I used to work at a picture framing shop and art gallery, and over the course of seven years, I learned some neat tricks of the trade on how to hang up pictures without leaving three or four holes in the sheetrock before getting it just right. Group pictures can be a special challenge because you’re working with having even spacing between frames and making the overall finished product look aesthetically appealing at the same time. Here are some tips on how to hang a group of pictures on the wall:
1) Trace and Cut
Lay your framed pictures over a sheet of freezer paper, newspaper, construction paper, or whatever else you can find that’s big enough. Next, take a marker or pen and carefully trace along the outer edge of the frame (be careful not to get any marker on your picture!). Cut the outline out so you have a piece of paper the exact size of your frame. Make sure you label each piece of paper with a description of the art it goes with! To see where you would hammer the nail, turn your picture over and use measuring tape to calculate the distance between the taut wire and top of the frame. If it is 4 inches, make an “X” 4 inches from the top of your piece of paper cut-out. Now you can use removable painter’s tape to stick your paper cut-outs up on the wall and experiment with your layout before making any holes. When you’re satisfied, hammer a nail into the X on each paper cut-out hung up on the wall, tear off the paper, and hang your art.
2) Linear Horizons
If you don’t have a clue on how you want to hang your art, consider the horizon line on each piece. The horizon line is where the sky meets the ground. Line up your framed art so it looks like you have one long, straight continuous line.
3) Facing Each Other
If you’re hanging a bunch of portraits, look at the direction each person is facing or the direction their body is pointed. Line up your pictures so your son who is looking to the left is placed on the far right of the grouping, your daughter who is faced right is placed on the far left of the grouping, and people looking straight at the camera are right in the middle! This way, everyone appears to be looking at one another and their gaze isn’t trailing off into outer space.
4) Picture Bumpers
If everything seems to shift whenever someone closes the door, get some bumpers. You can buy them at any craft store (or on online here) and just place one on each bottom corner on the back of your frame. These help your frame grip the wall. Rolling a small loop of painter’s tape and placing it on the bottom back corners works just as well.
Before you ruin your wall or spend all day trying to figure out how to hang all these pictures without it looking like a disaster, use these simple and easy tips to make your wall look like it was crafted by an interior designer.
