Hi, my honeys! As you may know, the one gift I really asked for for Christmas was a gallery wall. I have been spending a lot of time resting on our couch the last couple months in between doctors visits to get a better handle on my health, and I just really wanted something beautiful to look at, distract me. My mom and sister did such a wonderful job picking out artwork they thought I would like, my mother-in-law also contributed a piece to the wall, and I found a few cool pieces on my own. Together, we've put together what I think is a beautiful gallery wall, filled with pieces I adore and love to look at. I wanted to post a quick little guide on how to choose pieces for a gallery wall and how the heck to get them up on your wall in an orderly fashion. Check it out!
How to create a gallery wall:
Measure your wall space. It won't do you any good to pick out a whole bunch of pieces you love, only to realize you can't fit them on your wall. You want to make sure you leave enough room at the top, so the frames aren't touching the ceiling, and if you're hanging these above a sofa or railing up a stair case, make sure there's room above so they don't get knocked down easily.
Decide on a theme. Whether it's all black and white, all neutrals, a certain color scheme, a certain design style like Farmhouse or Modern, or more random like mine, choose a theme you love and stick to it during the selection process. I chose mostly neutral tones and incorporated some textured pieces, graphic pieces, and quotes.
Decide on shapes. For my current gallery wall, I really wanted that art gallery feel, so I decided to go with all rectangular frames instead of adding in objects and other shapes. In the future, I may mix it up and replace some of the rectangular frames with different objects and shapes, but for now, I'm loving the clean, rectangular lines.
Source your artwork. I love TJ Maxx, Marshall's, HomeGoods, and Target for affordable wall art, and you may be able to find some great thrifted pieces as well at your local Goodwill. Set a budget for the total wall space, and try to stick to it. Many of the pieces on my wall were VERY affordable, with a few higher priced pieces serving as focal points on the wall. When selecting your artwork, make sure you're keeping in mind the total surface area of your wall space. Although, you can always buy more than you need, and return the rest later. It helps to see all the pieces in person. The important part is that you find pieces you love! Don't worry about them all making sense together until you see them all in person laid out.
Lay your artwork out on the floor. Clear a space in your home large enough to lay out your artwork in the exact way you might want it on the wall. It helps to use masking tape on the floor to the exact measurements of your wall space. Move pieces around until you achieve a pattern you like. I like to pick my absolute favorite pieces and put them in the center or just off of center so they serve as focal points on my wall. My crystals frame is my favorite piece, so we made sure to put that front and center! Remember, many of your pieces can probably be hung horizontally or vertically, so play around with that as well. If you have all the same color frames, you don't have to worry, but if you have a few different color frames, make sure to spread those out so two exact same colored frames aren't next to each other. The more random, the better I say!
Take photos! Once you have laid out all of your pieces in a pattern you like on the floor, document that ish! You don't want to forget how you had them laid out.
Cut out frame shapes on paper and tape to your wall. This next step is crucial for creating that perfect gallery wall and hanging everything with ease. Take some packing paper (I got a roll with large sheets at Home Depot), and cut out the shapes of all of your gallery wall art pieces. Exact measurements are important, so use a tape measure and cut out the exact size piece of paper as your frame, making sure to carefully mark where your nails/screws will go. Label your pieces of paper with a title you'll remember for each piece of art. That will help you visualize what piece is going where when you hang the paper on the wall. After all the shapes are cut out, labelled, and marked for nail holes, use scotch or masking tape to tape them to the wall, using your photos as a guide. It helps to tape up your pieces on each end first and work your way in, so you know you have enough wall space. Once every piece of paper is up on the wall, make any last minute changes to the layout.
Hang your wall art on the wall using whatever nails and screws needed. I went to Home Depot and picked up various nails, screws, and wall anchor sets so I had plenty to work with. The heavy pieces got wall anchors, and the rest got nails. It's very important that you get these pieces hung safely, accurately, and all level, so use a professional, a friend to help you, or a husband! Obviously, you can do it yourself as well, you just want to be extra careful you don't drop a piece, so you may want to have a friend over to help you, especially if your gallery wall is going up a staircase. Safety first, my friends! It's probably your best bet to leave the paper up until you have the artwork hung, and then just rip it down after. Your level is your best friend, but make sure you're also eyeballing it throughout the hanging process. Sometimes our walls aren't completely level so things will have to be slightly off from level.
Stand back, and give it one more looksie. Make sure everything is level and looks right to you. We actually ended up moving a couple pieces at this point. Sometimes what looks cool on the floor needs a slight tweaking when it's up on the wall. I make sure to keep a wall hole patching kit and a little bit of my wall paint handy for this exact instance. Don't settle on this. Move a couple pieces around at the very end if you feel it's needed. You want to be happy with the end result, and if you're anything like me, if you see something even slightly off, it'll bother you every time you walk into the room. LOL!
I hope this little step by step gallery wall guide was helpful to you! I also wanted to include a few links to some pieces I'm loving right now to maybe get started or inspired on creating your own gallery wall. These are affiliate links, so if you do purchase something, I will make a small commission. This helps me keep this blog running and offer fun giveaways for y'all, so thank you in advance! If you want to see more DIY posts like this, please let me know!
A few gallery wall art pieces I love:
Click on the photos to shop!
