How to hang and care for embroidered textile wall art

Textile wall art brings something to a wall that a print cannot: texture you notice from across the room and want to touch up close. This guide is for flat textile pieces, hand embroidery and thread art on canvas such as our Cadence. It covers where to hang them, how to fix them to your wall, how to light them and how to look after wool and canvas so the colours stay true for years.

Flat textile wall art: what this guide covers

Flat textile art is stitched, woven or embroidered onto a support that stays rigid: a stretched canvas, a board or a frame. It hangs like a painting, close to the wall. A macramé piece is different. It hangs free from a branch or rod, moves with the air and has a fringe, so it needs its own approach to hooks and cleaning. For those, read how to hang a macramé wall hanging and how to clean a macramé wall hanging.

Cadence is a good example of the flat kind. It is hand-embroidered with wool yarn on stretched canvas, measures 59 × 49 cm (23 × 19 in) and arrives ready to hang. Everything below applies to pieces like it.

Choose the wall

Textile pieces love calm walls in soft, warm light: above a sofa, a desk, a sideboard or a dining table, or on a narrow wall that needs a little warmth. A few places are best avoided:

• Walls in direct sun for hours. Strong sunlight fades natural dyes and dries fibres over time.
• Bathrooms and kitchens. Steam and humidity affect wool and canvas, and kitchen grease settles on fibres.
• Above a radiator or a fireplace. Rising heat dries the fibres and carries dust straight onto the stitches.
• Cold, damp outside walls. If a wall shows condensation in winter, choose another one.

Good places for a piece like Cadence

Embroidery rewards a close look, so put it where people stop or sit. Above a desk, you see every stitch while you work. Above a sofa or a dining table, it reads as colour and rhythm from across the room and as texture when you lean in. On a narrow wall in a hallway or beside a doorway, a piece of this size adds warmth without taking up the space a larger hanging would need.

Find the right height and size

On a bare wall, hang the centre of the piece at about eye level, roughly 145 to 155 cm (57 to 61 in) from the floor. Above furniture, leave a gap of 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 in) between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the canvas, so the two read as one composition.

For width, aim for about two-thirds of the furniture below; anything between half and three-quarters looks deliberate. Cadence, at 59 cm wide, suits a console, desk or sideboard of about 80 to 120 cm. Our size guide has a chart in centimetres for sofas and beds.

How to hang a stretched canvas in six steps

1. Look at the back first. See how the piece is meant to hang: a wire, a hook or rings on the frame, or the bare stretcher bar. That decides how many hooks you need and where they go. Our canvases arrive ready to hang.
2. Know your wall. Solid brick or concrete takes a wall plug and screw. Plasterboard needs a cavity fixing, or a screw into a stud. Old lime plaster can crumble, so drill slowly or use picture hooks with fine hardened pins.
3. Mark the height. Decide where the top of the canvas should sit, then measure from the top of the canvas down to the hanging point. If there is a wire, pull it taut towards the top first. Mark the hook position that distance below the line.
4. Check for cables and pipes. Use a detector, and avoid drilling directly above or below sockets and switches, where cables usually run.
5. Fix one hook or two. A piece the size of Cadence can hang from one sound hook. Two hooks, set level and a little apart, stop a wider piece from tilting each time someone brushes past.
6. Level and protect. Check it with a small spirit level, then stick two small felt or rubber bumpers on the lower corners of the back. They hold the canvas straight, stop it marking the wall and let air move behind it.

We do not recommend adhesive hooks or strips for canvas pieces. They can let go as temperature and humidity change, and they can pull paint off the wall when removed.

Light it softly

Side light makes texture come alive. A window or a lamp to one side casts small shadows across every stitch, and the piece changes through the day. Warm, indirect light is also kinder to natural fibres than strong spotlights or direct sun.

If you light the piece on purpose, use LED lamps, which give off little heat, and keep them a good distance from the surface. Angle the light from above or the side rather than straight on, so the stitches throw shadows instead of flattening out.

Care: little and often

Wool embroidery needs very little, as long as it gets that little regularly. This is how we recommend looking after a piece like Cadence.

Task	How often	How
Dust	Every few weeks	A soft, dry brush or cloth, working gently along the direction of the stitches. A clean, soft paintbrush is ideal.
Check	Each season	Look at the fixing, the back of the canvas and the corners, where dust and moths like to sit undisturbed.
Protect	Always	Keep away from direct sunlight and humidity to protect the colours and fibres.
Clean	Never with water	Do not wash or iron the piece, and do not use cleaning products on the stitched surface.
Store	When needed	Wrap in a clean cotton cloth and keep flat in a dry place, with nothing on top.

If something spills on it

Blot straight away with a clean, dry, white cloth. Press; do not rub, which pushes the stain into the wool and roughs up the stitches. Then write to us before you try anything else, and we will tell you what we would do with that piece.

Moving or rehanging

Lift a canvas by its sides or the stretcher bar at the back, never by pressing on the stitched face. To move it, wrap it in a clean cotton cloth and carry it upright, with nothing leaning against the stitches. When you take it down for good, fill the old hole before you rehang, so the next fixing goes into sound wall.

Moths

Clothes moths like wool that sits undisturbed in the dark. Regular dusting and a look at the back of the canvas each season are the best protection. If you store a piece, avoid sealed plastic, which can trap moisture; a cotton cloth in a dry cupboard is better.

Pair it with your room

Textile art sits beautifully next to natural materials: linen, wood, ceramics, books. Pick one or two colours from the piece, repeat them in a cushion or a vase, and let the rest of the wall breathe. Cadence carries red, mustard, olive green and dusty pink, which echo terracotta, ochre and sage elsewhere in a room.

Frequently asked questions

Can I hang textile art in a kitchen or bathroom?

We would not. Steam, humidity and cooking grease all settle into natural fibres. A hallway, living room, bedroom or study is a better home for it.

How do I clean embroidered wall art?

Dust it gently with a soft, dry brush or cloth every few weeks. Do not wash it, iron it or use cleaning products on the stitches. For a mark or a spill, blot with a dry cloth and contact us before doing anything else.

Will the colours fade?

Natural fibres and dyes fade slowly under strong sunlight, as most textiles do. Out of direct sun, the colours are far better protected, which is why we recommend a wall in soft, indirect light.

Should textile art go behind glass?

It does not need to, and glass flattens the texture that makes it worth having. If the wall is in a very dusty or smoky spot, a box frame with a spacer keeps the glass off the stitches.

Can I use adhesive hooks for a canvas?

We do not recommend them. A screw and wall plug, or a picture hook suited to your wall, holds a canvas far more reliably over the years.

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