Gallery walls have become very popular in recent years across all interior design styles. I love that they can make a room feel more curated and they help bring character and personality to a home. They are the easiest way to upgrade a room and fill up empty wall space.
Installing a gallery wall can be very frustrating, I know it was for me, but I have come up with easy steps to follow to have your gallery wall looking like it was shipped straight from an actual gallery wall.
Step By Step
- Pick the Art
When it comes to creating a gallery wall the art is the most important part. Before buying any frames or mapping anything else out I always find and collect the art I want to use first. This will give you an idea on the theme and frame colors and scale of the gallery wall. For example, if you’re going with 12 paintings, the gallery will be a lot bigger compared to 5.
2. Pick the Frames and Frame Sizes
This step is super important so don’t skip it! You can pick frames that are all the same size or all different sizes. For the gallery wall I created I went with a larger frame in the middle and then smaller frames all around. There are hundreds, and maybe thousands, of ways to organize gallery walls so get creative! Because I sourced most of the frames from thrift stores, a lot of them were matted and so I decided to keep the matte for some and this changed my original plan of going with one 16×20 frame and 11×14 frames for the rest of the prints.
3. Map Out The Wall
Now that you know how many pieces of art you’re using and the sizes of frames this step will be made a lot easier! There are many ways to map out a gallery wall. I’ve seen a lot of people use painter’s tape and although this is a great way to do it, it doesn’t work if you want to rearrange (it will but it’ll just take a long time). I found that the easiest way is to take an old box, break it, put the frame on top of the broken box, grab a boxcutter, then trace and cut out the shape of the frame on the box. This makes it very easy to rearrange as much as your heart desires. You could keep the cutouts from the box for a future gallery wall or just toss them in the recycling bin.
4. Nail The Frames and Level
This step is pretty self-explanatory but I can’t stress enough how important using a level is. It makes a huge difference and makes the gallery look put together and elegant. I used picture hangers that I found on Amazon to hang the frames and they worked like a dream! I love these specifically because they come in a set of 130 pcs with hangers for frames of all different sizes. I know there are many hooks out there to hang frames but these are by far the best I’ve tried.
And that’s it, you’re done! There isn’t much to it and it’s honestly a lot easier than you would think.
Prints used in this gallery wall are linked below
Frames used in the gallery wall (except frames found at thrift stores)
How I Came Up With the Map For The Gallery Wall
- The first thing I did was find the center of the wall, vertically and horizontally. That’s where I placed the first frame, right in the center of the wall.
- Next, I placed two frames horizontally to the center frame and made sure they were centered to the center frame.
- After, I placed the vertical frames and centered them to the center frame.
- Lastly, I placed frames diagonal to all corners of the center frame. Ideally, I would have made sure to center these frames with the ones that I had previously placed around the center frame (the horizontal and vertical frames). I chose not to center them because the bottom left frame is pretty tiny compared to the rest I decided not to center because it would look like it’s floating on the wall and not a part of the gallery. To keep everything balanced, I decided not to center the diagonal frames.
I hope that these tips and steps help you create the most beautiful gallery wall!
Until next time!
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