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Look at this gorgeous walnut mantle. It is probably over a hundred years old, but you know what, a previous installer or carpenter ruined it. What did they do?
Look at this, they went ahead and drove nails through the edge of the walnut to attach it to the wall. What a mistake. You know what they could have used. They could use an ingenious device called a French cleat to hide the fasteners and to basically magically install the mantle or anything else to a wall system.
Now, what is a French cleat? Well, basically it is a two pieces of material that interlock with one another. It can be made from wood, it can be made from metal and you can use it to fix just about anything to a wall. It could be picture, it could be a mantle, a plaque, you name it, you can use French cleat to attach something to a wall.
Now, how do you make it? If you are using wood, all you have to do is take your saw, set it at a 45-degree angle and maybe rip a 1 x 3 in half down the length of the wood. Attach one part to the wall, so that you get a V-shaped groove on the wall and then attach the corresponding piece of the cleat to the back of the mantle or the picture or whatever and bingo. When you slide the mantle or the photograph down on to the other piece, the two pieces of material interlock and you cannot pull it from the wall.
Oh yeah! French cleats. Look how easy they work. It is the only way to attach an object like this or maybe a large painting if you do not want to see nails or screws.
If you want to discover more home improvement tips, go to AsktheBuilder.com.
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