Weekend Project: Creating a Gallery Wall

I have a passion for photography and love to hang my favorite images around our home. Gallery walls are a great way to add a personal touch to any space. I learned a lot through trial and error in creating our gallery walls and thought I would share some tips that I gathered along the way.

Some Inspiration:

If you aren't comfortable improvising, the below templates (via Pinterest) are a good place to start.

The gallery wall pictured below hangs in our upstairs hallway. Originally, I purchased just the flower paintings, but they felt too small in scale once they were up on the wall. I added some photos from our engagement shoot and prints that I found on etsy to liven things up.

 

 

Our wedding song lyrics, "To Make You Feel My Love" Found in Texas Girl Designs' Etsy Shop

  

Found in CJ Print's Etsy Shop 

The gallery wall below hangs in our master bedroom. We had photos from our wedding, our parent's and grandparent's weddings printed in black and white for a vintage feel. This wall was a labor of love, as I spray painted the majority of these frames - and took longer than expected working on the layout/design of this wall.

 

I just started the latest gallery display in our home (below) in our laundry room/ Penelope's room .

                                               The camera painting can be found here the "rejoice" framed fabric and mirror can be found here

Tips I learned along the way:

1. Ikea is your best friend. If you have one in your area, stock up on frames - they are cheap and come in many different sizes. A gallery wall can look awesome with a variety of eclectic frames, but if you're going for a cohesive look, buy similar frames with the same color matting.

2. Measure and plan ahead. Having an equal distance (usually about 2.5 inches) between each frame gives balance to a grouping. I chose to draw out my groupings, this gave me the freedom to play around with the design before putting any holes in the wall.

3. Don’t get too hung up on being matchy-matchy. Photos taken from different vantage points with a variety of textures can make for an interesting grouping. Also, think outside of the box, you can frame and display anything from baby blankets to varsity letters.

4. Most importantly, take your time and have fun with your gallery wall. Don't get too caught up in making it perfect. Quirkiness and creativity in a gallery can really make it stand out.