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Saturday, February 20, 2010

How to hang a picture frame with paper and dental floss

We were recently given a very nice drawing of President Monson, so Tianna went out today to buy a frame. Nicer picture frames have a cord on the back that you can use to hang the picture, but this one just had two triangular hooks. This is inconvenient; you have to place the nails in the wall at exactly the right width, and actually getting the frame on the wall is more difficult. The hooks tend to snap up flat against the frame, and even if they didn't, you can't actually see what you're doing.

Well, I have a solution. Two actually.

To place the wall mounts correctly, first hold the frame up to the wall. Position it where you want it and use a pencil to lightly mark the top corners. After marking the position on the wall, take the frame down. Find (or cut) a piece of paper as wide as the frame and lay it flat against the back of the frame, so that the top of the paper is against the top of the frame. Poke small holes in the paper where the frame's hooks are. Now put the paper up to the wall, lining it up with the marks you made on the wall previously. With a pencil, mark the wall through the holes you made in the paper; now you have marks on the wall exactly where you want your wall mounts.

I can't take credit for that first idea; Tianna found it on a blog a few days ago. But this next part is all my own.

Once you have your wall mounts placed, you need to actually get the frame's hooks on the mounts. Cut a length of dental floss about a foot wider than your frame. (String would probably work as well.) Thread the floss through the frame's hooks, and then hook it through the wall mounts. You'll probably need two people for this part. Have one person pull the floss taut and flat against the wall; this should pull the picture frame toward the hooks. Once the floss is fully taut, the hooks should be exactly lined up with the wall mounts. Just slide it on, and you're done!

We did this twice tonight (I ended up having to move the mounts because it wasn't as centered as we wanted it), and it worked flawlessly both times.

1 comment:

Tiffany said...

Brilliant. I hate doing those.