How’s It Hangin’? | Hour 3

nine to noon Pacific time. Hey, I want to take a second and remind you that right after we go off the air, every single live show that we do gets converted into our House Whisper podcast, which you can find everywhere your favorite podcasts are found, or I should say anywhere your favorite podcasts are found, whether it's the

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always there for you. So if you can't listen live to a show and you missed a show, or you want to go back and listen more carefully to certain bits the podcast. The podcast, it's always there for you, and just go ahead and subscribe to it and you'll get to new episodes every week as we load up. All right, we're talking about hanging stuff inside your home today. I want to get back to that now. I just talked to you. Did you go did you look at monkey Hooks? Did the A students? Did you went and

checked out monkey Hooks? You saw what they are? Right? They're cool. They're cool. Now, it's not an end all. There's there's no one thing that is the right thing for every situation. That is why we've taken you through the steps this morning. You got to figure out what your wall conditions are. You got to figure out whether you're going to be punching through drywall, drilling into plaster,

or going into wood. You know, which is a really really secure way of hanging a thing if you've got wood that you hit behind the dry wall or the surface. But also you need to know, because you came home with hollow wall anchors that the expectation is there is no wood there and all of a sudden you hit a stud. Then you know you don't have the right anchor in your hand for what you want to hang, which will lead us to the question of should you

have a stud finder? And I don't think it's a bad idea for any homeowner to have a stud finder. A stud finder is simply a device that will allow you to figure out where the studs are in any given area of your wall. Yes, they are. Stud finders can be very, very confusing because they can be priced anywhere from five dollars literally five dollars up to hundreds of dollars. So wow, what's the deal with the stud finder? Well, very very expensive stud finders can be adjusted to different

thicknesses of walls. They can read through plywood walls, concrete walls. They can identify things like electrical lines and plumbing pipes and various other things like that. They really are kind of a pro tool. And you know, hey, if you got money to burn and you want an expensive stud finder, you're going to want to learn how to use it. That's great. Otherwise, a simple basic stud finder for you will actually work really well. I mean something in the

thirty dollar range. And if it's just as simple as looking for studs in a hollow wall dry wall setup, then you know what one of the five dollars stud find. What is a five dollars studfinder. It's a magnet set on a swivel, Okay, And why is that effective? Because studs are made out of wood, Dean, I don't know if anybody told you, but studs are not magnetic. Now you're right, you're right, I stand corrected. No, no, no, but here's the thing. Drywall screws are made out of metal.

And so you've got studs in your wall, and the drywall has been hung with drywall screws that have been covered over, they've been mudded over, so you don't see them, hopefully,

but they're still there. And so for every stud wall that you have in your wall, you've got drywall screws, usually at about every twelve inches, all the way up the entire length of that stud And so if you take a little magnetic stud finder, which has no battery, no redoubt, it just simply has a magnet on a swivel, and when the magnet finds metal right under the surface of the drywall mud, it points to it, and a little the other end of the magnet, which is red,

points straight at you and says, hey, it's a drywall screw, which means, hey, we just found the stud. And there you go, and you can test it by going a foot higher and it'll happen again, and a foot higher and it'll happen again, and then you slide over about sixteen inches okay on average studs. By the way, stud walls for stick style framing are either sixteen or twenty four inches on center, so you either go over sixteen more inches you'll fight.

with the hollow wall situation with hollow wall angers. Now, what if we're renting, or what if we've got a century old house and we've got plaster, and for whatever reason, we don't want to do any damage to the wall. No damage to the wall minimal. We don't want to put holes in the wall. We but we still want to hang some stuff. What about surface mount adhesive based hangers. Well, it's a qualified yes, maybe, depending on a number of factors.

