You Pinspire Me
Hello friends, and Happy New Year!
Several years ago, before we had children, my husband’s Christmas present to me was a wall of family photos – printed, framed, and arranged. I LOVED it – partly because it contained all of the people we love so dearly, but mostly because we’d been living in the apartment for a year already and our walls were otherwise BARE. Six months later, we bought our first house and moved out of our absolutely charming first apartment. Not surprisingly, our framed photo collection didn’t make it up on the walls of our new place, and as they got moved from one place on the floor to another, they got scratched and broken. Boo.
It wasn’t until we staged our house for selling this past spring (7 YEARS AFTER MOVING IN!) that we finally got around to hanging things on our walls again, and I LOVED it! It felt like I was living in a real home! (Just joking! But only sort of. I spent a lot of time in our last 2 months admiring the walls.)
We’ve now been in our new house for 6 months, and at the end of the 5th month, I got tired of looking at blank walls. I wanted more! However, our landlord had asked us to please not put holes in the plaster walls – and I had no idea how to go about anchoring something in plaster walls, anyhow.
And THEN I discovered 3M Command Picture Hanging Hooks & Strips. Cue beam of light from heaven and angel chorus. They’re easy to apply, they hold fast, and they don’t damage the walls when the adhesive strip is removed.
They’re simple to apply – clean the desired hanging area with a spot of rubbing alcohol, and when it’s dry, affix the adhesive strip to the hook, then remove the ‘wall’ backing on the adhesive and press against the wall firmly for 30 seconds. For best results, you should wait 60 minutes until you use the hook – I broke one of my picture frames because I was too impatient and couldn’t wait to see it on the wall.
3M Command offers a few different products for your frame-hanging needs – I’ve used all of them and have been equally satisfied with all!
Command Sawtooth Picture Hangers – best, obviously, for hanging frames with a sawtooth hanger, but it works just as well for frames with a loop tag for hanging. Super easy to install, and if you’ve hung it up in the wrong place, simply pull down the tab at the bottom until it has stretched completely. Throw the old adhesive tab into the garbage and grab a new one from the package – all Command products come with an extra strip in case of error or for when you feel like moving things around again.
Command Wire-Backed Picture Hangers – meant for frames that are hung by a wire. I find these ones a little trickier to use, simply because unless the wire is the same distance from the top of the frame in all cases, it’s hard to align them properly. However, that’s more the nature of the wire backed frame than the Command product itself. Besides that, these hooks are just as easy to install and take down as the others!
Command Picture Hanging Strips – these ones are basically a really strong velcro hook and loop for the wall, and if you’re hanging small, light frames, they’re definitely the cheapest. Unlike the hooks, which you apply to the wall and then hang the frame on it, you press two picture hanging strips together, peel off the backing of one of the strips, and press it to the frame. Then, peel off the backing of the other, and press it against the desired spot on the wall – don’t forget to hold & count slowly to 30 before letting go! I recommend having a small level on hand while you’re using the picture hanging strips, since there’s a little more involved when straightening the frame than simply tilting in one direction or the other.
I don’t think I have anything in the house left that I could possibly hang – though I have been going through old vacation photos to see what I could blow up & frame. 😀
Disclaimer: This is absolutely NOT a sponsored post. I purchased all of the products myself, and I am not receiving any compensation for this review and endorsement. After all, those are the best endorsements, right? The Free, Honest, Ravingly Positive ones? I would just like to encourage every one of you who has been afraid to put a hole in the wall to go grab a pack (you’ll want a value pack – trust me – the biggest one you can find!) of Command Picture Hanging Strips or Hooks and go wild. Decorate! Redecorate!
However, if Command wanted to make me an ambassador of their products, I would represent them faithfully & enthusiastically. Just sayin’. 😉
Jenn vanOosten
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Thank you Jenn!! This is great!! We may be selling in the near future and I think I love these products!!
Yay – glad I can help you out! These would be fantastic for staging a house – you won’t need to patch and paint after! 🙂