My partner and I collect a lot of art and like to hang it in a collage-type way. Think “eclectic style” but like on roids because we have a lot of small pieces. We have many of things hanging, mostly posters and prints and postcards that we’ve stuck up with sticky tack, but when it comes to the small framed images, we are in disagreement about how they should be hung.
I do not want them to use thumbtacks to hang anything. I do understand it’s the easiest way to hang small and lightweight framed items and canvasses, but we live together in my grandma’s house. Because it’s a family home, I do not want to damage the walls. They claim that it’s easy to fix which, sure, but there would be very many holes. They say they don’t mind filling in the holes when we move and that they could do it with toothpaste (which I’ve heard of i guess…) but 1. there will be soo many holes, and 2. our walls are off white, i feel like we’d need to paint too! I think we should just buy some tiny command hooks but they’re frustrated because we don’t have them and they want to get started hanging our new wall art ASAP while they have time off work.
pls help, they’re like actually pissed about it for some reason. AITA?
NTA. It’s your families home at the end of the day and they can wait for command strips 😂
The holes from tacks are so small, they won’t be noticeable. Command strips can tear off large chunks of wall when you remove them if you aren’t super super careful (and sometimes even if you are).
I can tell you don’t live in earthquake country because the idea of hanging things with sticky tack and thumbtacks gives me so much anxiety.
I don’t think anyone is the asshole here, but I do think you get to make the call here since it’s your family home. Order the command hooks and schedule a time with your partner to hang stuff once they arrive.
nta you don’t put holes in someone else’s walls.
NAH
but the sticky tac also messes up some paint long term.
youre going to have to spackle, sand, and paint
might as well go with the thumbtacks.
The nice thing is that spackling thumbtack holes doesn’t require sanding! Anything bigger and yes, but they’re small enough to not need it if you know what you’re doing when applying the spackle
It seems less of an issue than having nails in the wall, but that’s because I don’t trust command strips. They rip paint. Why not do a beautiful painting of the walls when you leave as a thank you? Maybe you both can win that way?
NTA. If they really want to hang stuff now, they can run to the store and grab some non-damaging hooks. Not wanting to damage family property doesn’t make you controlling, it makes you responsible
Get a cork board.
The holes can be filled but don’t use toothpaste, there are actual products that you can use. Toothpaste is what you use when you’re moving out of the dorm and don’t want to get in trouble for putting holes in the wall.
Just get a giant corkboard, hang it PROPERLY, and then they can go ham with the thumbtacks. Or do the method where you suspend string horizontally and use small clips to hang things from it.
I don’t think grandma would appreciate her walls being full of toothpaste when you move out, or knowing you guys hung things on the walls without consulting her first. If you absolutely pepper the wall with tiny holes it’s going to need to be gently resurfaced and repainted to look nice again.
Command makes great picture hangers that don’t mark up or poke holes in your walls. Most Walgreens type places carry them.
ETA…no asshole here, it’s just a difference of preference.
Tbh, if it were my grandma’s house, I’d be painting on my way out anyway. She’d likely need to paint after you move so I’d just do that anyway. Holes in walls from hanged pictures/art is normal and expected for any rental situation. Walls can be fixed. Dont use toothpaste tho. Tf kind of cheap ass nonsense is that for your *grandma’s* house.
NTA.
Unless you’re in the boonies, you probably live less than 20 minutes from a store that sells command hooks. Have your partner go to the store and buy command hooks, and then they can hang things ASAP.
Filling the holes with toothpaste is what you do when you live somewhere you don’t care about. Don’t let someone do that to a place you do care about.