About the Cleats

I use French Cleats to hang my work. If the piece is opaque a metal cleat would work fine. But a lot of my work has been not quite opaque. I wanted it to stand off the wall and I didn't want to see what was holding it in place. I like the work to appear as if it is floating off the wall.

The cleat size I have used most often is 3 inches wide by 1 and 3/4 inches on the short side and 2 and 1/4 inches on the long side and half an inch thick. This size can hold up a significantly large piece of work. In fact the heavier the piece is, the sturdier the hanging (as long as the wall is good!) The cleat half that screws into the wall is identical to the cleat half that gets glued to your work with just one exception -- the two holes drilled into it for attaching the cleat to the wall.

I also have some cleats that are much smaller:
One inch wide with one inch on the short side and one and a half inches on the long side and half an inch thick. Looks teeny, but I have hung a half inch thick six inch square piece from a cleat that small without a problem.

The other cleat I have is two inches wide with one and a quarter inches on the short side and one and three quarter inches on the long side and still half an inch thick.

I find that these cleats work best when they are attached near to the top of a piece and then a simple one half inch thick block of acrylic is attached to the bottom of the piece. Keeps the piece hanging parallel to the wall.

If you have more questions about French cleats check out the warmglass bulletin board.

Pristine Acrylic French Cleats

These are the cleats before I use them. The major, uncut surfaces of the acrylic is covered in a paper to prevent scratches to the acrylic, that easily peels off when you are ready to attach the cleat to your work and to the wall.

In this image you can see the holes drilled in one half of the cleat for screwing that half to the wall.

Here you see the cleat on edge. The cut edges are not crystal clear, but when you hang the piece you don't see that. You will only see the crystal clear surface that (right now) is still covered in paper.

Acrylic French Cleats in Use

So these are images of cleats in use:

I couldn't show you a piece hung on the cleat, but trust me, they fit together perfectly and gravity keeps the glass from going anywhere.

You just can't easily jostle a piece hung from a cleat.

Side view on the wall

Front view of the wall half attached (sorry for the lack of focus)

This is a view from the side of a cleat attached to a piece

And this is a view head on of the cleat attached to the piece.