I’ve been trying to figure out how best to position large canvases for painting since my current easel isn’t all that great and I’d rather spend the limited time I have painting rather than constructing another easel (which I’m sure I’ll do at some point). One of the challenges I keep running into is how to position my canvases, particularly the bigger ones, vertical instead of at an angle.
I was recently watching a video by another artist and caught a glimpse of his setup on a wall and decided to steal the idea of adding some French cleats to one of the walls in my studio. I think it really worked out great!
Cutting the French cleats was pretty easily done with a table saw and some cheap 1×4 lumber from the hardware store.
I pre-drilled pilot holes to attach these cleats to the concrete studio wall. This is the part that required a little measuring, but just because I wanted my cleats to be consistent. Cleats, plural, because I realized that if I just had one cleat and a canvas hanging from it, if I was painting on say the bottom of the canvas that didn’t have any support between it and the wall, it would move around a good bit. So I cut 2 cleats to give additional support to large canvases. To try and get the screws as straight as possible, I drilled the pilot holes with a drill press.
Of course, I don’t have any kind of support to make sure I go straight into the wall other than the level on my drill. The only complicated part about this whole project was making sure the holes I drilled into the concrete wall were lined up perfectly with the holes in the cleats, which I did by holding each cleat up to the wall and marking through the pilot hole exactly where I needed to drill on the concrete.
Up goes the first cleat!
And then the second one!
So then I needed to make some reciprocal cleats that I can screw to the back of a canvas so it will hang. For this I made a smaller cleat that could fit some different sized canvases. To make it a little easier, I pre-drilled a line of holes along the middle so the cleat wouldn’t split and would be easy to attach and un-attach as needed (and yes, I was also replacing a starter in a car that same day!).
With that, attaching to the back of a canvas with screws is easy! Here’s the wall with a 36″ x 36″ canvas on it ready to be painted!
This project took me about an hour and cost about $8 for the 1x4s.
8 replies on “How to Set Up a French Cleat Wall Easel”
I’m wondering how exactly you are attaching the canvases to the cleats once you have your cleats all set up and attached to the wall? Are the canvases hanging by a wire from the top cleat? I’m wondering how you attach them so they are solid and not swinging/moving around while you paint. Thanks!!
ok I see that you made a cleat to attach to the back of a canvas, so does that cleat just sit on top of the top cleat on the wall? Is that secure? thanks again!!
Yes, exactly. The cleats are cut at 45 degree angles so the top one which I attach to the frame of the canvas just nests into the one attached to the wall. The cleats that attach to the canvas are pretty wide so they sit super secure. The reason I put a 2nd (lower) cleat on the wall is because when painting larger canvases, the bottom one acts as a support so the canvas doesn’t wiggle in and out. It’s not really necessary for smaller canvasses. Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Ed
that was very helpful, thanks so much!!!
Ed,
Can you snap a picture of the rear of the canvas where you attached the cleat? I’m guessing the 45 degree part sits below the frame. I am currently designing a wall easel very similar to this. I am building a small 8X8 studio.
Thanks!
Dan
Sure! Here are a couple shots on a large canvas.
Hi,
So I was thinking of doing the same thing after watching Andrew Tischler’s video. I also had the same concerns about the bottom part of the canvas not being supported hanging only by one cleat at the top. So are you adding a second cleat across the middle of your canvas or you are just using that second wood strip attached to the wall to support your canvas? What would you do if you wanted to paint on a panel or just canvas from a canvas roll?
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris, Thanks for the note. I just use the second lower wood strip for support and don’t mess with trying to attach another cleat. I paint on panels sometimes, but just use them on a simple A frame easel I built a few years ago. Most of the panels I’ve used are too thin to screw a temporary cleat to. As far as just canvas, I’ve never painted on it straight off the roll, but I’m thinking an easy solution would be to build a simple frame large enough to accommodate whatever size you want, attach a cleat to it and then just staple the canvas temporarily to the frame. Then paint and remove the canvas from the frame when it dries.
Cheers,
Ed