Creating a Beautiful Gallery Wall

Want to know what we love most about gallery walls? No two are identical and they are a true expression of the creator.

Now, there are no real defined rules for gallery or collage walls, because each one is different, but there are some things to keep in mind so that your gallery wall feels cohesive and reflects you and your personal style.

Some questions to ask yourself as you begin designing your gallery:

• How do you want your gallery wall to make you feel?
• What is your color scheme?
• What is your theme?
• Do you have all of your artwork?
• Do you want matching frames?
• Will you be adding objects other than traditional canvases or prints?

After mulling over these questions, you should have a pretty good idea of what your gallery wall will feel like.

For ours, we chose a neutral palette and our artwork was a combination of natural elements and meaningful mementos for our family.

And don’t be afraid to think outside the box with what can be considered art. Maps, letters from loved ones, a child’s drawing, photos from a favorite trip are all wonderful ideas! We mounted two brass plates that were attached to the railing of our deck at our previous home. We built that deck and pergola in memory of my late husband and father, so incorporating the brass name plates on our gallery wall seemed like a perfect idea and a little unexpected.

You may feel a little overwhelmed at the idea of putting it all together on your wall. Guess what? It can feel overwhelming! But, our best advice is to lay out all of your art on a large open space on the floor. And something else that really helps is having a second or third set of eyes to help you.

If you feel insecure about your layout, the tried and true method of cutting out a piece of paper the same size of your artwork definitely helps. Then you can transfer each piece of “paper art” to the wall and stand back to get a better vision of what your gallery will look like before you begin hanging everything.

We chose a free form style over a grid style for our gallery wall. A grid style gallery wall lends itself very well to a more minimalist aesthetic and is clean and beautiful.

The abstract or free form gallery wall, like ours, felt easier to design because we could be more creative with what we chose for art; like the small shelf, ram’s head and dimensional wire piece.

Another tip that can be helpful, is if you have a piece of art that feels a bit too small, adding a large matte around it or an empty frame over top, will give the smaller art a feeling of larger scale.

Our biggest tip would be to keep everything cohesive. Choose all black and white photographs, keep frames the same, use similar colors and your gallery wall will fall into place much more easily.

We hope some of our tips will help ease the stress and frustration that creating a beautiful gallery wall in your home can sometimes bring.

Now, start creating your very own gallery wall!