HGTV in Suzhou

Note different colored lines for different frames

After logging countless hours enjoying my HGTV shows in Iowa City, I had the chance to use something I remembered seeing there and wondering why I had never thought of it.  I have several things I wanted to hang on my walls, and you know how it’s difficult to see where you want them while holding something up to the wall, or someone else who doesn’t really want to be doing this project is holding them up on the wall while you examine them.  Enter the wall template by way of HGTV.  First you need a large sheet of paper, which I didn’t have, but I did have some scrap paper and tape, so I constructed one.  Next, measure your wall space and then mark it on the paper.  Next lay the paper on the floor and then put the frames on the paper and arrange as you desi  Then comes the cool part.  Draw around the frames, and mark specifically where the hole should go for the screw.  I repeated this 3 times in different colors for different walls.  I felt very clever, I admit.  Last go find the person who is hiding from you and have them help you hold up the template while you use a pen and make a hole in the paper and mark the hole on the wall.  [Note:  This is the part I may have gotten wrong, but it’s all I could think of to do.  If anyone has a better solution, I’d love to know.]

Finished Product

This makes putting the holes in the wall a breeze, usually.  I had to finally hire someone to come put holes in the wall for me because I couldn’t find any wall hanging hardware, or rather didn’t know which of the million stores in this town to look for them in, nor how to ask for it in Mandarin.  The fellow who came was nice….He also didn’t bring a hammer, and was trying to put some weird hooks in the wall using his pliers as a hammer.  I went to get mine, and still he charged me 10RMB/nail.  It was a stiff bill, but I’m really glad that I took 5 hooks from him and hammered them in for my fan wall in the time it took him to drill one hole for the heavy frames.  He was neither speedy nor well equipped.  Well, that’s not entirely accurate because he did have a laminated copy of his fee structure, although it was all in Mandarin.  Funny how Chinese people keep writing stuff in their language, even though I still can't read it.