How to Hang a Billboard

Cork billboards are a helpful organizational tool when you live with others.

A billboard allows you to pass messages to others in your home, post reminders to yourself or just keep up with important pieces of paper. While people often think of large roadside signs as billboards, smaller in-home bulletin boards are also billboards, made of framed cork and placed in convenient areas in your home. They give you a flat space where you can pin papers in place for others to find. Some billboards can be large and difficult to hang, but with the right technique you can place your billboard in just the right area to make sure that you and your family can use it easily.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure
• Two screws
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Look at the back of your billboard. Locate the anchors, small hooks that clamp on to a screw to hold your board in place, located normally either in the top center of your board or in the top two corners. Count the number of anchors along the top of your board.

2. Use a tape measure and record your measurements as you take them. Measure the distance between each anchor on the back of your billboard. Measure the distance from the top of your billboard to your anchors. Also, measure the distance from your anchors straight to the bottom of your billboard and the length and width of your entire billboard.

3. Decide on a location for your billboard by locating a spot on your wall that is clear from other objects, accessible but high enough for you to see clearly from across the room. Consider locales such as next to your telephone, so you can use it to pass along phone messages, or in a regularly used area, like the kitchen, so you can use it to pass along other information to people living in your home. Measure the space to make sure your billboard will fit in your space, or hold your billboard up in the area, making sure that it is not blocking other things on your wall.

4. Use a pencil and make a small mark your wall at the bottom of your billboard, marking the lowest point that it will hang. Measure up from your mark, the distance of your anchors to the bottom of your billboard and make another mark with your pencil. From your top mark, measure a horizontal distance equal to the distance between your anchors across the wall, marking each point. Place a leveler across your wall, along the last two points you marked, and make sure that your final points are horizontally level.

5. Screw a small screw into each point, leaving each screw a quarter inch out of your wall. Alternately, you can use a nail, but leave enough of your nail extended for you to hang your anchors on your nail or screw. Use Command Hooks for brick walls or if you want to avoid leaving holes in your wall. Hold your billboard over your screws, lowering it slowly until you feel the anchors connect to your screws. Stick a few push pins into your billboard and leave some message paper and a pen on a nearby shelf.

References

• Apartment Therapy: How To: Hang Your Artwork and Not Screw It Up
• Money Cone; HOWTO Hang A Picture Frame Without Drilling A Hole In The Wall!; May 2011