Tips on Hanging a Picture Grouping

Hey y’all!

I’ve been changing the style of one of my rooms.

Ever since the passing of my sweetie and the burial of his ashes, I have been slowly coming back to creativity. Mourning leaves no room for that.

I made a decision to make some aesthetic changes in my house. But, only after “this” happened. Read on…

The room I’m changing was not too exciting. Lol. But, what got me goin’ was that, as I had ordered (online) a clock for my bathroom and had to go to a close neighboring town to pick it up, I thought I’d browse through some out-of-town thrift stores!

I found Habitat for Humanity’s Restore, and thought I’d take a look…just for fun.

Ha! As soon as I walked in the front door…WOW!!! I saw this great couch!

 

Now, the previous couch that was in my house was TIRED! It was old and had seen better days. When we got it, I liked it. But, it had been in the house for about 15 years!

It was time for a change!!

…especially since, several years ago, I began finding my own style in my way of dressing.

The old couch was in a carry-over style of my mom’s: early American. I liked early American, which was popular here in the U.S. during the 1960s. I associated it with home, family, and comfort.

I still like it, to a degree – but, now, I like to mix things up, just as in my clothing style.

I LOVE antiques – and vintage is good, too, especially the older vintage – mixed with things created, re-purposed, and “different.”

That’s what bohemian is to me: an unconventional mix of “different” from what is normally found in the ordinary house – or, in the clothing sense, different from what is normally found on the ordinary woman.

I detest so much of the new furniture! I call it “sawdust furniture.” Lol. Vintage and antique furnishings are real wood! Plus, of what I have seen, most of the new stuff has no personality; it’s bland!

(As you may well know, the term “antique” indicates something 100 years old or older, while “vintage” is defined as 50 to 100 years old.)

So, back to walking into the store:

My heart skipped a beat at the sight of this couch, reminiscent of an antique.

I walked straight over to it to find the price… WOW!!! again! (And, it’s in wonderful condition!) Hey, I can afford this! Can you believe it? It was marked $40! I’ve checked in other thrift stores, since, and ordinary couches run over $100 and much more! And, this was better than ordinary!

I had to make arrangements with a third party for delivery, adding another $35. But, for $75, I had a great couch! …worth $100s new! And, it looks practically new!

When it was delivered, I was delighted. I loved my new couch! But, I kept looking at it – and, the wall behind it. The wall was almost the same color as the couch. Hmmm…

I guess this room, in the center of the house, would be called a “great room.” On one end is the kitchen, and the other end is a room that could be whatever. But, it’s where my T.V. is, with its connected VCR and DVD player.

My kitchen’s walls are two different colors: a light yellow and a dark red. The T.V. room – which I now call my entertainment room because it also now includes my desktop computer and my music – was light yellow.

So, as I stood, considering the scene, I said out loud to myself, That wall needs to be red!

It took FIVE coats and all week to paint it! because I was also working. But, boy!, what a difference!

This started “a thing.”

It set a whole different tone to my room.

Okay. 

Here’s my Decorating tip:

I had several framed pictures with which I wanted to make a grouping. My wall is not finished yet. I have other items yet to hang.

But, I figured out a way to make this grouping without so many mistakes…and, believe me: I’m good at making more holes in the wall than necessary! Lol.

You may be ahead of me on this and done this yourself, but, in case you haven’t thought of it…

• Get an idea of what picture or item you want where, on your wall.
• Hold up the first one. I started at the bottom. Because I wanted to place them closely to each other, I had to be precise. Plus, I already had a couple of boxes on the wall from my previous arrangement.
• Cut skinny strips of paper and measure out on your wall the sizes and placement of each item, and tape those strips to your wall.
• Measure on your frames how far it is from the edge of the frame to the center of the picture hanger. I found it was much easier to have only one picture hanger nailed into the top center of the frame back – unless it’s a very large picture. It’s easier to hang it straight – without the use of a level.
• Measure on your wall from the strips of paper that represent the outside edges of your frame to the position of the hanger. Don’t forget to measure not only from the sides, but also from the top of the frame to the hanger, too – that fraction of an inch down from the top.
• Put a dot on a small piece of paper and tape it to where the little nail of your hanger goes.
• Nail in the hanger. You can give your picture a trial hang to check it. Then, take it back down.
• Go to the next until you have all the hangers up.
• Take down the papers, hang your art!

This is the type of picture hanger I used.

Before

After

…still “under construction.”

Be watching your email for more posts on what I’m doing in my room. Still ahead:

• Corner accent piece
• End table from an antique sewing machine
• Using boxes and windows as wall art
• Rewiring lamps found thrifting or free on the curb
• Creating a wall hanging
• More

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