How To Create A Gallery Wall

If you're looking for a classic, timeless way to display wall art in your home or workspace, chances are you've considered a gallery wall. 

Gallery walls are a timeless way to bring warmth and character into your home, whether you prefer a more classic look or you'd rather something contemporary.

 

Image Source: The New York Times

The idea of DIYing your gallery wall can be a little scary but with a bit of planning and prep, you can beautiful results that will quickly transform your home. 

We've put some of our favourite tips for nailing gallery walls (if you'll pardon the pun) every time below. 

The History Of Gallery Walls

'Gallery wall' is the term we use to describe a collection of wall art displayed across your wall - multiple pieces, as opposed to one or two artworks as you might otherwise consider. 

Gallery walls have their roots in traditional design and architecture and were a common feature of classical British design.

Mismatched artworks in a range of styles and frames are typical of the eclectic style so synonymous with English or country style homes.

Image Source: Curated Interior

But it's not just lovers of these styles who use gallery walls now. 

By streamlining the selection of artwork and frames, you can create a more contemporary or sophisticated look on your gallery wall. 

Image Source: The Every Girl

Whether you prefer a traditional, eclectic look and feel or a more sleek style, there's a few golden rules when it comes to making your gallery wall work. 

Selecting Artworks for Your Gallery Wall

Your artwork selection will be determined by the look and feel you're trying to create with your gallery wall. 

Eclectic Gallery Wall Art Selection

For more eclectic styling, you want to pick as diverse a collection as possible. 

 

Start by choosing a couple of pieces of art that you love as a basis point. Children's artworks, or old family portraits work beautifully together.  

Pick a few other signature pieces which will be your inspiration and basis for your art wall. We love our collection by Henry Lyman Sayen for adding to eclectic gallery walls.  

Hitting your op shops is also a great way to find a few pieces to get you going.

Op shop art may not always pack a lot of punch in the stack at your second hand shop, but they are very surprisingly effective when displayed collectively and pared with complementary pieces from other sources.

 

You might just choose two or three to run big in among your other pieces. 

When it comes to framing your pieces, many interior designers advise against using the exact same frame across a gallery wall.

Instead, choosing a range of frames in differing colours, sizes and shapes to get an authentic eclectic look and feel. 

Contemporary Gallery Wall Art Selection

Nailing this look involves a more careful consideration of the key pieces. Choose a theme to run through all your pieces. For example, you might select a colour scheme of black, white and tan.

You might want to also stick to all black frames for consistency. 

How To Hang Your Gallery Wall

It's important to plan our how you gallery wall will go together before you start banging nails into walls. 

A few simple tools will make life a lot easier when it comes to getting your gallery wall right. Make sure you have the following handy:

• Masking tape
• A Measuring tape
• A pencil
• Blue Tack

Once you've collected all the pieces for your gallery wall, it's time to plan it out. 

We recommend measuring out your artworks and using masking tape or post-it notes to plot them out on the walls before you start making holes. 

Once you have your artworks plotted out, it becomes a lot easier to see where you'll need to make the holes in your walls and how the finishing layout will look.

If you're using mismatched frames, bear in mind they may have different hanging heights that you'll need to adjust for when working out where to hang your nails. 

Start from the middle of your wall and work your way out, using a consistent distance between pieces. 

Make sure you regularly step back and assess your work. If something isn't looking right, it's much easier to fix it early on. 

Finally, use blue tack on the bottom backs of your frames if they don't have rubber bumpers. 

This will hold your pieces in place on your walls, ensuring they don't move and ruin the look of your gallery wall. 

The key thing to remember with hanging a gallery wall is that it doesn't have to be perfect (unless that's the look you're specifically aiming for!). 

One of the things that gives gallery walls their charm is contrast between shapes, sizes and finishes. 

Don't be afraid to play with your concept and move pieces around until you're happy with your finished result. A gallery wall can be something you add to and remove from over a lifetime, swapping in and out pieces as your tastes and preferences change over time.