If home projects aren’t your thing and trying to hang photos and artwork seems more like a terrible task than a fun Saturday afternoon project, you aren’t alone. Decorating your walls can be difficult; from trying to get things straight, to finding studs, to hammering nails into sheetrock and finding that they just won’t hold anything, it can be a complicated process. But once you’ve gotten your original paintings, your college photography, or your kid’s finger paintings framed and hung, you’ll be happy you did it and there are a few tricks that can help you avoid any big mishaps.
- If you’re going to be climbing up and down a ladder to hang something, put a magnet in your pocket to hold any nails and screws so that you can avoid having to hold them in your mouth while juggling your picture and hammer.
- Rather than measuring, place a piece of tape in between the two ends of your photo, on the back. Then remove the tape, stick it to the wall where you want to hang the picture and drill your holes at each end.
- Put a packing peanut over the nail head to help you avoid hitting your fingers rather than the nail when hammering. Once the nail is in place you slip the peanut right off. You can also substitute a clothes pin if you don’t have any packing peanuts easily available.
- If you don’t have any tape, you can also make a copy of what you want to hang (frame and all), tack it to the wall, and then drill where needed.
- If you need to remove a nail, wrap a rubber band around the head of your hammer so that you don’t further damage the wall as you pull out the misplaced nail.
- You can hold a nail inside the teeth of a comb to avoid hitting your fingers while hammering.
- If you’re hanging frames with wire hangers, use a tape measure for any measurements, that way you can bend it and get an accurate idea of where to place your nails.
- Make sure to arrange all of the artwork you intend to hang before actually planning it. Measure your wall space and decide where things will go, especially if you’re making any type of collage, so that you won’t mess up and be left with a wall full of nail holes.
- Try using toothpaste. This method could get a little messy, but don’t overdo it on the toothpaste and you shouldn’t have any trouble. If the frame you’re hanging has small wire hooks on the back, dab each of them with toothpaste. Place your frame against the wall exactly where you’d like it to be hung. You’ll have small dots of toothpaste where you need to place nails. Hammer your nails into the wall, then wipe the remaining toothpaste from both the wall and the frame and place your frame on the nails for a perfectly positioned photo.