And I got to tell you, just raising this subject, one of the comments that I get most are for three M command strips because they're at every you know, home improvement there, at every hardware store, hanging right up front three M. They're like, look, don't amateur wall just peel and stick and hang your photos. In theory, sure, in practicality, maybe let's talk about why they work and what makes them not work.

off somewhere. I don't know where we're gonna go, but we're gonna go somewhere on the bikes. Maybe ride to lunch. Maybe, I don't know, but uh, we're gonna get out in it. Get the heart pump and some It's a gorgeous day to be outside. So make some plants, all right, take my advice, make some plants. All right. We're talking about

hanging stuff on your walls. We've come to the place now where we arrive and perhaps the most controversial of all of these systems of hanging things on your wall, and that is the no damage quote unquote, Dean's doing air quotes here, no damage surface anchors, which means adhesive anchors. And I said right before the break that I get the most comments from people about three M command anchors.

That's their brand, because they're literally just hanging in every you go down the picture hanging eye or whatever at the hardware store, and there they are just everywhere, all these packages and the claim is it's three m okay, I mean, so you trust that name, right, But the claim is, hey, look, you just push these on the wall, hang your stuff. When you're done, peel them off. They come off clean, no damage, and you're good to go. Okay,

I'm not buying it. No, I don't, because I've seen and heard too many stories of like, well, yeah, In fact, Conway was telling me even on Thursday night he was a victim of the command hanger. He's like, yeah, you know, I put those on the wall and then I just wait, I just wait. Days later, all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, smash, crash, Man, what happened? Oh yeah, just fell off, just fell off the wall.

So here's my issue with it. My issue with command hangers or surface mount hangers is, you know, I mean, conceptually I'm all for it, but in practical terms, who is worried about not damaging the walls? Well, probably renters.

If you don't own the place you're you're in the group that's most concerned about not doing damage to the wall, and rightly, so, okay, if you're renting, chances are you're also living in a place in which the landlord has spent the least amount of money on the paint on the walls, okay, And have no doubt about it that you are not sticking an adhesive wallhanger to a wall. You are sticking an adhesive wallhanger onto paint, okay, which

is itself clinging to the wall. So, if the paint in your place is in any way shape or form a little powdery, if you can rub it with your hand and you get a little bit of you know, white residue on your hand, flat paint on a wall because it's old or it was thin, or whatever the case may be, this is not a strong candidate for your adhesive hangers. Okay. Second is the fact that so you can see, well, i'll just put it this way,

you can see the conflict that I have. If you've got the best possible paint on the wall, it's probably because you own the place, at which point you're probably the least concerned about doing damage to the wall because it's your house and I want my painting right here, and I don't care I'm putting a hole in the wall. It's my house. I'm not going to forfeit my security

deposit to myself. So that's the home that has the best shaped wall conditions, and yet command hangers are almost inevitably sold to renters who probably have the worst walls to put adhesive strips onto. So that's an issue that I have. The second thing is understanding that the condition of the wall, not just the quality of the paint, but is it a little dirty, doesn't have any oily residue on it? Have we completely cleaned that surface? Have we given it a wipe down with some rubbing alcohol

to make sure that it's as clean as possible? And then finally, have we applied the hook the way it

should be applied? And you're like, well, wait a second, it's peel and stick, Dean, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but did you know that your best odds for having one of those command hangars stick is to peel off the backing after you've properly cleaned the wall in the best possible condition, push it on because it's a foam tape, right to push it on, and then hold it depressed with as much pressure as possible against the wall and that foam

tape for about thirty seconds. Yeah, that's kind of a inconvenient, but it's the proper way to give that adhesive the best chance, to give the foam the best chance of molding around the microsurface of the wall so that it's got the best chance of holding. And even at that, even at that, am I going to hang something really valuable there? When I know that there is a likely

that a number of different conditions. Too much moisture in the air, it gets too dry, the wall paint is not as good as I thought it was, so on and so forth, all these conditions that can make one of these adhesive hooks fall off a wall. Am I going to put something valuable there? Now? Probably not? So there you go. So does Dean love adhesive surface mount of hangars? No he does not. Does he trust them? No he does not. Has he used them? Yes? Yes I have? Ah ah Where why I'll tell you why?

