9.21.2011

How to Hang Pictures in a Grid

The Scrabble wall art that Tim and I made has made a second appearance in our new place! 

If you've tried to hang pictures in a grid pattern before, you know it's a total pain in the behind. So, I thought I would post a little step-by-step to show you how we ended up tackling it.

Here's what we needed to get going...

1. Nails etc. to hang the pictures.
2. Laser level (or a normal level, but the laser ones are so handy for this)
3. Two inch painter's tape
4. Tape measurer
5. Hammer

So before we get going I want to apologize for the horrible lighting in these pictures!  I know I know....

Estimate how high you would like your grid to be using your tape measure, find the center of where you would like your grid to be (I centered mine on our couch), then hang the lowest center tile.  Using the laser level, put up a strip of 2" painters tape above the first tile.

Hang the next two center tiles - putting the horizontal tape strip in between again - then put two strips of tape vertically to the left and right of the pictures.  The tape is our spacer, so you can be sure you're getting an even grid pattern.

Hang the next six tiles and add two more vertical strips of tape.

Hang the last six and rip off all of the tape! Taking off the tape is the best part :)

Then...
TA DA!

(I waited until we had natural light to take this picture - so much better!)

The one additional tool I would suggest (and that I wished I had while I was doing this) is this great tool or one like it that helps you find the perfect nail spot.  UPDATE: The inventor of that tool, the Hang and Level, sent me one and a few other products. See what I had to say about them here.

Happy picture hanging!

7 comments:

  1. You did a fantastic job! Do the letters you chose mean anything?

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  2. Haha, well I'm a huge nerd which means the letters are selected proportionally from their point velues - so there are more 1 point tiles than 8 point tiles proportional to the actual mix in the game. To choose the letters to represent their point values I just looked at which letters where aesthetically pleasing to me...

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  3. Hi! Congratulations on the scrabble wall, it looks great! I'm the inventor of the "great tool" you are referring to. My own frustrations with picture hanging led me to invent Hang & Level. it certainly comes in handy to mark to exact location for the nail. Love your project, it's very unique.

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  4. Wow LTousignant nice to meet you! Thanks, and your Hang & Level looks AMAZING!

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  5. I love your couch! What is the name for that style of couch and where would you recommend finding one like it? VIntage stores?

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    1. Hi @thebrownshaun! I got the couch off craigslist (story here: http://www.insideways.com/2011/09/new-couch-in-my-life.html) . I'm not 100% sure what you would call the style, but hunting on craigslist or in second hand stores is a great plant for finding one. I was doing a lot of craigslist searching when I found it and I was using the key words "sofa | couch | sectional". Keeping the search terms broad was helpful because the sellers said the fabric was velour when it's actually velvet and didn't mention a thing about the tufting :). You never know what you'll find on craigslist! Just in case your in the San Diego area, I saw this couch recently - http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/fuo/2984259836.html. Hopefully the link will still work when you see this.

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  6. Had to come by and say thank you for this post! It saved me so much headache when hanging my own frames in a grid. If you want to see how it turned out, I posted are photos here: http://www.mucketymucked.com/2014/01/wall-decor-diy-framed-agate-slices.html

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