I had a 2 foot wide strip of plywood that I mounted to my wall first so to prevent damage to the drywall. Then I mounted the hangers to the wall /plywood in line with the studs. The only things I did slightly different from the instructions was I used a 7/32 drill bit (not 1/4" which seemed too big) and a 13mm socket (not a 1/2" which was a bit tight). The only way I could think to make this product better would be to rubber coat the posts to prevent the possibility of scratches. (I used some black gorilla tape (I had))