top grain with a utility knife. The back is scored with a deep groove so that it is easy to trim the leather if you choose. Still, I don't recommend trimming.

The instructions below explain how to measure and attach the leather to your frame. It is just my method, you might think of a different or better way. It's arts and crafts, and learning the art is part of the philosophy.

Here's How...

1. Set your dowel, wood block, hanger, or whatever means you wish to use to hang your frame. If you are hanging from picture frame rail, this is easy. If you are planning to stick a dowel in a bare wall (as Stickley did at Craftsman Farms back in the day), then you need to determine the height of your dowel or hanger. Hold your frame up to the wall, and "eyeball" where you want the hanger to be above the frame. Install your dowel or hanger accordingly.
2. Next, take out your leather strap. It is pre-drilled with two holes for your convenience. Depending on how the frame hangs, you may choose to re-drill. If you have a very large frame, you will need holes further apart.
3. Put your frame face down on your work table.
4. Place the end of the straps with the holes down on the back left side of the frame. Make sure the smooth top grain is "down" against the wood. When you look at the frame from the front later on, this is the side of the strap you'll want to see.
5. The 2nd hole from the end of the strap should be placed as close to the top of the frame as possible. (The farther down the hole is located, the more the top of the frame will angle out from the wall. If you don't like the top of the frame to angle out, put the hole as close as possible to the top of the frame.) Again, you may want to drill a new hole even further along on the strap if you've got a large or heavy frame. In these photos we're hanging a 10 x 14" frame, the holes will work with a larger or smaller frame just as they are.
6. Mark the location of the top hole on the back of your frame.
7. Drill a pilot hole for the screw.
8. Screw the strap to the top of the frame.
9. Stretch the end of the strap as much as possible.
10. Mark the location of the end hole on the wood.
11. Drill a pilot hole for this screw.
12. Screw this part of the strap to the frame. You've now attached one side of the strap.
13. Carefully holding your frame, place the strap up over your dowel or hanger.
14. Holding your frame in your left hand, gently pull the strap down (or up) until you find a pleasing height. You may need a helper to hold the frame if it is heavy.
15. Once you've found a pleasing height, use a pencil to mark where the strap meets the top of the frame. Make your mark on the rough side of the strap. You may find it easy enough to just hold the strap exactly where you want it to meet the top, and then make the mark. Whatever method you choose, you just need some way to know where the strap should fall on the frame. NOTE: You will probably have a lot of leather left over.
16. Take your frame back to your work table. Lay it face down, and place the unattached end of the strap on the frame according to the height you just determined.
17. Remember to put the smooth top grain down, against the back of the frame.
18. You may be able to drill through the leather right into the wood if the back of your frame is flat. Be careful. Otherwise, drill a hole in the leather, mark the wood, and then drill into the wood.
19. Screw this end of the strap to the top of the frame.
20. Stretch the rest of the strap as much as possible.
21. Drill a second hole further down this side of the frame, approximately parallel to the lower screw on the opposite side.
22. Screw down the strap to the frame.
23. Cut off the excess using a utility knife. Be careful.
24. Hang your frame from your dowel or hanger, centering as best you can.

Please Note:

• Remember that this is a thick gauge, strong leather. Because it is curled during storage and shipment, it will not hang straight at first. After a few days, the weight of your frame will "hang out" any curls or kinks.
• If the frame isn't heavy enough to straighten the strap, you can treat the leather with a leather softening product, neatsfoot oil, etc. to emulsify and make the leather more supple. Traditional saddle soap is not a good choice, but it will help.
• If you would like a more polished look, leather polish can be used.

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Some Concepts to Keep in Mind...

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

-- William Morris, circa 1870

We have planned houses from the first that are based on the big fundamental principles of honesty, simplicity, and usefulness -- the kind of houses that children will rejoice all their lives to remember as "home," and that give a sense of peace and comfort to the tired men who go back to them when the day's work is done.

-- Gustav Stickley, circa 1910

...of all reforms needed in the life of the home, that of the relation of the man to his family is most pressing. Modern materialism demands of far too many men an unworthy sacrifice...A simpler standard of living will give him more time for art and culture, more time for his family, more time to live.

-- Charles Keeler, circa 1905

Do not think that simplicity means something like the side of a barn, but rather something with a graceful sense of beauty in its utility from which discord and all that is meaningless has been eliminated.

-- Frank Lloyd Wright, circa 1908

Our preoccupation with material success threatens to blind us to the value of the patient, honest cultivation of mind and character.

--David Saville Muzzey, Prof. of History, Columbia University, circa 1929