Gallery walls are a great way to display family photos or your favorite artwork. You can always swap out different pieces or if space permits, add on to the existing gallery wall. There are many ways that a beautiful gallery wall can come together. The style that you want to achieve however depends on the size and style of the frames, the pattern that you hang the frames and of course the artwork itself. There really isn’t a right or wrong way to create a gallery wall – it’s all up to your preference. We’ve compiled a list of five popular ways to create a gallery wall; take a look and see which one best suits your design style.
1. Grid Pattern
If you are trying to achieve a uniform symmetrical look, a grid pattern would work best. For a gallery wall to come together in a grid pattern you would need to use similar sized frames and be consistent with spacing between the frames. You can choose to use identical frames or mix up the styles of the frames with different colors and finishes depending on what look you like best.
2. Ledge Wall
Using picture ledges to create a gallery wall might appeal to you if you would like to be able to swap out pieces at any time. Whether its family photos, artwork, or a mixture of both, picture ledges give you the convenience of swapping or adding pieces with ease because the frames don’t need to be secured to the wall at all. Find ledges that fit your style and attach them to the wall leaving enough space between each ledge to allow for larger sized frames. Then simply layer different sized frames on each ledge. When using picture ledges you can also add sculptures and other décor pieces to the ledge to create more interest and dimension. You can play around with the placement as much as you would like to achieve a well-balanced look.
3. Organic Placement
Organic gallery walls are a fun way to obtain a curated over time look. Whether you’re an art collector or you want to appear like one, organic placement of artwork works best with a mixture of frame styles, sizes, and a good mixture of the style of art itself. An organic gallery wall gives the impression that art has been added to the feature wall over a period of time as you have collected it over the years during your vast travels and adventures. Now whether that it is true or not is between you and your wall. When it comes to creating this type of gallery wall, not many rules apply. You don’t have to maintain consistent spacing between the frames and you can use whatever frames you already might have at home. Before you hammer away at the wall though, consider laying the pieces out to give you an idea of how it will look once it all comes together.
4. A Column
Similar to the grid pattern, a column gallery wall has a uniform look. In order to achieve a column look you need to maintain straight lines for the column’s outline. Whether you want to use similar sized frames and maintain the same distance between each frame is up to you.
5. Up the Stairs
Creating a gallery in the stairwell might be the most challenging of the five methods discussed in this post. Using a mixture of frame styles, sizes and different picture works best with this gallery wall. First, using painters tape, you want to recreate the angle of the staircase on the floor. Then, you simply want to lay out each frame, mixing in the different sizes, to create a look that appeals to you. This might require switching and swapping out different frames and experimenting to your heart’s content. The amount of space to leave at the bottom of the wall depends on how many frames you have and how much you want to fill up the entire wall. Overall, you want to make sure you achieve a good balance between the negative space and the frames. Crowding all the frames won’t be appealing and neither will be spacing them too far apart. It is truly a test of trial and error and discovering what looks best to you.
