Items you will need
Grommets
Wood or drywall screws
Electric drill
Rawhide strips or decorative wire
Ladder
Tips
This is a two-person job. Use a professional grommet machine or hire a professional.
Warnings
Be careful not to rip the hide. Always use professional grade wire or leather.
Beautiful rustic interiors can be achieved with few materials and a flair for wildlife. For the hunter's lair look, antler chandeliers and floor lamps, heavy unstripped furnishings and mounted trophy deer heads are all basic interior design features. But a true hunter's den will also have a buck deer pelt as a wall tapestry to complete the theme. If you are the do-it- yourself type, hanging a deer pelt tapestry isn't as much difficult as it is time consuming.
How to Hang A Deer Hide on the Wall
Unless the hide is a designer piece of art, you may need to prep the pelt before hanging. Using a grommet machine designed to cut through leather and either brass or copper grommets, carefully install the hardware around the perimeter of the hide about 12 inches apart.
Next, measure the hide by length and height. You will also want to draw an outline of the hide on the wall where you want the tapestry to hang and mark a place for each grommet. Be very careful in the placement because unless you frame a hide, it is difficult to move around once it is secured to the wall.
With a drill, install drywall screws about every 12 to 18 inches in the wall about 6 inches around the outside of trace made from the hide in Step 2. You will place a screw in between every other grommet. When all the screws are in place, you are ready for the last step.
The last step is wiring or stringing the hide to the wall. On the backside of the hide, run the wire or leather strip through the grommet and secure the wire or leather strip with a tight knot. This is the starting point for stringing the hide. While one person holds the hide in place, the other must run the strip or wire from the grommet, around the screw and back through the next grommet until each grommet and screw has been used. This is a zig-zag stitch and should look like a row of w's (WWWWWWWWW) all the way around the hide. The person doing the stitch should make sure they pull the wire or leather strip taut. You don't want the hide to sag in any place on the wall.
Once the hide is up, you can add other wall decorations, but careful not to detract from the beauty of the wildlife motif.
Writer Bio
Sarah Cowgill graduated from Arizona State University with a B.A. in political communications. She spent most of her 25-year career writing speeches for high-profile politicians and managing media. Among her long list of clients, she has written several cover stories for glossy publications in Arizona and contributed as a guest editor for many major dailies in Arizona and Indiana.
