Those of you who have been following my Blog know that my mother-in-law moved in a few months ago. We were in the midst of an addition/renovation and she needed to move in before completion due to health reasons. My mother-in-law has recovered nicely and the addition/renovation is now mostly completed. Because we needed to focus on her health at first, we made my mother-in-law’s space as nice as it could be on a very quick turnaround. We brought some of the things that she treasures with her, but were not able to unpack all of them. At this point, we are finally able to start making her space feel more like her home.
My mother-in-law was an antique dealer years ago. She collected many pieces that she gathered into beautiful collections. One such collection are her eleven portraits of turn-of-the-century ladies. She had them hanging on the wall going up her staircase at her home in Binghamton, NY and they really were a sight to see. Here in Rochester, we thought the best place for them would be above her bed. Since the portraits are different sizes and shapes I decided to pull out my fool proof way to hang pictures. I am not a measurer. When I hang pictures, I like to eyeball it. It works, but can take a lot of time and I end up with a lots holes in the wall. A few months ago I was watching a YouTube video and they were hanging a gallery wall with a kit they purchased. I took the concept and used paper bags instead of buying the kit. I am here to tell you, it works. It was the easiest and fastest method I have ever used. It took less than an hour to hang all the portraits!
I laid the portraits on the paper bag, outlined with a Sharpie, and cut them out.
As I cut them out, I labeled each one so we would know what portrait we were placing on the wall.
These are all her ladies! She was so excited to get them hung up!
This is the configuration we thought was the best. I measured each picture from the ceiling and the distance between each picture. To find nail placement, I turned the picture around and poked a hole in the paper where the nail would be.
Here is the result. It took one try and less than an hour. And one nail hole! My mother-in-law was over the moon!