And where I do find them valuable in a couple of situations, on glass, on stone, and on metal surfaces. Why because they can be cleaned, prepped. We're not relying on paint. And that's where an adhesive really shines, Okay, really really shines. Does a good adhesive leave something behind when you peel it off? Yeah, it does, because it's

supposed to be grabbing onto the wall. So just don't buy into this idea that, you know what, you'll stick this thing on, it'll stay on for five years and when you pull it off, it will just come off cleanly. How does that even make sense that the an adhesive is super strong, clings to the wall, and yet just by the power of your willing it to not stick, when you pull it off, it leaves no marks behind.

It's either a weak adhesive that leaves the wall clean or it's a strong adhesive that leaves itself behind and mars the wall. So the idea of a no damage wall adhesive not buying it. Okay, I want it to stick and be a problem when I pull it off, or it's not gonna stick and I don't want to hang it in the first place. All right, I'm done, I'm off my soapbox about wall adhesive surface anchors. Right, But on glass which has no surface to damage, I mean you could even use a little glass scraper and

clean it off. Or stone or metal surfaces that you don't want to be drilling into. Then there you go, and guess what those are The surfaces that they hold to the very best for the very longest. All right, moving on now into the final turn on our raceway, our journey towards hanging things properly. I want to talk about how high where on a wall to actually place this stuff and are there any tools out there that

will help you significantly, because there is some. You know, if you go to the most hardware stores of the big box store, you're going to find at least one or two what I would call as seen on TV kind of like look at this hanging kit. Buy this kit. Spend thirty dollars on this kit. It's the wonder hanging kit and it will make hanging pictures perfectly, you know. All right, we'll talk about it.

to the front of the line. You just let our producer know that you were on hold, left left, neglected by Dean last week, and you know we'll put you to the front of the line. See, we're, we're, we're for everybody here. All right, let's let's get into the final steps. Here. I've covered all the anchors. Now let's talk about just a couple of items of the actual process of hanging stuff on your wall. How high do

you hang a thing? Well, if it's a large, significant kind of painting or piece of artwork or a photo. Here's the Now, these are all guidelines, not rules, not laws, not inviolable laws, just guidelines. Okay. This is how, for instance, things are hung in art galleries to maximize your viewing of said object. And that is very simply the center of the item, from top to bottom, the center of

the item. You try and target it at eye level, not your height, okay, eye level, eye level of those So and if you live in a home with height challenged people, we'll just put it that way. Shorties like my wife's entire family, or taller people, and you want to maximize the viewing pleasure of you said people in your family, then you know what, measure everybody's height and take an average and say, okay, this is where we're going.

But typically eye level for the average adult human being is right about sixty inches, right in the high fifties, right about sixty inches to the center of the item. So there you go optimal viewing level. Now, if you're doing a collage of a bunch of different frames and photos all together in one clump, then try and get the clump centered at eye level right, So it works either way, whether it's just one item or a grouping of items, try and get the grouping roughly at eye

level when you can. Now. The exception to this. One of the exceptions to this is if you've got a wall that the item is sharing with, maybe a door or a window, right, so you may want to consider may and again not a rule, but you may want to consider hanging that item with its top level to the top of the other elements, like level to the height of the window or the door. Or if there's a pair of scance lights in the room, you may want to align it to one of those immovable permanent features.

The key is you know, take a look at it and see how it looks. And the most important part of this is a rule that I've told you again and again, and I'm going to apply it here as well. From a design perspective. In the world of design and craftsmanship, when it comes to aesthetics, you either want to get it right on the money or miss it by a mile. Okay.

So in other words, if you're going to hang it at the height of the door, like you've got a frame that's going to go right next to a door, and you're like, you know, I think it would be, then get it right at the top of that doorcasing right where that door's line is on the wall. Make sure you get it boom right on the money, or don't get close, miss it by several inches, lower, higher, whatever.

