EASY Picture Hanging Hack For Perfect Wall Decor Every Time

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Last updated on February 20th, 2023 at 04:30 pm

Are you looking for easy picture hanging hacks that will help you hang perfect wall decor every time?

You’ve come to the right place!

I get it. Sometimes choosing and hanging wall decor is hard; you need wall decor that is level, centered within its space, and not too big or too small for the room.

On top of all that, you might be worried whether the decor will be cohesive with the room. I know, it can be frustrating!

Luckily, you’ll be able to transform your room with fantastic wall decor that is always level, centered, and fits your room perfectly. All you need are these easy picture hanging hacks!

Let’s dive on in!

Level Of Difficulty

Easy

Time To Complete

15-30 Minutes

The Materials

Painter’s Tape

The Tools

Picture Hanging Hack Steps

Find the center of the wall/area
Find your item dimensions
Measure out pieces of tape for each dimension
Tape the outline on the wall
Level each piece of tape
(When You Receive The Item) Use Another Piece Of Tape (Or The Same One) To Mark The Holes And Place Back On Wall
Drill Holes / Hang Nails
Hang item

Step One: Find The Center Of The Wall/Area

The first step to this picture hanging hack is to find the center of the wall or area you want to hang your item. Let’s use shelves as the example item you are hanging. (These easy DIY shelves would be perfect for an easy room decor upgrade!)

Let’s say you want your shelves to be perfectly centered over a toilet. To do this, you need to find the center of the toilet by measuring the width of the toilet top and dividing it by 2.

Then you can measure from one side of the toilet to find the center point.

Next, mark that point on the wall, so you know exactly where it’s at. For decor over a toilet, the recommended height above the top is 19”, so mark the center point 19” above the top of the toilet.

(What if you don’t know the recommended height for your item? Well, first, you can try and google the “recommended height for X” because believe it or not, there is a recommended height for most things. (X is the item you want to hang.)

However, if that still doesn’t work for your space, then this is where Step 4 will come into play. Just mark it on the wall where you think you’ll want your item to go for now.)

Step Two: Find Your Item Dimensions

The next step in this picture hanging hack is to find the item dimensions. If you already have the item, then you can simply measure it.

But if you haven’t bought the item yet, then the dimensions will most likely be listed in the product description online. I definitely recommend using this picture hanging trick BEFORE purchasing an item to save yourself so much time and money!

The best way to make sure an item will be sized correctly for your room (and not look or fit weird) before purchasing is to take the product dimensions and measure the room to see how the new item will fit.

For your shelves over the toilet, you can find the product dimensions online or you can DIY our shelves to whatever dimension best fits your space.

You can do the same thing for pictures or wall art. I love these pictures for a contemporary minimalistic look, but it’s hard to tell if they’ll be too big or too small for my space without checking out the product dimensions and breaking out my tape measure and painter’s tape.

Write these dimensions down, or keep the website pulled up as you move onto the next step.

Step Three: Measure Out Pieces Of Tape For Each Dimension

The next step in this picture hanging hack is to “sketch” the decor onto the wall. For each dimension, use your tape measure to measure out a piece of painter’s tape. (This doesn’t have to be perfect. Remember we are going for a quick visual here.)

For your DIY shelves, they’re 24” long x 8” wide x ¾” thick. You won’t be able to demonstrate how far the shelf will stick off the wall, but you can see how long the shelf will be and how thick it will look on the wall.

Since you have two shelves you want to hang over your toilet, measure out 2 pieces of painter’s tape that are 24” long. If you’re worried about the thickness, then cut or fold the strip of tape to measure ¾” thick. For shelves, the length is the main concern, so you don’t need to worry about the thickness if you don’t want to.

If the item you’re trying to hang is massive, it might be easier to measure out several pieces of tape and have the total length be close to your measurement.

You can even measure out the dimensions of the products you want to sit on top of your shelves, so you’ll be able to see how high to make the next shelf.

I adore decorating shelves with fake plants because greenery gives another color and texture to your space AND they’re fake, so you never have to worry about watering them! These fake plants found at Amazon are so cute and affordable. If you want to make sure the tallest plant will fit between your two shelves, then you can find the product dimensions and “sketch” (tape) the shape of them as well.

Using painter’s tape like this is an excellent way to see the “big picture” before you have to lay down any cold-hard cash.

