Home Office Design Tip: Use Smartphone as Picture Level

In recent articles I have been encouraging you to use home office design tips to personalize, energize and inspire yourself with artwork in your home office.

Selecting your art is one thing; hanging it can be quite another. Doing a good job of hanging a print or photo requires more than a hammer – you need a level. Not everyone has a carpenter’s level in their tool stash. Your smartphone can come to the rescue. Both iPhones and Androids have apps to help you level that picture and make your home office look attractive and professional.

iPhones have a built-in level app that is hidden behind the compass app.

• Tap on the Compass icon on your iPhone screen
• Calibrate your compass by tilting and rotating your iPhone.
• Left slide the compass and reveal the level app.

The level app has two functions: horizontal and vertical levels. The horizontal level displays two white circles on a black background, plus a digital read-out. Tilt the phone until the circles align on top of each other. When the iPhone is perfectly level it will display a “0” and the background will turn from black to green.

The vertical level – which is what you would use for hanging a picture shows a white bar above a black area – like a traditional level. When it is perfectly level it reads out “0” and the black background turns green.

This is so much easier than eyeballing a spirit level. But the downside for perfectionists is the digital read-out. Is there really that much difference between a digitally measured level of “0” (zero) and 3%?

For Android phones there is a free level app which you can download.

[link] This one has both a digital read-out (in very small text) and an image of a spirit level which allows you to align a “bubble” in a traditional carpenter’s level.

With a hammer and a level you will be ready to hang the prints and photos that bring color and inspiration into your home office.

Check Out These Home Office Design Tips on Inspiring Ways to Use Art in Your Home Office:

Home Office: Art First, Furniture Second
Inspire Yourself With Children’s Art

For more ideas on how to make your home office look attractive while supporting your work get a copy of The Smarter Home Office: 8 Simple Steps to Increase Your Income, Inspiration and Comfort.

Dog portrait photo by Cordey
Iphone level app image by CNET.com
Android level image by Google App Store

PS – Another trick is to set your smartphone to “airplane” mode and it will charge in half the time.

If you would like a personal home office consultation Contact Linda