How to hang pictures – Organizing your Art when Painting

The journey to begin painting that living room or bedroom wall usually starts with a long, contemplative stare. A stare that scans the room to determine all of the obstacles in the way of changing that eggshell white to a beautiful shade of blue (or green, or orange, etc). One of those obstacles usually identified – the art. The classic wedding portraits, adorable baby pictures, or antique clock found at your last visit to the market. Whatever that art may be, it will need to be taken down and found a temporary home while you fill in those holes and freshen up that paint. Yes, this is the moment where that overwhelming feeling of work hits you and procrastination looks like the better option.

If this is you, we have good news – we’re here to help! If you’re thinking of re-painting a few walls in your house we have five simple steps that will save you loads of time and frustrations when you’re ready to re-hang your art. All you need is painter’s tape and a sharpie (or regular pen) and you will never look back. Let’s get started!

Step #1
When taking your art and other wall décor pieces down, lean them against a wall in a room away from the painting area.  Group like items together such as all mirrors, photos/portraits, paintings, kids’ art, clocks.  It’s a great way to keep things organized and may also encourage creativity when you’re ready to hang everything back up.

Step #2
Stick pieces of bright colored painter’s tape on holes that need to be filled. It will be easier for you or for your painter to spot them when walking around the house with the drywall mud.

Step #3
If you will be re-hanging some of your artwork in the exact same spots after the painting is done, write “don’t fill holes” on painter’s tape just like we’ve done. In this example, we planned to re-hang the three kids’ drawings in the same place. We simply wanted to freshen up the walls so no need to fill the holes.

Step #4
When taking down groupings of pictures that you will re-hang in the same spot once the walls are painted, mark top, middle, bottom and so forth on the back of each piece. It will eliminate any guesswork and speed up the re-hanging process.  Another suggestion is to take a picture of the grouping that you can easily refer to.

Step #5
If you’re re-using the same picture hanging hardware for your pieces, tape it on the back of each frame. Simple but yet so efficient as it will save you a lot of time when you’re ready to re-hang all your pieces.

That’s it! You now have a great action plan for taking down that art, organizing it, and having it ready to be re-hung after that wall is painted. Now you just have to decide on what color that wall is going to be.

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