Land of 10,000 Plates: Picture wall: hang it in less than an hour!

I wanted a fun, new arrangement for pictures at the house, and found lots of inspiration on Pinterest (follow me!).I found what would be the perfect arrangement behind the couch, displaying all of the pictures of ~~our family~~ our kid. (Definitely made me realize I need more photos of the husband and myself...)

I set up my arrangement on the floor, took a photo so I would remember the arrangement...then piled all the pictures by the end table for about a month. I just didn't know HOW to do it! And do it right! And make it straight! And not put a dozen extra holes in the wall!

But recently, while the husband was destroying our basement (that's another post altogether), I decided I was going to be handy as well. I laid my pictures out again, and picked up some tools including:

Hammer
Painter's tape
Tape measure
Pencil
Nails
Ruler
Small and large level

And got to work. I marked 60" from the floor, since that's about standard for where you want the center of the picture to hang for eye-level. I held a picture up, centered on the 60" mark, and marked the bottom edge of that frame. That's about where I wanted the bottom line. From there, I ran painter's tape level along that line.

I also measured the length of the entire picture span, including 2" gaps between each picture. I centered that behind the couch, and marked my end points. This is where the line of frames would begin, and end.

Start hanging! I always hated hanging pictures because I always found it so hard to mark the spot where the nail should go, and actually get it right. And if there are TWO hangers?? Come on! But I found this little trick on Pinterest and it changed my world:

I'm sorry I don't have in-action pics, it was just me hanging these!

I placed the frame facedown, held painters tape sticky side out against the back, where the hanger is. I used a nail to poke a hole exactly where the hanger is in the tape.

Carefully holding the tape in place with the frame, I held the frame up, level against the bottom line, and pressed the tape to the wall. It wasn't always pretty, but it did the trick. I nailed through the tape in the place I marked, peeled the tape, and hung my frame. Perfect!