January 17, 2011

How to Hang a Grouping



What You Need:
Ugly wrapping paper or butcher paper
Level
Scissors and Tape
Pencil
Hammer and Nails

Arrange your pictures/plates/artwork on the floor.  Play around with it for an hour until you've found the layout you like best.


Leaving the rest of the pieces on the floor, choose one photo.  Place it on the paper and trace the outside of the shape.  Cut out the shape and then lay it on the back of your photo.  Use a nail or the sharp end of the pencil to mark/poke a hole where the nail(s) will be.
Be sure to label the paper and the back of the corresponding photo.  Because if you're like me, you will forget which piece of paper goes with which frame before it's all said and done.

Using the layout on the floor as your guide, tape the pieces of paper onto the wall:


Once they are spaced to your liking, use the level {now} before you put any holes in the wall.


Hammer the nail directly into the hole you have already marked on the paper.  This is especially handy when you have a shelf or something that requires those ~pesky~ evenly spaced nails.

Pull the paper off of the nail and hang the  frame with the matching letter on the back.
Voila!  A perfectly evenly spaced grouping, with no extra nail holes in your wall!

Keeping it real:  See the photo in the top right?  I have no idea whose house that is.  I bought the four matching frames at a yard sale and I am waiting to find the perfect photo to put in there.  Does anyone else do this??

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

were you at my house this weekend? i hung 3 different groupings of photos. i have to say, my sweet man is the planner/measurer, and since he was working outside, i eyeballed the whole thing. :) shh... makes my sister and Jeff cringe! haha
:) Erin

loved getting to have lunch with you guys sunday!

mer@lifeat7000feet said...

YOU ARE AWESOME...this is a GREAT tutorial full of GREAT advice!

We used to make fun of my grandmother because she had a photo frame that held three pictures and she left one of the photos in there because she thought it looked just like her son. It didn't. But there was no convincing her that it wasn't Richard. Funnier still to see this unknown guy in the frame with my mom and her other brother. I bet my uncle REALLY had the middle child complex when he saw it, don't you?

Amy Kinser said...

Thanks for sharing. I have never tried this but should. My husband hates the way I hang pictures. Put in nail...doesn't work...pull out nail...try again...repeat...

Karen said...

Gretchen, this is so great! You would not believe, I am preparing to hang 7 plates & platters on a wall. I have traced them on freezer paper & now the paper is taped to the wall. Found the layout I want - but the ugly part, trying to figure out about those silly plate hangers (where to put the nails). Got any pointers on this? Yours looks fabulous!

Kellie said...

That is a great way to hang photos! Thanks for the "advice." :)

Little Oak Table said...

this tutorial is SO HELPFUL!!! sheer genius!!!

your pics are all really fun, espcially the house picture.

Amber said...

So...the only thing better than this would be for you to head on down my way and do it for me. And then we could drink coffee and stay up all night chit-chatting.

Sounds like a plan, mmkay?

ImmediateMom said...

We received a collage frame recently, and we decided to purposely keep the square pic of a sweet little baby - we don't know him/her, but the sweet face just makes us smile.

Cathy said...

Are you kidding me?! Why did I not know this technique before now??? It would have saved me SO much headache.

Thanks!