Installing A French Cleat
5 Materials
$14
2 Hours
Easy
What exactly is a French Cleat? If you have something very heavy and what to make sure it stays on the wall without falling off, you're going to want to use a French cleat. We've used them on several projects, but here I'll show you how to use it to hang a heavy leaded glass window to a wall.
If you have a heavy shelf, window or any other object that is very heavy, and you don't want it to fall off the wall; you're going to want to install a French cleat.
So what exactly is a French cleat? It’s two parts, one is connected to the piece being hung and the other piece to the wall. These two parts interlock with a 30-45 degree angle cut into each of them. See the photo above. If you Google French cleat, you’ll find that most show how you can make your own using wood.
But we chose to use a metal French cleat that I ordered from Amazon. They’re meant to hold a lot of weight and they’ve got wiggle room as far as getting them in the correct position. I can lift the window off the wall cleat any time I want because the only thing holding the window to the wall cleat are the angles that are interlocking into each other.
This is showing the French cleat after I screwed it to the window on the side that will not be showing in the room.
This is viewing it from the side. The angle will rest into the angle of the wall cleat.
Before you screw the other part of the French cleat to the wall, make sure to use a level to make sure it will hang straight. You'll also want to make sure you screw it into some of the studs. A super easy stud finder is a heavy magnet with a strong pull. Just move the magnet around, up and down and across and it will find the nails that were used in the studs; otherwise you can buy and use a regular stud finder.
After screwing the French cleat to the wall, just slide on and position your window, shelf or whatever else you're hanging. Looking above, now you know why I wanted this window to be hung security to the wall. Easy and simple. Voila!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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4 of 6 comments
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Yep, BEST way to hang anything substantial!!!! Looks beautiful.
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great advice - bedroom is beautiful!
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Thank you!
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