I am the picture-hanger in our house.  My husband can’t stand doing that kind of thing–he really just doesn’t have the patience or the desire.  As for me, I secretly love that stuff (mostly because I only trust myself to hang things just the way I want them), but don’t tell my husband that because then I can’t use it against him!!  :)  On the rare occasions that I allow him to help me with something like this, I typically micromanage his efforts so much that he eventually gives up and lets me do it anyhow because he is so annoyed by my eyeballs being two inches away from what he’s doing while I say, “Are you really going to do it that way?”  Poor guy can’t win.  :)  (I frequently remind him that I’m all his–ha!!)  :)

When I hang up multiple pictures that need to be perfectly aligned, I measure things exactly because I hate stepping back and wishing I had moved something over an inch.  But when it comes to hanging a single picture, I am usually in the “good enough crowd” (as I mention in this post where I made my daughter’s polka dot cake), because “perfect” really doesn’t matter too much when it’s just one picture.   In the past, I would have tried to hold the picture up where I wanted it and then I’d stick my arm up behind it and do my best to put my finger where it felt like I should put the nail in the wall.  But after seeing this post on Pinterest where Stephanie from Somewhat Simple (super-cute blog, by the way!!) shared her idea to use toothpaste, I discovered my new “good enough” method!!  My dad is a retired dentist, so we grew up using toothpaste and floss for all kinds of handy things, but this is one idea we never came up with–so smart!  How did we never think of this sooner?!  Stephanie did hang a collage using this method, and it looks awesome–so maybe if you are brave enough, you can try this for hanging multiple pictures, too.  It worked for her!  Knowing me, though, I might hurry too much, and pretty soon I’d have a 1000 nail holes in the wall!!  (View this post to see how easily I hung an entire collection of canvases–they were all aligned perfectly the first time around without having to move any nails!)

It’s definitely a fool-proof technique for a single picture, however!  (It works especially well for hanging canvases because there is no hanging wire… maybe if you’re hanging something with hanging wire, you could try putting some toothpaste on your fingernail.  Reach back and grab the hanging wire, pull it tight as if it’s hanging from the nail, and then press your finger into the wall–I bet that would work, too!  I might have to try that, and then I’ll let you know how it goes!)

See how easy this method is below…

Put some toothpaste right where you know you’ll want your nail (or hook) to go.

Hold the picture up just where you want it.  If it’s hard to tell what looks good, have someone else hold it so you can step back and judge from further away.  When you’re happy with the alignment, push the picture gently into the wall so the toothpaste transfers to the wall.

Simply put the nail where the toothpaste is, and you’re done!  I just wiped off the bit of toothpaste on the canvas and the wall, and that was it.  Took me about 10 seconds!

Ta-da!  Isn’t this picture sweet?  (all together:  awwwww!)  :)  Thanks to Aubri from Pink Sky Photography for capturing this moment.  (She typically shoots in Michigan.)  This was the first time we’d had professional pictures taken of us (or our family for that matter!) since our wedding.  It was a little weird at first because we’re so used to having pictures taken with the kids or as a family, but now I’m so glad to have this picture of my husband and myself (and some other special ones like it)–sometimes you almost forget that you’re a “couple” because you’re so busy being parents!  So don’t forget to take a “couples” picture every now and then.  :)

By the way, I got this canvas as well as a bunch more (click here to see the wall gallery) from Canvas On Demand.  I have never used that company before, but I was blown away!  Their quality is outstanding.  I could choose the exact size of each canvas, the thickness, the way the canvas wrapped around the edges (the photo itself could wrap around, or you could have white or black edges, or any custom color), and they arrived in the mail within a week–packaged really nicely as well.  I was thoroughly impressed.  I will definitely be ordering all of my photo canvases from them from now on!!  They also seem to offer great deals, so keep a lookout for coupon codes on their site–a box popped up for me when I first got on their site, and I was able to simply like them on Facebook to get 50% off my entire order for that first day only!!  Woohoo!!  (Hence, the reason I ordered an entire wall gallery at once!  I am over-the-moon happy with how that turned out, too.  Click here to see the wall gallery and how easy it was for me to hang it by using a template.  I also share more pictures to give you a sense of the quality of the canvases.)

I hope this is a tip you can use in your own day-to-day life!  I think it’s pretty darn smart myself!

What tricks do you use for hanging perfect pictures?