People have turned to picture frames to decorate their interior spaces for centuries. Not only do pictures beautify and refine the house, but they also tell the aesthetic sense of the occupants in that house. Simply put, the choice of artwork you put up is an indicator of your creativity. Hence, you want to hang stunning artwork on your walls and do it correctly.
There’s nothing worse than a lopsided picture or multiple pictures that are not correctly aligned. While you can use traditional bubble lasers to achieve perfectly aligned picture frames, laser levels will get the job done faster and more accurately!
This piece will discuss how to use a laser level to achieve perfectly aligned and leveled picture frames that are sure to grab the attention of your guests and make your interior spaces gorgeous.
What Is the Best Type of Laser Level for Picture Hanging?
With the abundance of laser levels in the market, you may be confused as to which one is best for the task at hand. But the laser level best suited for this job depends on how many pictures you want to hang. If you’re hanging just one picture on one wall or multiple pictures on the same wall, then a simple laser level that emits one straight line will be sufficient for the task.
On the other hand, if you want to hang multiple pictures on different walls in the same room, and you want them all to be at the same height, then a rotary laser level that emits a 360-degree laser line in all directions will be the best option.
This laser will hit the wall at a uniform height at one time, thus allowing you to hang and level all pictures in one fell swoop without having to stop and check your work repeatedly.
How to Hang Pictures Using a Laser Level in Four Steps
Once you identify the laser level best suited for your application, then you can proceed to hang your pictures. Let’s explore how you can achieve well-leveled single or multiple pictures hung on the same wall using a line laser:
STEP 1: Gather Your Tools
The best practice is to account for and gather all the tools you will need for the job, which in this case will include a line laser level, a hammer, drill and drill bits, a measuring tape, a pencil, screws, and a cellotape.
If you do not have a drill, you can alternatively use screwdrivers. Of course, this is going to be much more difficult. If the wall is a solid concrete wall, you might have to rely on your hammers and some concrete wall nails.
Step 2: Determine Where You Want the Picture to Hang
Next, identify the spot(s) where you want to hang the picture. All you need to do is to observe your space for a minute and figure out where the picture will fit best. Choosing the best site for hanging the picture is also a factor in how many pictures you want to hang. So it would be best if you accounted for the spaces between the pictures.
If you need to be more precise, you can always use the measuring tape to measure out the width and height of the wall to be better informed about the best place to hang your picture. For instance, if you want to hang a picture at a precise spot on the wall – halfway along the wall, measure the width of the wall and do the appropriate calculations to get this done.
Using your pencil, mark where the top and the edges of the picture frame will go so that you can quickly and accurately level it horizontally and vertically.
Step 3: Turn on and Use Laser Level to Install the Picture
In this next step, you can proceed to use your laser level: turn on and face it towards the wall. It would be best if you ensured that the light from your laser level is aligned with the mark (the one for the top of the picture frame) you made earlier.
Now that the line you made on the wall and the beam of light from the laser level are aligned, level your laser level. Doing this is crucial because it is not enough only to have a horizontal beam of light going across the wall. You want to ensure that your laser level is itself leveled.
While a self-leveling laser level has an inbuilt mechanism to achieve level independently, not all laser levels can do this. If your laser level isn’t self-leveling, you can level it by rotating it up or down along the wall until the bubble inside the laser level rests on the center of the black line of the bubble level. Non-self-leveling laser levels have little bubbles built into them to help them level.
While you do this, it would be best to ensure that the light from your laser level remains aligned with the mark on the wall. The laser level ought to be level at the same time the beam of light from it passes through the mark you made on the wall. If this is not done correctly, the picture may look crooked. When you have achieved this, you can fasten your laser level to the wall using the suction cups on your line laser level.
Step 4: Mount the Picture
Ok, now that you have a perfectly straight line running along your wall, you can proceed to hang the picture. To achieve this, start by drilling holes on the wall specific to the type of hanging setup you have. While some picture frames may need only one mounting screw in the middle, others may need two on each side at the top.
While you want to avoid studs, if it so happens that the part of the wall where you want to hang your picture has a stud behind it, you will need to use a drywall anchor so that the picture frame does not damage the wall.
Suppose you’re hanging multiple pictures or want to hang your pictures in the center of your wall. You should use your measuring tape to determine the distance between the picture and the wall on either side of the picture and the next frame to achieve even spacing between frames (if you’re hanging multiple pictures).
Mistakes to Avoid, Tips & Tricks
Following the above steps, you should be able to hang your pictures using a line laser level relatively easily. Nevertheless, these are some additional tips to help you make the process easier.
1. Not all houses are perfectly leveled with the earth below. Therefore you want to determine if you want to level your pictures according to your walls or in relation to the earth below. It is, however, a better practice to level your picture frames to your walls, as leveling it to the earth (even after using a laser level) may cause the picture to look crooked and uneven if the house is not leveled concerning the earth.
2. Some picture frames have two hangars at the top instead of one in the middle. If your picture frame is like that, it is often a good idea to measure the distance between the center of the picture frame and its edges.
3. If you’re hanging several pictures on multiple walls, instead of a line laser level, it is better to use a rotary laser level as it will simultaneously cast a 360-degree beam on the walls.
Summary
While pictures add to the aesthetic appeal of our interior spaces, crooked and lopsided pictures obscure the beauty they provide to our homes — this is worse when multiple pictures are hung up. But now that you have been empowered with this knowledge, there’s no excuse for you to have crooked pictures in your space!
