I am a grid-kind-of-girl. There is no denying that I prefer a perfectly aligned grid over any other arrangement of pictures, prints, and frames. Those of my readers who are familiar with my scrapbooking style and specifically my sketches over the years, know what I’m talking about. I think order is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I don’t know how Martha does it, but I thought I’d share with you how we hang grids around here. “Oh Patient One” (a.k.a. David) has hung many, many frames with me over the years and I give him full credit for figuring this out during one of our grid-hanging projects. Maybe some of you have already implemented these tricks.

Here is our most recent grid collection. A little gathering of some family pictures (taken by the lovely Kara Layne last year). To help our 6 frames fill the wall more, we used leftover scraps from our kitchen wallpaper and John (our handy-dandy wood-workin’ magician) created the yellow frame, all of which are attached directly to the wall in our hallway. And because I know some will ask — the neutral grey paint on our walls is called Castle Path by Behr brand at Home Depot.

To talk about any kind of picture-hanging, I have to first share with you that these picture hanging strips are the only way we hang pictures. No hammer & nails. No holes in the wall. No crooked lines. And no, they haven’t pulled paint off our walls. We are believers. Seriously. Check them out here or your local hardware store or Target or WalMart or home store … and note they come in a variety of sizes.

At the beginning of the grid-hanging project, we adhere a velcro tab set to each side of each frame. No measuring or figuring out if they line up or whatever. Just wipe the surface clean and stick the tabs on. Leave the paper on the exposed sticky side until you’re ready to stick the frame to the wall.

Here’s the secret (these secrets are meant to share, of course): A level is good for more than just leveling. It’s also great for creating perfectly even and straight spaces between each picture instead of measuring how far apart each picture should be from the next.

So you start by figuring out your measurements for your specific space and figure out where that first picture (choose a corner) is going to be. Peel the backing off the sticky velcro backs and using level on top as your guide, firmly place that first frame on the wall.

Then — place the level flush against the edge of that first frame. If you have another level or something long enough & straight, put that across the tops of the frames. Now you know exactly where to place your second frame without having to measure. Get it? Bingo! You would do this for each picture across and up and down. The lines are perfect. The spaces are perfect. Yay!

And if you’re curious about this velcro concept, here’s what you’d see if you lean up against the wall next to a picture frame. You so can’t tell looking at it normally. Did I mention we’re velcro fans for hanging picture frames?

Added note: If you happen to be in Arizona and happen to need any woodwork done and happen to have missed when I shared his info before here, our friend John Broderick rocks. He has done several wood-based projects for us and we highly recommend him. bbfurn@juno.com | 623.566.2232.