Most advice about hanging a clock is about where it looks best. This is the other list: the places where it will look fine on day one and cause a problem later.
1. In direct afternoon sunlight
The most damaging spot, and the least obvious, because sun damage arrives slowly enough that nobody connects it to the wall they chose.
Any print fades in sustained direct sun — ours included, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling something. A wall that gets a few hours of unfiltered afternoon light through a west-facing window is the one to avoid. Morning light is gentler, and indirect daylight is fine, which covers the majority of walls in most homes.
Dark artwork shows fading sooner than light artwork, because the change has further to travel before it stops being subtle.
2. Directly above a working fireplace or a radiator
Heat rising off a radiator or a lit fire is dry, constant and concentrated. It will not melt acrylic at household temperatures, but it accelerates every ageing process the material has, and over years it can encourage warping in a thin panel.
A mantel that projects 15 cm or more deflects most of the rising heat and makes the spot workable. A flat wall directly above a heat source does not. There is more on the fireplace question in above a sofa, desk or fireplace.
3. Where water can reach it
Humidity is not the problem. Acrylic does not mind a steamy bathroom, and neither does the print.
Standing water is the problem, and so is repeated splashing — the wall directly above a bath, the splash zone beside a shower, the strip behind a kitchen sink. Water sitting against the edge of a panel finds its way in eventually, and a battery compartment that gets damp is a corroded battery compartment.
4. On a door, or on the wall a door swings into
Two versions of the same mistake.
A clock mounted on a door takes a small impact every time the door closes. Movements are not built for that, and the usual symptom is hands that gradually work loose and start catching on each other.
A clock on the wall behind an opening door gets knocked eventually. It only has to happen once.
5. On a thin partition wall that carries vibration
A hollow stud wall shared with a slamming door, a staircase or a washing machine behaves like a soundboard. Two things follow: the clock gradually rotates off level, and a silent sweep movement can become faintly audible because the wall amplifies the motor hum rather than the clock producing more of it.
Both are fixed by moving it to a more solid wall, or by adding a felt pad behind the hanging point.
6. Directly above a hob
Airborne cooking grease settles on everything, and on a clock face it builds into a film that a dry cloth will not shift. That tempts people towards a degreasing spray, and degreasing sprays and glass cleaners cloud acrylic permanently.
Elsewhere in a kitchen is fine with an occasional damp-cloth wipe. Directly above the cooking surface is asking for the one cleaning mistake that cannot be undone.
7. Too high in a stairwell, or above head height in a hallway
Not a damage problem — a use problem. A clock that has to be looked up at is a clock that stops being read, and once it stops being read it becomes wall decoration that happens to need a battery.
In a stairwell, measure from the middle step of the flight rather than the floor below. In a hallway, keep the centre at 155-165 cm. Heights are covered properly in how high should a wall clock hang.
And one that is only about looking
A wall that already has a large mirror, a television or a busy piece of artwork on it does not have room for a clock as well. Two focal points on one wall means neither is a focal point, and the clock loses that contest almost every time because it is smaller.
Give it its own wall, or its own clear section of one. That is the difference between a piece that gets noticed and a piece that gets absorbed into the background.
The short version
Out of direct sun. Away from heat, water and vibration. Not on a door or behind one. Not above the hob. Low enough to read without tilting your head. And on a wall that is not already busy.
Everything else is available, which is most walls in most homes.
Two places people worry about unnecessarily
Near a television. The concern is usually interference, and there is none — a quartz movement and a screen have nothing to do with each other. The real objection is visual: a television is already a large dark rectangle demanding attention, and a clock beside it will not be seen. Different wall, not different technology.
In an unheated room. Garages, garden rooms, holiday cottages left cold for months. Acrylic and quartz movements both handle cold without complaint. The only thing that suffers is the battery, which discharges faster in low temperatures and can leak if it is left in place after it dies. If the room is unused for long stretches, take the battery out.
What to do if it is already in the wrong place
Nothing here is permanent, and the damage from a bad spot is cumulative rather than sudden — which means moving it early costs nothing.
If it has been in direct sun for a few months, move it now; fading that has begun does not reverse, but it does stop. If it has been above a radiator, check the panel for any warp by laying it face down on a flat surface. If it has been in a splash zone, take the battery out and check the contacts for corrosion before doing anything else.
A screw hole in plasterboard fills with a dab of filler in under a minute, which is a much smaller job than most people assume when they leave something in the wrong place for years rather than move it.
Pieces mentioned here
- Dragon Portal Custom Name Wall Clock
- Moon Library Personalised Wall Clock
- Ocean Reef Custom Name Wall Clock
Or browse the wider ranges: