You might remember this awesome little Craigslist list trip Andy and I took when we first moved into our new to us house in Austin. I barley remember, so no worries if you don’t. This post will catch you up! Along with 3 chairs and a desk, we also bought a super awesome giant mirror. The mirror is 8 feet long x 3 feet tall. Next step, figure out how to hang a heavy mirror.
The heavy mirror sat in our house like this for way too long.
This sucker weighed about 86 pounds, and when you research how to hang heavy mirrors, they always say to double the weight to allow for the pull of you cleaning the mirror. So we were on the hunt for a 200 lbs hanger.
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What to use to hang a heavy mirror
We ended up finding these OOK french cleats
Andy was going to buy these L shaped brackets to brace the 4 corners of the mirror, but when we lifted the corner of the paper, we realized the mirror already had the L brackets. #OneLessThingToBuy Oh and I just think it is neat that our mirror came to us all the way from Chelsea Frames in New York City!
So each pack of OOK french cleats comes with 2 cleats that interlock together. You will attach one side to the wall and one side will be attached to the mirror. Andy is using a pencil to mark where he is going to drill the holes into the wall. The cleats are rated for 200 lbs each, but the cleat is only as strong as the material it is fastened to. Because of this, paranoid Andy, wanted to make sure that both cleats were secured to a stud in addition to using sheet rick anchors. Andy claims he likes to make things “bomb proof”. #BoysAreWeird
The tricky part to hanging these things is making sure that they are level. You have to make sure that each cleat is level, but then you also have to make sure that both cleats are level with each other. Volia!
The cleats are drilled into studs and now it’s time to attach the other half of the cleat to the mirror. The first thing is to make sure that the spacing of the cleats on the wall is the same distance as the spacing of the cleats on the back of the mirror. Then make sure that the cleats align perfectly with the edge of the frame. Next, make sure that your holes fall on a meaty part of the frame. Then pre drill holes where your screws will go so that you make sure not to split the wood frame. Finally, screw in your screws.
Now for the super tough part, at least for me, you have t0 lift this bad boy off of the ground and fit the cleats together. Yikes. It actually wasn’t that hard.
If you’re brave, once you get that sucker on the wall, stick a level up there and see how you did! Andy gets a gold star for this mirror hanging job… that bubble is dead center!
Have you had to hang a really heavy something on the wall? Have you ever used OOK french cleats? So you think the mirror can really hold 400 lbs? Should I try hanging from it? Tomorrow Sometime soon, I’ll share the fun table Andy and my mama bought me for my Burfday. It lives under the mirror, and it’s really cute. You can see it in the top picture : )
What are the “L” shaped brackets for? Are they a necessity? Thank you!
The L shaped brackets brace the wooden mirror and give the frame extra support. If you’re frame is really large, I would use them to just to be sure.
hi will this work on dry wall ?
What are the l shaped brackets? How do I know if I need it?
Yes, I have used these very same French Cleats to hang a very heavy mirror that crashed down off the wall about an hour after hanging it from the wire that was attached to it for that very purpose when we bought it. The store we bought it from replaced it but my husband was not taking chances again and like Andy, insisted on 2 sets and screwing into studs! It hung securely till we moved to the house we are in now and we are preparing to hang it the very same way here ! French Cleats rock !
Thanks for the info. I’ll have to remember this if I ever hang something heavy. Did you ever try hanging from it? 🙂