Picture, picture, on the wall

I don’t know about you, but a hanging picture on a wall isn’t my idea of fun. I'm generally okay at DIY, but a hanging picture....

Okay, at it’s simplest all you need to do is bang a nail in the wall with the heel of a shoe and tie some string to the picture – but it isn’t cool – it doesn’t exactly do a picture justice….

I recall a couple of years ago, spending ages trying to position pictures and reposition pictures – and ended up with holes all over the place – not desirable –ends up looking like the plaster has woodworm. When you’ve finished out comes the plaster repair kit – ugggh! Another DIY job, renew the moulding fill it, smooth it, paint it.

It’s a matter of balance, you see. It has to look right, and shifting it a centimetre or so (half an inch or so in old money – I’m old you see) can make all the difference.

They had it solved in Victorian times. Most houses had a picture rail about a foot (30 centimetres) or so below the ceiling moulding. All you had to do was slide your picture along until you found balance – great stuff.

However, they seem to have gone out of fashion. I certainly haven’t seen them in modern houses recently, and there’s none around the villas I’ve visited in Spain, certainly no ceiling moulding. If you have one, consider yourself lucky.