Hanging Acrylic Wall Art on Block Walls: A Sharjah and Ajman Guide
Acryhome ·
Hanging advice written for apartments elsewhere usually assumes plasterboard: push a pin in, hang the thing, done. Most homes in Sharjah and Ajman are not built that way. Older buildings and villas across Al Nahda, Al Majaz, Al Qasimia, Al Nuaimiya, Al Rashidiya and the Ajman Corniche towers are solid concrete block, often rendered and painted. That changes the method.
First, work out what your wall is
Knock on it. A hollow, drummy sound with a bit of give is plasterboard. A dead, solid thud is block or concrete. If you are unsure, push a drawing pin in by hand: if it goes in with thumb pressure, it is plasterboard; if it stops dead, it is block.
Do this before you order anything, because it decides whether the adhesive pads in the box are any use to you. On plasterboard, a 60 cm acrylic piece at a few hundred grams hangs on pads alone with no drilling. On block, pads are unreliable — particularly on a painted render that can let go of its own surface layer under sustained load in summer heat.
Drilling block properly
It is five minutes of work and it is not difficult:
- Use a hammer drill and a masonry bit, not a wood bit in a regular drill. A 6 mm bit suits the plugs supplied with our pieces.
- Mark through the template, or hold the piece to the wall and mark the fixing points with a pencil. Check level before you mark, not after you drill.
- Drill slightly deeper than the plug so dust at the bottom of the hole does not stop the plug seating flush.
- Blow the dust out or the plug will sit proud and the screw will push it back out.
- Tap the plug in flush, drive the screw until the head stands about 3 mm off the wall, and hang.
If you hit something that will not drill, you have found a reinforced concrete column or a lintel. Move 10 cm sideways rather than fighting it.
If you are renting and cannot drill
Three options that work on block:
- Heavy-duty mounting tape on a smooth surface. It needs smooth, clean, well-adhered paint — wipe with a barely damp cloth, let it dry fully, then press for 30 seconds. It will not hold on rough render or chalky old paint.
- A picture rail or a leaning shelf. One fixing, or none, and the art can change without new holes.
- Lean it. A 40 cm piece on a console or sideboard, propped against the wall, is a legitimate arrangement and costs nothing to undo.
Acrylic is uniquely suited to all three, because it weighs so little. A steel piece of the same size would rule every one of them out.
Spacing a group on a long wall
Sharjah and Ajman apartments are generously sized, and the living rooms frequently have one very large blank wall. The mistake is a single small piece marooned in the middle of it. Either go up to 80 cm, or build a group: a 60 cm centrepiece with two 40 cm companions, gaps of 8–12 cm, companions hung slightly lower. Centre the whole group on the furniture beneath, not on the wall, and put the centre of the group at 145–152 cm from the floor.
Three-panel Surah sets and square Kufic trios in the Islamic wall art collection come pre-proportioned for this, which saves a lot of measuring.
Why acrylic rather than metal here
Both Sharjah and Ajman are coastal, and salt-carrying air is hard on powder-coated steel — wherever the coating is pierced at a fixing, corrosion starts and eventually bleeds a mark down a pale wall. Cast acrylic does not corrode, does not absorb moisture, and is UV stable so it will not yellow. It also will not need the anchors that a few kilograms of steel demands in block. The full material comparison is here, including where acrylic is the wrong choice.
Cleaning, briefly
Dry microfibre cloth, or barely damp for marks. Never glass cleaner, alcohol or anything with ammonia — those craze acrylic over months. And lift dust off rather than dragging a dry cloth hard across the surface, which is how fine scratches happen.
Fixings come in the box with every piece. See our Sharjah and Ajman delivery pages, or ask us if your wall is an awkward one — we would rather talk it through than have you drill twice.