How to hang tapestries and carpets

How to hang tapestries, kilims or antique carpets to a wall

Advice and ways to hang a tapestry, a fabric or carpet.

The old method with the rings and the metal pole  

It is the most common and outdated where a rod of metal is used, usually brass, that slips in loops or rings fixed onto the tapestry to be hung, then onto the wall like some curtains. There are also those who use hooks which attach directly to the wall, but they are all quite old methods that do not stretch our carpet properly and consequently all the weight of the tapestry weighs down in a few points to make it aesthetically horrendous because it makes a lot of creases. The photos below show how some De Rambouillet tapestries are prepared to be hung.

The use of perspex to hang some antique examples

In the images to the right you can see how we thought of using Perspex to hang the antique Shirvan Maresali and an old collectible sumak.

How to hang tapestries with velcro

As a customer requests it we can apply the Velcro strip to the tapestry and prepare the slat to hang it on the wall. In the image you can see the fragment of an ancient mafrash of Baktiary.

Velcro is the most secure and convenient solution. In a tapestry hung with rings or loops stress weakens the weaves. Also with these methods you always see the creases because it cannot hung suitably tight . We were looking for a way to avoid all this and we found it. See the example in the picture below.

On a 5 mm thick wooden rod with a length of a few millimeters less than the measure of our tapestry, one fastens a male velcro with adhesive or using upholterers’ staples. On the other side should be applied 2 picture hooks. This will later be hung on the wall with a pair of blocks as if it were a picture. At this point the support for the tapestry is ready to be hung. On the back of the tapestry the female velcro which will stick to the back of the one on the rod will be sewn, rigorously by hand and in such a way that it cannot be detected from the front. In this way, even if the structure of the fabric to hang is weak, the stress will be distributed across the width and not just on a few points. It will also be possible to adjust how it falls, and its inclination so that it is correct.

In the next picture you can see a fabric ancient cm 180 × 200 Persian, which we have restored and prepared for a client hanging on the wall with the help of a perspex support.