A near miss always looks like a mistake. So right next to a door or a window and down a half an inch or up one inch too high, that looks like it's something wrong misaligned. So either hit it right on the money or miss it by a mile. Either is totally acceptable. Near misses always always look like mistakes in colors, textures, in alignment of things. We just don't close only is good for horseshoes, not for decor inside a house. So miss it by a mile or

hit it right on the money. Okay. How to measure is challenge because it all has to do with where the hanging exists on the back of the item. But basically, have a good tape measure or a ruler on hands so that you can estimate properly where the hanging point is in relationship to the top, bottom, or sides of the item, and then account for that when you're actually

making marks on the wall. But I got to tell you this, as far as the tools, okay, go here is the very best hanging tool that you can acquire for putting stuff up on your walls is a friend, all right, somebody standing back giving them giving you their perspective, or you standing back and them holding it on the wall so that you can see how it works out right,

and you can make that that's just the best. Tina and I always work together when we're hanging stuff in a client's home or in our own home, right, So the best tool you can acquire for the day that you're hanging important stuff is a friend. The second best tool is blue masking tape. Blue masking tape is in fact the thing that it has all the qualities that I talked against when it came to surface anchors. Blue

masking tape does not have a strong adhesive. It does not easily do damage to walls, nor does it stick for very long. But that's to your advantage. Blue masking tape. We use it all the time to draw out frames, pictures, doorways, all sorts of stuff that we use to emulate shapes on walls. And then we stand back and look at it and we're like, yeah, I think that'll work. No, let's lower it down by about three inches. And then you grab the tape and you pull it off, and

you lower it three inches down. You move it left or right. Blue masking tape is your friend when it comes to planning this out. Here's what you don't do, okay, what you don't do is take a guess at it. Put all the holes in the walls, put all the hangers in place, hang all the stuff by yourself without giving it any consideration as to whether or not you're exactly where you should be, and then stand back and say, hey, babe, come on in here, tell me if this is okay.

You've already made all these holes. What are you doing? Use and a simulation first, that's the point. So if you have a friend or a partner with you, they can hold it up. And if it's not too big, they can hold these things in place. If it's a lot of stuff, use the blue masking tape, or if it's a big thing like a big screen TV or something, use the blue masking tape on the wall and get your concepts down so that you know, yeah, this is

where it's going. It's going right here, and then you put your hangers in place properly measured from the top of the tape and from the sides, and you're good to go. All right, So a little planning, a little simulation, a little emulation first before you commit to the hanging itself. And if there's multiple things being hung all the way across the room and you want to get them all at the same level, then an inexpensive laser would would

be really really useful as well. And nowadays an inexpensive interior room leveling laser level you know, you can pick those up for less than fifty bucks. And what they do is they cast a beautifully level horizontal line all the way around a room, on every surface without marking or marring anything. And even if the line is not exactly at the level where the image is going to go where the thing that you're hanging on the wall is, then everything measures up from that level or down from

that level perfectly to that same spot. And so laser levels are fantastic little tools. But the tool that you don't need is very likely that specialty wonder tool at the hardware store or that claims that to buy this thing and it will magically get all of your hanging right. You don't need to do that. Don't waste your money on that. Just understand the item that you're hanging, have a friend or a partner with you, maybe a laser level and some blue tape, and guess what, you're gonna

get it all done right. I guarantee it all right, y'all when we come back. A couple of final thoughts for that and a closing thought for you for the day. So hang with us your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.

design elements. The fact of the matter is the way that we decorate our homes at the end of the day is the stuff that we interact with constantly, and it's no guarantee that people get it right just because it's a lighter subject to deal with. So I'm glad

to spend the time with you doing that. Couple of last things to talk to you about in regards to this particular topic, and that is this, there are some classic approaches to displaying things in your home that we haven't mentioned that have nothing to do with making wall

holes in your wall. If you have a classic home, a home that you're really really wanting to create that classic ambiance with, if you've got a century home, an older home, one hundred year old home with plaster walls, and you know how hard it is to commit to making holes in those walls, even if you do it the right way. Okay, then how about this, how about at the end of the day doing it old school? And what do I mean by old school? I mean that you install a molding in a room that is

