Hanging wall art rugs, better known as tapestry, are beautifully designed with patterns or pictures weaved into cloth. While they have great potential to give your home a stylish and refreshing appearance, they are actually quite delicate and need to be taken care of properly to ensure longevity.
If you are new to wall hangings and don’t quite know how to care for them, we have a few tips and tricks that may help.
How To Keep Wall Art Rugs Clean
If you have a wall art rug hanging and you want to keep it clean, there are a few methods you can use. They’re all quite simple. If your wall art rug is dirty and it needs to be cleaned, we have some helpful information about that as well.
Exposure To Smells
Keep your tapestry away from strong odors or rooms that are prone to strong odors, such as a kitchen or bathroom. The tapestry material will absorb the scents and it will stick. So when you walk by the tapestry, it’s eventually going to smell terrible. It may look nice on your wall, but it won’t smell nice.
On the contrary, you can hang your wall art rug in an area that may be used for burning incense regularly or contains an essential oil diffuser. This will actually make your tapestry smell better.
Keep The Dust Away
According to original rugs, you must keep dust away from your tapestry. Based on where you place your hanging wall rug, there will be more or fewer attacks by the dust depending on how you clean.
Polyester rugs have the ability to charge static electricity and will attract dust more than cotton hanging rugs do. To keep your tapestry free from dust, you will need to vacuum it. This depends on how much exposure it has to dust.
Eliminate The Sun
Newer tapestries have new printing technologies that make them sunproof. However, if you have an older traditional Indian tapestry in direct sunlight, the colors are going to fade after a few weeks of exposure. You should observe how the sunlight hits the room your hanging wall art is in to avoid exposure.
Properly Hanging Your Wall Art Rug
As we mentioned earlier, never hang your tapestry in direct sunlight or near direct heat. This will fade and/or shrink the tapestry. If your wall rug comes with some creases in it due to shipping, you can iron it on a flat surface, image side down, with a medium iron with a small amount of steam. You can place a bed sheet or a dye-free sheet over the tapestry to protect it.
Tapestries can be hung 3-inches away from the wall or you can hang it closer at ¾-inches and close to the wall brackets. You should never hang it flat against the wall due to the possibility of mold and mildew buildup. If you don’t want to go the traditional route, there are a few other ways you can hang your tapestry.
Stretch Over A Frame
You can turn your beautiful fabric into a work of art by stretching it over a wood frame or plywood board. You can then attach it with a staple gun if you really want to. Additionally, use sawtooth picture hangers to mount it on the wall.
Secure It With Velcro
If you don’t want to put holes in your wall, then you can hang the tapestry with velcro or self-adhesives. This is also a great method if you have a curved wall or don’t want to put holes in the fabric.
Use A Baseboard
If your hanging wall art is very heavy, it may need more support. A baseboard will help greatly when it comes to securing it to the wall. You can select a board that will fit into the rod pocket in the back of the tapestry. If it doesn’t have a pocket, you can hand sew one using heavy fabric. Cut the board so it’s smaller than the width of the tapestry. Place a mark where the screws will be inserted into the drill holes and slide the board into the pocket. Fold the sides for the tapestry back and attach the board to the wall.
Use A Simple Rod
If your tapestry has a pocket in the back, you can use a rod to hang it. If you have a rectangular piece or one that’s very large, you can drape it over the rod to create a fake headboard or a display over your sofa.
Frame It
If you don’t want to risk ruining your fragile fabric, you can certainly put it behind a glass frame. You can use either a frame or shadowbox. It will protect your wall art and give it the display it deserves.
How To Clean Your Hanging Wall Art
How you clean your hanging wall art depends on what type of tapestry it is. For Jacquard woven tapestry, it should be cleaned once or twice per year using a vacuum with an upholstery attachment.
If your tapestry is 100% cotton, you can have it dry cleaned to remove stains and protect it. If it needs to be spot cleaned, you can use a gentle fabric cleaner such as Woolite. It’s recommended that you dry clean your tapestry once every four years.
Here are the exact steps for cleaning your tapestry:
- Step 1: Remove the tapestry from your wall if it’s necessary
- Step 2: Place the tapestry on a flat surface like a clean floor or table
- Step 3: Get out your vacuum cleaner and connect the upholstery attachment. It’s generally an attachment with stiff bristles and an oval or rectangular-shaped head.
- Step 4: With the vacuum turned on, run the attachment down the length of the tapestry, working from top to bottom. The top side of the tapestry is where dust collects as it hangs on the wall, so pay special attention to this area.
- Step 5: Flip over the tapestry and vacuum the back if you would like. It’s generally not as dirty as the front.
- Step 6: If your tapestry still looks dirty after you have vacuumed it, you can take it to a dry cleaner. You should not dry clean hand-woven, Italian, French, or 100% wool tapestries. You can contact a rug cleaner who specializes in high-end carpets or antique textiles for those ones.
Never wash your tapestry in the washing machine as it could damage the fabric. Additionally, some tapestries have tassels, beads, or other embellishments around the border. If yours does, be very careful when vacuuming to avoid sucking anything up.
Conclusion
It is our hope that you found this article helpful when it comes to keeping your hanging wall art clean and vibrant.
It’s important to remember that these wall art hangings are delicate and should be taken care of properly to guarantee their longevity. As we said, you can frame it to protect it or you can simply hang it in an area where it won’t be exposed to dust, odors, or sunlight.
