Hanging Gracie's "Gallery"

When Steve painted Gracie's bedroom sky blue as a surprise birthday present (for both of us!) I fell in love with the color. Up until then Gracie's room had been pretty much pink and brown with a pop of red here and there, but thinking back on my childhood I remember loving the bright colors and illustrations in children's books--I wanted Gracie's room to have that same whimsy and fun to it. So, taking inspiration from this gorgeous room (spotted on Ohdeedoh) I decided to frame up artwork from some of her picture books. I snagged a bunch of super-cheap frames at Goodwill and painted them all white, and today I finally got around to hanging them. Here's the before picture:

I read in Better Homes & Gardens about an easy way to hang pictures right--you cut out templates out of paper, tape them to the wall, hammer the nail through, and then just pull the paper away and hang your pictures. I used some wrapping paper to get started, and made sure to mark where the hanger for each would go (since they were thrifted they all had different hanger placement). Then I hammered in the nails, like so:

(I had to move some furniture around to do this, and Gracie was in heaven--it was like she had a whole new room.)

Here's a picture of what my wrapping paper templates looked like, too:

I pulled the paper off, and folded up the templates so I could tape them on the back of their frames (so if we move them around I won't have to cut templates again). Then I just hung up the photos, made a few minor adjustments, and ta-da! All done! So let me give you the before and after shots again to compare! :)

BEFORE:

AFTER: