How to hang a row of pictures.

So I had this long narrow section of wall in between a window in the back door. But I also had a set of three wooden panels that used to sit in three wall cutouts in the last house, so that it seemed like a match made in heaven. Until I set about trying to hang them.

I suppose if you had a laser level or something, it wouldn’t be terribly complicated, but laser levels require you to put holes in your wall and/or have a second person around to help, not to mention that I don’t own a laser level, so that wasn’t a good solution for me.

Typically when you need to mark a straight line, particularly a vertical one, you use a chalk plumb. It looks like a tape measure, but when you pull it out it’s a string covered with chalk dust, and the weight of the housing pulls the string to level. Then the chalk marks that straight line where you need it. But I did not want to buy a chalk plumb to hang three stupid pictures.

So then I had the brilliant idea of using a roll of masking tape as if it was a plumb.

I started the tape up higher than I wanted the picture, in the middle of the space I had, and then being careful to not let the tape attach in any other place, I let the weight of the roll of tape make a vertical line. Then I just smoothed the tape straight to the wall being extra careful to not bend it out of shape.

If your pictures need one hook, you can nail right through the center of the tape. I needed to use two hooks, so I measured out from the end of the tape, and then made sure it was level.

This was one of the first pictures I took in this new place, and my inexperience shows. The colors are all wonky, the lighting is horrible, and the shadows are making the panels look a little uneven when I obsess over it. But bad pictures notwithstanding, I was overjoyed to create this technique so that my OCD self can calm down about imperfect lines.