Once you have at least one piece of tape measured and ready, move on to the next step.

Step Four: Tape The Outline Of The Item Exactly Where You Want It On The Wall

The next step in this picture hanging hack is to “sketch” your wall decor exactly where you want it. As mentioned above, now use the tape to “sketch” the outline of your item(s). For your shelves, take the first 24” piece of tape and center it right on that centered mark you left on the wall.

To do this perfectly, you might need to mark the center of the tape and line that up with the center point on the wall. Then stick one side in place! (Don’t stick both yet, because that’s where the next step comes into play.)

For pictures and square wall art, just tape the outline of the box, so you can step back and see how the size and “centeredness” (is that a word??) fits your room. For odd shapes like plants or other decorations, you can be as intricate with your tape design as you want. Or you can simply make them in a box shape as well based on the overall height and width of the item.

Now move onto the next step before you go tape crazy!

Step Five: Level Each Piece Of Tape To Make It Perfect

The next step in this picture hanging hack is to level each piece of tape. It’s time to make sure your wall decor will be PERFECTLY LEVEL when you go to hang it up. Take your torpedo level and level out the horizontal piece(s) of tape.

Leveling the piece of tape is so much easier than leveling out the wall decor because it’s super light, and half of it sticks to the wall while you’re working with the other half.

That 24” piece of tape for your first shelf? Center it onto your center point on the wall, stick one side to the wall, then level the other side and stick it to the wall as well.

The beauty behind painter’s tape is that it won’t destroy your walls because it’s only a little sticky, so you can peel it off and readjust it as much as you need to find the perfect position.

Ta-da! Now you can step back and look at the wall decor as if it’s actually on your wall before you spend a single cent!

Hopefully you’ll be able to see clear as day whether that shelf would be too high on the wall, or that picture frame would be way too small for the room it’s in. If that’s the case, find another product in a better size or adjust the tape to a better position on the wall and step back to assess again.

Then you can buy your wall decor with confidence knowing it will fit your room perfectly!

Step Six: (When You Receive The Item) Use Another Piece Of Tape (Or The Same One) To Mark The Holes And Place Back On Wall

The next step in this picture hanging hack happens when you are ready to hang your wall decor. Now the best part – how to make sure you hang your wall art as perfectly as you hung the painter’s tape.

Use a new piece of tape to cover the holes that need to be drilled on your new wall decor and mark them.

For your shelf example, you need to screw the brackets into the wall. Place a piece of tape over the holes on the bracket and mark them with your pencil. Remove that piece of tape and stick it on the wall where it belongs (make sure to level it out and align it as necessary).

For a picture frame, cover the holes with tape, mark them, and level and hang that piece of tape over the area you want your picture to be.

Once your tape is leveled and in position, you’ll be able to drill holes or hammer in nails on the marks you left on the tape and know they’ll line up exactly with the screw holes on the decor!

Step Seven: Drill Holes / Hang Nails

Use whatever material you need to hang your items (drywall anchors, screws, nails, command strips) and put them into/over the marks on your tape to align with the hanging holes on your wall decor.

Step Eight: Hang Item

The last step in this picture hanging hack is to actually hang the wall decor! Take all the tape off the wall and hang your item! Step back and admire your work, you handy lady!! 🙂

Final Thoughts On Picture Hanging Hacks

There you have it, an easy and cheap decor hack that lets you hang wall decor perfectly every time!

Before I stumbled across this trick, I hung 2 bathroom shelves over a toilet (exactly like the example I used above – if you haven’t yet, you can check out the tutorial for how I DIY’d the shelves here), and it was so hard for me to do by myself.

I had 100 pencil marks on the wall trying to find the edges of the shelf, the center of the shelf, and all the holes I needed to drill for the brackets.

I also had to hold the shelf up (which wasn’t light) with one hand while trying to hold a level in place and mark the holes to drill with the other hand. Right as I almost had all the holes marked, the shelf would slide, and I’d have to redo my setup with my level and realign all the holes, so I could mark one more.

It was frustrating and time-consuming. Although, the bathroom makeover did turn out fabulous if I do say so myself haha! I used these 10 easy steps to update my mom’s outdated bathroom.

But since then, I’ve used this painter’s tape trick whenever I can, so I can visualize my decor first, then hang it up perfectly and with ease every time!

Catch you in my next post!