How We Research

What we do

• Read the manufacturer’s published specification. Rated weight capacity, dimensions, mounting method, materials, glazing type. Where a figure appears on this site, the manufacturer’s own page is linked at the foot of the article.
• Compare products on the spec that decides the purchase, not on the spec that is easiest to write about. For hanging hardware that is rated weight. For frames it is size availability and glazing. For mats it is the opening size and whether the board is acid-free.
• Check the product is currently sold. A recommendation you cannot buy is not a recommendation.
• Look at durability patterns owners report at volume. Not any individual review — a single complaint tells you nothing. A consistent, repeated failure mode across hundreds of owners tells you something the specification does not.

What we do not do

• We do not run a test lab. No hang-and-wait trials, no pull tests, no long-term durability program. We will not claim otherwise to make a page read more authoritatively.
• We do not invent experience. No “in our testing”, no “after six months of use”, no manufactured anecdotes about a wall somebody here supposedly decorated.
• We do not publish star ratings we made up. There are no review scores or aggregate ratings anywhere on this site, because we have not done the work that would justify one.
• We do not cite other blogs for a number. If a figure matters, it comes from the company that makes the thing, or from a published standard. A number copied between blogs is a rumor with a citation.

How picks are ordered

By the specification that decides the purchase — never by commission.

On hanging hardware that means rated weight capacity, because weight is the constraint that actually stops a reader. On frames it means size availability and glazing material, because those determine whether the frame fits the art and whether it can be hung without drilling. Where two products are equivalent on the deciding spec, the cheaper one goes first.

How prices work here

We do not publish prices in our text. Prices change weekly; a number typed into an article is stale within months and then it is simply wrong.

Every product links to its live listing, where the retailer shows the current price. Where you see “Check price on Amazon”, that is not a placeholder — it is the honest state of a site that refuses to print a number it cannot keep current.

What would change a pick

• The product is discontinued or persistently out of stock.
• The manufacturer revises its published rating.
• A consistent failure pattern emerges across many owners.
• A better product appears on the deciding specification.

When a page changes, the last-updated date on it changes too. We do not refresh dates on pages that have not actually changed.

Tell us we got it wrong

If a figure here does not match the manufacturer’s current specification, email janet.hoyo@yahoo.com. We check it against the source, fix the page, and update the date. See also our editorial policy and how we are funded.