A few quick tips for displaying your vacation photos:

• Consider white frames and mats to frame summer vacation pictures. White looks crisp and classy all year round and fits any décor style.
• Picking identical frames and mats lets the viewer focus on the pictures rather than the frames.
• Holiday pictures can brighten up any room in your house:
  • If your pictures are from a vacation at the beach, the bathroom is the perfect spot for them because they’re bright, fun and related to water. Inexpensive frames are a good choice for the bathroom to prevent damage from the humidity.
  • Pictures of children can be hung in each child’s bedroom providing great memories for the children and an inexpensive, personal decoration alternative.
  • We often forget about the laundry room, but what better place to hang holiday pictures? Looking at pictures of your vacation will help the tedious chore go faster, and may just inspire you to plan your next getaway.
  • Maybe you’ve visited some cafés, or have some great shots of your children eating ice cream or watermelon? Pictures related in some way to food add a personal touch to the walls in the kitchen.
  • Have fun and display your pictures in the mudroom. It’s a room that gets used every day, and vacation photos are a great way to welcome you home when you’re back to your routine.
  • Start a holiday wall and add to it every year. Group photos in a hallway or in a stairway.

For more creative wall décor ideas and to watch a quick video for tips and tricks on picture hanging, visit www.utrdecorating.com

It’s easy to create a beautiful space that will encourage you to spend more time outdoors and help you relax when you return home at the end of the day. You can hang artwork on the exterior walls of the house, garage, or shed and don’t forget that every fence is a blank wall ready for your personal touch.

Whatever you use in the yard, it should be weatherproof and tolerant of the elements. Mirrors, pottery, wrought iron and even old picture frames are just a few great choices. We recently came across these outdoor art canvases from Rittenhouse, which is a perfect choice for decorating outside.

With a little imagination, and Hang & Level™ to help you find the perfect place to position your art, you will be able to create a personalized, inviting outdoor space that you will enjoy year round.

Additional Resources:

• Kings Flower & Garden
• Canvas Republic
• Soothing Patios
• InsideOut Garden Art
• Weatherprint Outdoor Art
• How to make your own outdoor canvas

We’re always looking for unique and inspiring ideas to decorate our walls without spending a lot of money. So, when we ran across these great ideas from Better Homes and Gardens we couldn’t wait to share them with you.

Click here to see how you can use beautiful fabric swatches to create an elegant look to complement any room in the house, all for only a few dollars. Decorative plates can also be used for stunning wall décor in ways you may not have considered.

For another fabric swatch idea that allows you to change your look with the seasons, click here to watch a short video demonstrating this simple idea.

As you can see, great looking wall décor doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Watch our short video Wall Décor on a Dime for some more inspiring ideas to get you started.

Overcome your fear of picture hanging with our three-step plan

	Place your furniture. Start by placing the largest pieces first. Artwork is an extension of your furniture, so place your sofa, coffee table, chairs, table lamps, etc. exactly where you want before hanging anything on your walls. Don’t fuss with accessories at this point, focus on the large pieces.
	Plan where to hang your pictures. The shape of your walls will help determine where to best hang what piece. A horizontal piece looks best when hanging on a large wall. For example, perfect to hang above a sofa. (See our Art and the Sofa article here). If you don’t have a large piece, create one using a series of smaller ones. A tall piece of artwork fits perfectly in a tall narrow space and will create the illusion of a higher ceiling. As for scale, a simple rule that never fails is to hang small items over small pieces of furniture, big items over large pieces of furniture. It’s that simple.
	Hang your pictures. Use Hang & Level™ to hang your artwork exactly where you want without having to measure once. Click here to see a quick video or follow these easy steps: Place your picture on the hook Position it on the wall and find the right spot Press the button to mark exactly where the nail goes. Hammer the nail in Hang your picture and level it using Hang & Level and you’re done.

That was, until, I came across the Stoppy! This little tool is the first doorstopper I’ve encountered that is totally functional and completely pleasant to look at! It’s super affordable, comes in several different colors to accommodate decor, has a soft, rubbery surface so it doesn’t scratch floors, and it’s use goes far beyond just being a doorstopper. So far, my uses for the Stoppy include: a doorstopper for when I bring my groceries in through the garage, a flexible little wedge to keep my windows open, a doorstopper for doors on the upper level of my home (When I have windows open upstairs, a draft runs through my house that tends to slam at least one door shut a day…but thanks to Stoppy, no longer!), a doorstopper for my Jeep (Jeeps don’t have spring-loaded doors, they’re just attached by regular hinges for easy removal and tend to swing around in the wind. With the Stoppy, I simply wedge my Jeep doors open and can quickly and efficiently unload my car without worrying about the door constantly shutting on me.), and finally, my most exciting use for the Stoppy so far, is as a funky and flexible book end!

