Hanging pictures in a 1930s house

[katienana]

Dh says its really hard to get our walls to bear weight because you have to find the wooden baton inside the wall to put any kind of fixing into. I can't find any examples of this on the Internet and I was wondering if there was a simple tool or way around it. I really want to hang a large mirror in our hallway and get a gallery wall going up the stairs. There must be loads of houses constructed this way what do other people do???!!!

Large mirror: wooden batten.
Small photos for a gallery wall: hammer in simple picture hangers wherever.

Do you have picture rails? They are quite common in 1930s houses and you can buy hooks and hang on a chain. Otherwise light things just on a normal picture hook but heavy things need a bit more security so wooden baton.

Our late 20s house has solid internal walls, no wood.

We have picture rails in some rooms but not all.
Do you mean screw into the wooden baton in the wall? Is there anything you can use to locate it? I think he's worried about ruining the plaster if he goes into the wrong place. In the past we've just used the nails that were left by the previous owners but in the hall we've just had the walls skimmed and painted.

For the gallery wall could you use those command strips? They can hold up to 7.2kg. I've got some pretty big pictures held up by them

Google lathe and plaster - it's a style of building walls. Parts of our house were changed in the 1940s so we have walls like this. You'll see the wooden batons he's talking about.

Our previous 1930s house had absolutely solid walls, to the point we couldn't use a normal hammer or any normal tools to get anything in.

Does he know for certain what the walls are like?

Another one here to say our 1939s house has solid brick internal walls. Hanging anything is a massive undertaking. Are you sure about this? Perhaps it was remodelled?

I have lathe and plaster walls. Command Strips are your friend. They're bloody brilliant!

The laths are the thing strips of wood that run horizontally. They are nailed to the wall studs which are bigger bits of wood that run vertically.

I guess your husband means that you have to hang pictures on the wall studs.

In your situation I’d just get in a joiner to replace the picture rails. It’s not a big job. Then you can hang pictures where you like ( assuming you like a traditional look ).

Or command hooks or batons as PP said .

You need a stud detector. Amazon sell them.

It is unlikely that the walls at ground floor level are timber stud in a 1930's house though.