Have you ever put multiple nail holes in your wall in an effort to get a picture frame or a whole arrangement hung just perfectly? I’ll admit it … I’ve done this many times. But recently I’ve figured out an easier way…
Get some paper and some light tape that won’t hurt your wall finish. I used construction paper and regular old scotch tape. Make sure your paper color is easily visible against your wall color. Use the tape and the paper to make a template that is the same size as the item being hung. Lay your template over the back side of the item being hung. Then use your thumb to apply pressure over the hanging holes or whatever the mechanism is that is used to hang the item. This will make a dent in the template that you will use to drive the nails into the proper place into the wall. At this point, you can optionally push a nail through the template right where the top of the nail hole is in the item being hung.
After you’ve done this for all the items that are being hung, then you can temporarily tape all the templates up to your wall and move them around and figure out the best looking arrangement. Use a tape measure, a yardstick, a level, or just use your eyeball to get the templates exactly where you think they look the best.
Once you get the templates exactly where you want them, it’s time to pound some nails into the wall! Thanks to the quick and easy template method, we will only be putting nails exactly where we want them. Just use the template dents or the actual template nail holes that you created earlier to figure out exactly where the nails need to go.
After all the nails are in, just peel away the paper templates and hang your stuff and you’re done! You now have a perfectly hung arrangement, no extra holes in the wall, and no frustration in your abilities to hang stuff in your house!
Sam