The Stoppy is a great product I highly recommend. It’s a cute little addition to my home that serves multiple purposes without the look of something that is totally functional and not at all aesthetic. Thanks to the Stoppy, my shoes have been released from double duty and can now focus exclusively on being fabulous, because now, I have a fabulous little tool to take care of the rest.

We recently found a fabulous article in an issue of O magazine entitled “Overcoming Decorating Paralysis” by Martha Beck. This piece ties in nicely to the reason why we created the award-winning Hang & Level™ picture hanging tool. In the article, Martha provides a four-point ‘stop putting it off’ plan.

“If you get cold feet when you try to start a home-improvement project, you could take the issue to a therapist and “work through it.” But that’ll take time—a lot of time—which is exactly the problem.” —Martha Beck

We can relate to this fear – so many people have told us that they worried about putting too many holes in the wall  until they started using the Hang & Level picture hanging tool.

Click here to check out the article on the O magazine website.

We love to see how people use our products, not only does it help us improve and innovate, but often we are just plain ‘ol inspired by what people think up.

Case in point with James Caldwell, a partner in the design and communication firm Thirst, who got in touch with us a while ago to enquire about buying our Deco Nails™ in bulk. Turns out he was planning a huge photo wall project for a client, and subsequently created one for himself.

Over 200 frames were used for the project, and hung in a perfect grid on the wall. When James was considering how to best fix the frames to the wall, he came across our Deco Nails, and decided to use them because:

The nails don’t make a large hole in the wall.

They have a double ‘saucer’ type head in which they secure themselves to the wall and also make a more secure hanging point for the ‘Clips’ frame hanging mechanism.

James has put together a step by step guide to creating your own photo wall on his personal website.

Back in March, the decorating blog Rainy Day Renovations did a First Look review of the Hang & Level™ picture hanging tool. They did a great overview of the tool, and highlighted one definite advantage of using Hang & Level:

We have a few “hanging projects” we need to do around the office. We’ll report back with a First Use write-up when we have had a chance to give the Hang & Level a go. We are pretty sure the maintenance guy will be happy to know that, with the Hang & Level, at least he won’t have so much patching and painting follow up work after one of our “redecorating benders.”

Fast forward to June, when the purchase of a new flat screen TV meant that wall space had to be cleared and the pictures on it rehung in a new location. Fifteen minutes later, it was all done:

We were quite impressed with how much easier the Hang & Level made hanging the frames. The task of placing, nailing, and hanging took less than fifteen minutes for the four frames. Best of all, we got the placement of all four fames exactly where we wanted them on the first try.

You can read the full review here.

Look A – Horizontal Grouping

This grouping is very versatile and looks great on its own or hanging above a piece of furniture. Create a balanced look by leaving equal space between frames. Here we left 5 inches.

• Hang the middle picture first, then using the SpacerTape™, measure out identical space between frames and hang the pictures on either side.
• It’s important to hang your frames at the right height. Learn more about Which Eye Level is the Right Eye Level and hang your pictures perfectly every time.

Look B – Vertical Grouping

This look works great on a tall narrow wall or in between windows and has the advantage of making a ceiling look higher than it actually is. Create a column of artwork by keeping the spacing between frames identical. Here we left 8 inches.

• Always hang your favorite piece in the middle as it will be noticed first
• It’s important to start with the bottom piece first, working your way up so the handle of the Hang & Level will not interfere with the rest of the pictures and you will have perfect alignment.

Look C – Creative Grouping

You don’t have to group pictures in a line. Tell a story by grouping frames closer together to create a compact look. If you have a small square wall space, a triangular arrangement looks great. Here, we left 2 inches between frames.

• Hang the bottom piece first, so the handle of the Hang & Level will not interfere with the picture above
• Next, hang the one on top followed by the frame on the right.

No matter which grouping you choose, you will create a fresh new look for your walls and the great thing is it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. We took these beautiful pictures ourselves. For more great, inexpensive ideas check out Wall Décor on a Dime. And when you’re ready for a change, simply swap out your photos for a whole new look.

Click to view the video segment…