Command Picture Hanging Strips vs Gravity and Murphy's Law, Which is Winning?

I’ve posted three articles about use of double Velcro-style Command Picture Hanging Strips to hang light or medium-heavy pictures, with the advantage that the picture is flush against the wall, and there’s no movement to cause swinging since all four corners are adhered to the wall rather than the object hanging from just one hook at top center.  However, longevity has been a concern, especially given occasional anecdotes from people about the strips not sticking well to walls in hot or humid climates.  

My 2016 article introduced the concept and was entirely positive, based on a short period of time in my old home.  I was subsequently there for another year before moving to my current home, and had no failures during that time.  

The 2018 article was written about 5 months after moving to my current home and thus having gone through a new round of mounting pictures and other objects: new walls, and some new items belonging to my wife (who was already there).  The Command Strips were still doing well, although the picture frames being mounted were more variable and sometimes not flat, or didn’t have a good full surface to which I could optimally stick a strip.  I pointed out some of the challenges posed by these variations and noted that one of the picture frames was a bit warped, so all four corners could not be tightly against the wall at the same time and one of them only had part of the strip against the wall; but it was holding up well despite that.

The 2020 article was written because I had started to see failures in the more challenging situations that I had mentioned in 2018.  The warped picture frame had a corner that had separated a bit more from the wall, but 3 1/2 strips were still adhered.  However, one picture fell spontaneously; it had waxy paper on the back and had been mounted by putting duct tape on the paper and sticking the Command strip adhesive side to the duct tape.  The Command Strip had not failed; it was the duct tape that had separated from the backing paper.  I figured this was a special case.  Some small framed photos in the bathroom had only a thin plastic rim on the back rather than a full surface and thus had started slowly sliding, and ultimately fell (2018 and first 2020 photo below).  The Command Strips ultimately had failed in that sub-optimal situation, so I cleverly built up extra material and stuck the Command Strips to that (second 2020 photo below).

The challenging bathroom frames in 2018 failure in
2020, my solution in 2020, and failure again in 2025
(click to enlarge)

SO, it’s the very end of 2025, and how are they all doing?  Well, it’s pretty abysmal; I’ve had 6 or 7 pictures spontaneously fall at different times!  However, the Command Strips were not the weak link.  The bathroom frames for which I had to jury rig a surface to adhere with the Command Strip just turned out to be too challenging; it was the extra material I had built up that failed (see photos at left).  The frame on the stairwell that had the one warped corner finally fell, and then when I put it back up, it didn’t take long to fall again.  My wife has similar frames for some pictures in her den, and 3 of the 4 have fallen one by one—these also seem to be a little warped.  So the Command Strips seems to be doing ok when sticking a flat surface to another flat surface, with both surfaces being at least as big as the Command Strip, and none of them having “non-stick” surfaces involved.  I think it’s still worthwhile to occasionally glance at Command Strip-mounted items from the side just to make sure that there has been no warping nor resulting partial separation of a strip.

Photos from my 2018 article. I did not take new
photos for this article because they look identical
now to how they looked when first mounted 8
years ago, including side view (click to enlarge).

Notably, EVERY item that I had mounted at my old home described in the 2016 article not only stayed securely mounted there, but also has remained securely mounted for the last 8 years in my current home, including items near doors where one expects more temperature and humidity changes (photos at right).  Clearly, some kinds of back surfaces are better than others for mounting with Command Strips.

I should point out something very important: ANY of these methods of hanging pictures could potentially fail one way or another, so never mount/hang anything, with any method, over the head of a bed, crib, dog bed, etc. that you would not want to fall there.  That includes Command Strips, maze picture hoods, regular picture hooks, and nails.  Note that the Command website also emphasizes that you should never mount something over a bed.  I got a useful comment last month on my 2020 Command Strip article from somebody who apparently had a spectacular failure after 5 years.  I was hoping to find out more details, like whether the Command Strips had separated from the picture, the wall, or themselves, but never got a follow-up.  I’m including a screenshot of that useful dialogue (screenshot is below).

Timely, recent comment on the 2020 article
with my reply (click to enlarge). If this
commenter sees this, I've love to learn
more details.

So what have we learned?  The differences between the two home situations are different kinds of paint on the walls, and the pictures that my wife had were in some cases warped already.  I want to emphasize that in all of the cases where the Command Strips were used to stick flat, full-surface frame backs, made of material that didn’t resist sticking, there were no failures in 8 years.

So here’s a rule of thumb.  If, after having stuck a picture to the wall with Command Strips, you find yourself patting yourself on the back and saying, “Aren’t I clever to have figured out a solution?!”, it is an inauspicious sign of things to come!

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