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Ah, the joys of owning a home. You get to make it your own, and you get to enjoy every room all the time. One of my favorite things about buying a new house is picking out all the decor and furniture. But, as any renter or homeowner will tell you, hanging art without damaging your walls is tricky business—especially if it's an expensive piece or one that's been passed down through generations. Luckily for us (and our wallets), there are ways to hang art on walls without damaging them:

Remove small nails and dents.

If the nail or screw is still in good shape, remove it with a hammer and screwdriver. If the nail or screw is too small to remove with these tools, you can cover it with tape. This will protect your wall from being damaged when hanging art on top of it.

Carefully patch holes and cracks.

As you can see, the hole is now patched up. It looks great!

Now that we've removed all of the loose paint and patched any holes or cracks in our walls, let's talk about how to hang art without damaging your paint job.

Sand the area if necessary.

Once you have the hang of it, sanding is an easy step to take. The process is as simple as it gets: use a fine-grit sandpaper and rub over the surface of the wall in circular motions.

You can use one of several different tools for this, including:

  • Sanding block
  • Hand sander
  • Power sander (hand or electric)
  • Dremel tool with sanding accessory attachment

As ever, be sure to test out your chosen method on a small area before going in full force. I recommend starting with a sanding sponge—it's cheap and effective—and moving up from there if you feel like more power is required to get rid of any scratches or imperfections in the paint job underneath your art pieces.

Use painter's tape to cover the edges of the repair areas, but don't put it on the actual hole.

  • Use painter's tape to cover the edges of the repair areas, but don't put it on the actual hole.
  • Use a putty knife to apply texture compound over your repair area, working in small sections at a time. Smooth out any bumps or ridges that form with a sanding sponge once you've finished applying texture compound.
  • Use a paintbrush to apply paint over your repair area (and then clean up afterward).

Apply texture compound with a putty knife.

Texture compound is a dry, powdery substance that you apply with a putty knife to create an uneven surface. It's available in different colors and textures, such as clay or sand. To protect your paint job from damage, it's important to use the proper tools when working with texture compound.

  • Use a putty knife to apply texture compound evenly over your wall or doorway.
  • Use a putty knife to smooth out any excess texture compound on the wall after applying it.
  • Use a putty knife to remove excess texture compound if there is too much on your walls before applying another coat of paint -- this will prevent drips and runs in your final product!

Sand the textured areas once they've dried.

Use sandpaper or a sander to smooth down any textured areas of the wall. Use enough pressure to remove texture and rough spots, but be sure not to overdo it—you want your walls to look natural and not like they were just slapped up by an amateur painter with no finesse.

Use medium-grit sandpaper for small areas (like around door frames), or fine-grit sandpaper for larger surfaces such as ceiling beams and corner moldings. Be sure you keep track of which side of the paper is coarse or fine so that you don't accidentally start taking off too much paint!

Once you've finished removing all those pesky nicks and dents from around windowsills, trim boards, window frames and other parts of the room where there might be slight imperfections in your painting job (even professional painters have a few versions of this). Then wipe away any dust with a damp rag before moving onto step 7: sealing everything up!

Choose paint that matches your walls or ceiling, or go for something similar but in a different sheen. (Eggshell is a safe bet.) A pro tip for matching paint is to visit a local hardware store like Lowe's or Home Depot when the paint you're trying to match is dry, since some paints look different wet versus dry.

The first step in choosing the right paint is to select a color that matches your walls or ceiling. A pro tip for matching paint is to visit a local hardware store like Lowe's or Home Depot when the paint you're trying to match is dry, since some paints look different wet versus dry.

Paint colors can be grouped together based on their undertones (warm or cool) and/or hue (vivid vs muted). When pairing colors together for home decorating, it's best to stick with one undertone family at a time. For example:

  • Warm reds: red-orange, orangey-reds; warm yellow oranges; mustard yellows; tangerine oranges; coral yellows
  • Cool greens: teal blues, aqua blues; grassy greens - greenish yellows (hazelnut brown)

After your primer has dried, paint over the primer with your chosen color. It may take two coats to get good coverage.

At this point, you’ve already made a great investment in your art. You should make sure it stays that way. After the primer has dried, apply 2 coats of your chosen color. When applying paint with a roller or sponge, don’t be afraid to get heavy coverage for an even coat. Let the paint dry for 24 hours after each application before touching it again—you don’t want smudges on your freshly-painted wall! If you use a brush to apply paint (like I did), be prepared for an absolute nightmare of fallout and dust everywhere that will forever haunt you until the day you die from old age because there will never be enough Windex in all the world to clean up that mess again.

Yes, you can hang art without damaging your walls! Here's how to do it safely

The first step of hanging art on damaged walls is to remove any small nails. Carefully cut them off with a pair of scissors, then use a small flathead screwdriver to carefully pry away the nail heads from their holes. Be careful not to bend or break off any sections of your wall; it’s best if you can remove all traces of patching material and previous repairs before proceeding.

If there are holes or cracks that need filling, use an acrylic caulking compound (like silicone sealant) in order to fill large gaps between the wall and paint job. You should choose a color that matches your wall color as closely as possible (or one tone lighter), so that it won't stand out too much when viewed at an angle—this type of repair can easily be done by hand using a putty knife, but if you want more professional results we recommend using texture compound instead since this kind of product has already been mixed together into thin sheets which makes application easier than traditional caulking compounds! Use painter's tape around edges where possible - this will help prevent any excess from spilling over onto nearby surfaces when applying texture material.. Once dry

Conclusion

If you're looking for more tips on hanging art, check out our post about how to hang pictures without damaging your walls.

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