What Is A Gallery Wall?

A gallery wall is a way to display and curate all of your most treasured memories, photographs, or artwork in a new unique and modern way in your home or work place.  It transforms blank walls and can really create a focal point or feature.

Creating a gallery wall doesn’t have to take hours or be a complex design.  It’s simply a way for you to show your personality and display your most loved pieces.  You can really play around with each design, using various shapes, colors, frames and placements.

If you have been considering a gallery wall and want to give it a try below is a few key points and tips to get you started.

Image credit: https://www.potterybarn.com/
Image credit: https://declutterflypdx.com/

What You Want To Display

One of the very first things you need to do before beginning your gallery wall is to decide what it is you want to display.   The best thing to do is to start putting together a collection of all the things that you really love, things that have a special memory or meaning to you these could be things like family photographs, a pressed flower, a child’s drawing, postcards or a very precious piece of artwork.

As your collection begins to take shape you need to think about the scale of the wall and the type of arrangement you want, possible things to think about is sizes, are you going to keep everything the same size or are you going to have various sizes, the same with shapes, are they going to be all square or oblong or are you going to introduce other shapes like circles or hearts.

Maybe do some research and look at designs you like and why.

Theming

Once you have a collection that you have chosen that you are completely happy with the next step is to group them or theme them, for example, all the family photos together, drawings, postcards, art work etc, so they are all in their own specially themed group.

Think about colours and styles that go with each group and the room you are displaying it in.

A really great thing to do is put certain coloured paper or materials against the images, look at frame styles if you are framing things and see what really fits with what you are trying to theme and where.  There are some great examples of gallery walls online don’t be afraid to use them for inspiration.

Image credit: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/
Image credit: https://easyteaching.net/

Odd or Even?

Its ok in this process to add or take away some of the final choices that you have made to display.  You need to decide if the space would look better displaying an odd or even amount of pieces.  Do you want a very balanced and neat display or a random arrangement.

Play around with things look at what you have, draw the display out on paper and see what number would look better odd or even.

Time To Measure Up

Once you have decided on all of the above it’s time to get out that tape measure and have a trial run. Measure the wall space you are using, get the exact measurement and mark this out on the floor.

Once you have done this lay all your pieces out in a design leave a little gap in between to allow for the frames, step back and look at it, does anything look out of place or wrong? if so make adjustments and then photograph it, you can do this several times rearranging and changing things.

Look back at the photographs you have taken of the layouts and designs, once you are happy with tone of the designs then it is time for the final step.

Image credit: https://www.aliexpress.com/
Image credit: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/

To Frame Or Not To Frame?

Deciding on frames can be the hardest part.  First of all you need to decide if you are going to use frames, if so on all or part of the display, once you know for sure that then it’s time to pick those frames.

Look at each piece individually and answer the following questions:

  • do you want vibrant or very simple colours?
  • is each frame going to be the same or different?
  • Will they be the same style or different, for example modern or antique?
  • Will they all be different sizes?

Once you have all those answers it’s time to frame your pieces and display them perfectly.