How to Hang Botanical Prints

Good Morning, wonderful Lovelies!

I’ve been wanting to hang a grouping of botanicals for like… forever.

I just couldn’t fork over the cash that they would cost from the big-box stores. Trust me, they are pricey. And understandably so. Original Botanicals are intricate artwork and the reproductions are often hand-colored lithograph prints, which are still costly to produce. And, of course, anything framed is going to cost more too. Botanicals from a high-end design house can run $400-$500 each.

The wall I wanted to hang them on is in the dining room. We have a large oil painting over the buffet, and I didn’t want another large piece on the adjacent wall. Since this is a wall that you see from the foyer immediately upon entering the front door, it needed to have some pizzazz! Or, pizzazzle, in this case!

So, with some scouring of the internet I found Zazzle! Zazzle is a unique source for lots of things, including business cards and botanical prints (they didn’t pay me to say that… I just like their products and prices)! I ordered my business cards from them before Haven this year:

After looking through the thousands of prints Zazzle offered, I narrowed the list down to 12, and then to six. I ordered the 12″x 16″ size print because I knew I wanted to mat them out in a 16″x 20″ frame. These are some of the prints I ordered:

I will show you step by step how I hung the prints. The first thing I did was frame all my prints. In shopping for the frames, it was difficult to find some good-looking frames at a low cost. Locally, the best I could do for a frame with real glass and mat included was about $20 a frame, so naturally, I turned to IKEA!

Before I ordered the prints, I found the size and frame I wanted to use and made sure that the matted size was correct. I took advantage of being near the IKEA store in Atlanta while I was at the Haven Conference a couple of weeks ago and purchased six of the RIBBA 16.5″x 20.5″ frames for just $9.99 each! Love that frame!!

IKEA, however… I have a love/hate relationship with! I really do love it, but I spent 4 hours in there. Yeah, I know. That’s just plain wrong. FOUR HOURS! I did do some shopping for a client, as well, so that’s my excuse! 😉

To frame them, I didn’t use the hanging hardware that came with the frames, opting instead for sawtooth-type hangers. I found the midpoint of the back of the frame and marked it with a pencil, then centered the hanger and marked the holes also with a pencil. Then I nailed it on with the included tack nails, holding each little nail with a pair of needle-nosed pliers so I didn’t hit my fingers!

**Use caution if you leave the glass in the frame while using a hammer! I would advise you to remove the glass before attaching the hanging hardware!!**

After attaching the hanging hardware to the frame, I lifted up the fiberboard backing to expose the mat. Laying the print upside down I affixed it to the mat with a small piece of tape. I flipped it over and made sure it was straight and matted correctly, then back over and taped the corners down securely. Putting it back in frame, I placed the backing on top and secured (in this case with those flip-down metal ‘thingys’).

Now I was ready to hang all of them on the wall! I measured and found the midpoint of the space where I wanted to hang the framed prints:

As with any type of DIY, measuring is key! You will need a hammer, a level, a tape measure or yardstick. Find the midpoint on your wall, at the height you wish to hang your framed art and that will be the midpoint of your center frame of the top row (in this case, there are 2 rows of 3 frames across). I wanted to leave room below the arrangement for some architectural modifications of my wall that I have on my wish list!

Here’s the final result, shot at the best angle I could get without huge glare from the glass:

I think these look pretty high-end, don’t you? And for a fraction of the cost! Here’s a breakdown of what I spent:

So, for less than the price of ONE framed botanical print from pretty much anywhere, I have 6 hanging in my dining room! And I LOVE the way they turned out!!

Just for full disclosure’s sake, I do have affiliate links on my site. That means if you click over to any of my affiliates and make a purchase, I might receive a small compensation, at no cost to you. Thank you for helping to make this blog possible! (And don’t worry… I have yet to break even on any income I might receive vs. the cost to publish!)

 Have a wonderful day!

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