How to Hang a Picture on Board and Batten

I have a confession to make. I am obsessed with architectural millwork. I don't know if it's because I grew up in an old home chock full of it, or if I've just always been drawn to it, but either way, I'm obsessed. I love excessive trim, beams, and board and batten. I'm not detail oriented but I love the detail that it gives to a space. After a trial run with our first attempt at board and batten last year, I finally convinced my husband to get a start on it downstairs. Truth be told, this has been something I've been asking for for more than a decade, so it's been a slow process.  I've already given you a full tutorial on how we installed true board and batten, so I'm not going to rehash that. I am however, going to show you how we hung a picture on the board and batten. You see, my husband isn't really a fan of change. I hung a picture up in our front hallway of our family about five years ago and now that picture can never move. Change is hard. 

If my husband were to install board and batten in the downstairs hallway where would the picture go? This was a legitimate concern of his that I did my best to address. So we sat down and came up with a plan and I'm sharing it with you, just in case you have a picture that you want to hang on a wall on top of your board and batten. 
Before we get started though, I just want to show you what a difference it makes to have this installed in the hallway downstairs with this side by side comparison.

How to Hang a Picture on Board and Batten

The picture we wanted hung was quite heavy and we wanted it centered on the wall. You are going to select a board that is as thick as the thickest part of the top edge. If you don't, the picture will hang at an angle and trust me, it looks funny.
You will want your board centered on the wall where you will be hanging your picture, however, unless you are incredibly lucky, the screws you will be putting through your board INTO the studs in the wall will probably not be centered. That's OK.
Find out where your studs are and then make sure the board screws go into those. Then Simply hang your picture using your board.

If you stand at an angle and look really hard, you can see the board behind the picture. This doesn't happen often, so it's not an issue, otherwise I would tell you to do something to make it less ugly.

Normally this is what you see. It almost looks as though the picture is floating on the board and batten.

I really love how it turned out.

I'm thinking we need a new mat for our frame now because it's looking pretty yellow. I swear it wasn't yellow before!

So there you have it. If you want to hang a picture on board and batten, that's how we did it. So tell me, are you as obsessed with finish work as I am? Give me all the box beams!
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