Hanging Things on the Wall
When you decide to hang a picture or a hat rack on a wall, of course you want the item to stay on the wall and not come crashing down in the middle of the night, scaring the dog who then wakes all the neighbors with his barking. In order to hang something successfully, you need to take into account a number of factors.
The first one, and most important, is whose wall is it. If it belongs to you, then you can punch a hole in it as big as you want. If it belongs to a landlord, then that is quite another story. For walls belonging to landlords, only hang up lightweight things that can be attached with the sticky stuff they sell for that purpose or else with a very small brad and a promise to yourself you will cover the brad hole with toothpaste (white; not the gel kind) before you move out.
Assuming you are allowed to do whatever you want with an object and a wall, you need to think about weight. If you are hanging up a coat rack, not only will your wall (and your fastener) have to hold up the rack itself but also the weight of winter coats and other things that inevitably get hung on coat racks. A heavy item is going to need a strong connection to the wall. The way to do this is to find a stud, or get anchor bolts or molly bolts.
You can get machines that locate studs (no, it’s not an on-line dating service) by detecting the nail heads in them. You can also estimate their location by measuring out 16 inches from the end of a wall. If you tap on the wall with your knuckles, you’ll get a hollow sound between studs and a thunk when you tap on a stud. Use a drill with a very thin bit to be sure you have found the stud. If the drill bit goes in slowly for about half an inch and then very easily for the rest of its length, you’ve missed the stud. When you find the stud, you can screw directly into it which will hold up fairly heavy items. Fill your trial holes with a little drywall mud.
Anchor bolts consist of a plastic or lead sleeve and a screw that fits in the sleeve. You drill a hole in the wall to accommodate the sleeve and then the sleeve actually holds the screw. A molly bolt has a pair of wings that are collapsed. You drill a hole and put the end of the molly bolt and its wings through. As you tighten the bolt, the wings will spread and will hold the bolt firmly against the backside of the drywall. Anchor and molly bolts are not as strong as screwing something to a stud, but they will hold quite a lot of weight.
Lighter-weight objects such as pictures can be hung on a brad or picture-hanging hardware (a hook with a brad in it).
If you use the right equipment, your mirror or oil painting will grace your walls without trouble for many years.