Home decorating consists of putting up drywall, redecorating, painting, hanging wallpaper or putting in new flooring. One part of home decorating that we tend to overlook is hanging a picture. This may seem like a very simple project, but if it's not done correctly, you can have problems. Before you begin hanging a picture, you need to consider the weight of the picture and the type of wall you will be hanging it on.

You'll need to purchase the correct fasteners to hang your picture on the wall. These fasteners may be nails, hooks or new adhesive stickers that are now becoming widely used. While these are the most common fasteners, they may not be appropriate on all wall types. If the wall in question is made of brick, stucco or concrete, you won't want to use a regular nail. You'll need to use a concrete screw to ensure that the picture is hung securely and you haven't damaged the wall. Using a nail may only result in chipping the concrete by the nail.

If the picture of object is heavy, you can use a plastic anchor or a molly bolt. Either of these will work great and will not damage your wall. The local hardware or home improvement store will give you free tips on what kind of fasteners will work best for your picture or object to be hung.

Next on your list is deciding where to put the picture. How high or how low is usually a debatable question. The rule of thumb is to hang the picture so it is at eye level. Take a tape measure and measure from the floor to where eye level is on the wall. This is where the center of the picture will be hung. The next step will be to measure the actual picture. Measure from the bottom of the picture to the highest part of the hanging wire. To determine where you will hang it, subtract half of the picture's height and adding this to where you determined eye level was. You can then make a mark on the wall where it will be. Next, you need to make sure the picture is centered vertically and horizontally, making sure there is a stud behind the drywall.

Hold the fastener in place and nail or screw the fastener in the wall. When the nail or screw is securely in the wall, gently hang the picture. You want to hang it gently in case you missed the stud. If you did miss the stud the weight of the picture may put pressure on the nail if you're nailing into drywall. If you find that the picture is not quite as high or low as you want, first try adjusting the hanging wire. This is much easier than putting another hole in your wall.

If you have to hang more than one picture on the wall, you'll need to figure and measure for each picture. Measure for the first, then hang it, then measure for the second and so forth.

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Kurt Schefken regularly edits papers on issues associated with curtain track. His comments on country curtains can be found on his site .