When I’m hanging something heavy like a mirror or a large piece of artwork with glass, I want to make sure I can be confident that it won’t come crashing to the floor in the middle of the night. Can you imagine the mess a broken mirror would make? And who wants seven years of bad luck?

The trend to decorate with owl-themed knick-knacks has been going strong since 2010. I’m not sure if the Harry Potter movies kick-started this trend with its magic, mystery, and ancient wisdom, but all I can say is that the world is still obsessed with them. A recent trip to the mall confirmed that these night creatures are here to stay for at least a little longer.

I’ll never forget October 18, 2004, when we changed my decorating business into a product development, design, marketing and sales company. The name stayed the same, we simply added “Inc” to become Under the Roof Decorating Inc. (UTR). The invention of Hang & Level, our picture-hanging tool, was the catalyst for this major change. We wanted to make picture hanging easier, so with our team we focused on developing a whole line of innovative wall decorating solutions.

This handy little hammer is the perfect size and weight for picture hanging. Because it has a shorter handle than a regular carpenter’s hammer the Déco Hammer provides a lot more precision, which is the most important factor when it comes to hanging pictures since you don’t require a lot of force. Plus, with the Déco Hammer the chances of hitting your fingers, driving the nail flush into the wall, or completely missing the nail are pretty much eliminated.

It can be a real challenge to keep the spacing equal between frames when hanging pictures horizontally. Here’s a simple tip that will help solve the problem.

With Thanksgiving coming up this coming weekend, I thought I’d share some easy and inexpensive decorating ideas.

We’ll focus on getting the dining table Thanksgiving ready, since that’s where your guests will spend most of their time this holiday. I have hand-picked some of the best decorating ideas from our Pinterest board, so click on this link to see gorgeous pictures and “how to” steps for the following ideas:

It’s almost been eight years to the day since Kelly (my business partner) and I were featured in Alberta Venture magazine’s October 12, 2006 issue.

How to make picture hanging easy? Mark exactly where the nail goes! The Hang & Level™ picture hanging tool takes all of the guesswork out of figuring out where to put the nail to get your picture hanging in the perfect spot. Without any measuring, calculating or marking up your walls, it eliminates all of those mistake holes. Here’s how it works. Place your picture on the hook Place the...

Transform your house from summer to fall in five minutes! For an instant makeover for your living room simply add pillows, lots of pillows, and if you really want to make things complicated, you can add a throw.

When hanging pictures it's important to choose nails you can trust to hold your artwork. That's why we designed the Déco Nail's unique head to prevent any picture hardware from slipping off. Use them to securely hang pictures, mirrors, clocks, or any other wall décor you may have. Déco Nails can support up to 20 lbs.

Here's a quick tip that never fails. When I'm hanging pictures and I want them to be perfectly level, I close one eye to focus on lining up both top edges — it works like a charm. Here, I am lining up the second frame with the one already on the wall. As you can see, I’m visually lining up the frames using Hang & Level.

Upcycling is a fabulous way to give something a new life. With that said, here’s a little inspiration for those of you who are planning to go curb shopping or back alley surfing this weekend.