in fact called a picture rail. What is a picture rail molding? It goes near the top of the wall. Sometimes it is in fact incorporated into crown molding. Sometimes it's a few inches just below the crown molding. It's a decorative molding, but it is shaped in such a way that a hook can be placed over the edge of that molding, and then from there a silk rope, or in a contemporary home, a wire cable coming down

that actually hangs the object on the wall. In other words, all objects on the wall are being hung from the picture rail. And this is something that is as old

as colonial and Victorian architecture. Knowing that expensive wallpapers back in the day and thick, hard plaster walls are not the ideal places to put holes in picture rail at the top of the wall ensured that these things were not being marred or damaged at all, because everything was hanging down on its own attractive hangar from that rail that is just as classic as it gets. And if you think it has to be an older home, we do it in ultra modern contemporary homes. In fact, galleries

will use picture rail. Now it's a metal rail. It may be brass, it may be black. It may be you know, some cool brushed stainless steel, very low profile with wire or cable hangers coming down. Or it can be all froofy and beautiful and ornate and victorian with twisted you know, silk rods and little angry things, little pump pums on the edge. It can all get really really fancy or very very streamlined. But it is one solution.

And if it's your place and you want something super secure, the other advantage of using a higher molding like that is that the molding is definitely going to get attached to the studs through the wall very very securely, and it holds an awful lot of weight and so you never have to worry about having something fall on you in that regard. And then the last thing is sometimes something super special just deserves to go on the mantle,

or buy an easel for it. If you've got room in a room to display something that truly is a focal point of attention, a beautiful painting or a family photo or somebody special. Then place it on an easel and make it a piece of furniture in the room. All Right, there you go. That's what I got for you today. And I thought I would leave you with a closing thought. I, for whatever reason, have been thinking

a lot about being overwhelmed with information and distractions. And maybe it's just it's a combination of the fact that the world that we live in now, it's these phones that we carry around with us constantly screaming at us, every form of advertisement in media constantly coming at us. And it's probably also election season and the fact that it's all been ramped up that much more, and just

looking for quiet and centeredness. That's probably what led me this morning as I was sitting by the fire pit, just thinking about if there was anything I wanted to say today to this thought. So based on that, I'm going to leave you with this thought today. The greatest gift any human has to give is their time and attention. Think about that. That's because time and attention are what we have the least of what we need the most. And what we are all running out of things. Take time,

We give our time, We invest our time. We don't want anything or anyone to waste our time. People want our attention. They beg for our attention, they compete for it, they fight for it. And to whomoever wins or earns our attention, we will pay attention. Now listen to those words take, give, invest, waste, want, beg for, compete for, fight for win, earn pay. These are the words we

use around costly things. But here's another word, a devaluing, losing word, perhaps right now, the most terrible word of all distraction. So today, right now, you are in sole possession and in control of a limited and dwindling resource that the whole world wants a piece of your time and attention. Or perhaps I've overspoken. Perhaps you're not in control of it. Perhaps the endless assault on your time and attention has you lost and adrift in a sea

of distractions. How are you going to find your way home? There's no sense in hoping or waiting for the world to quiet down. That ship has sailed. You're going to have to take back your time, guard your time like the precious thing that it is. You're going to have to start giving great intention to who or what receives your attention, and it's not going to be easy. You might even discover you're addicted to being distracted. You might discover you don't like the company of your own thought

and feelings. Once you get there, I get it, I feel you. But I'm here to remind you you possess nothing more valuable, nothing more valuable. I write this for you and for me. We all need reminding. No one masters this. All you can do is keep fighting for it. And those who do choose to fight for and compete for and win back their own time and their own attention. Those people, and only those people, are gonna be the

ones that can find their way back home. Those people, and only those people, have the resources to build themselves a beautiful life. And I'm gonna leave you with that thought today, Give it some thought, enjoy this beautiful day ahead of you, and we will see you right back here next weekend. This has been Home with Dean Sharp

the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.