How to Create a Gallery Wall

3 Simple Steps

A gallery wall can add so much character and depth to your home, while also displaying your life, interests and personal style. It can be a collection of favourite photos, prints you love, mirrors, wall hangings and even artwork from the kids. The key is to create balance, visual interest and personality with your curation — which is just a fancy way of saying the way you arrange your art on the walls. We’ve got 3 simple steps to create a gallery wall to add style and character to your spaces.

Choose your art

Start by deciding on the pieces you want to hang. This can be a selection of your favourite prints, some family photos, a mirror, clock, woodcarving, macramé — or all of the above. Choose whatever takes your fancy and what you want to put on display.

• For a uniform look, having matching frames and sizes with a matching colour palette and/or a selection of prints from the same collection, like this stylised ’60s surfie series.

Uniform look — coastal theme

• For a slightly more relaxed look, have a common thread, such as all timber frames, all monochrome or a theme such as all florals, yet mix up the sizes, styles and mediums (watercolour, oil paint, pencil, etc.) to create visual interest.

Relaxed yet cohesive — floral theme

• For an eclectic look, mix and match colour, spaces, sizes and pieces. Hints of complementary colours or themes will create a curated aesthetic, such as this vintage vacation curation.

Eclectic — vintage vacation theme

• Have fun in the rumpus room, kids’ rooms or even your home office with a selection of playful prints, such as animals and vibrant colour schemes. This quirky collection would look great behind a child’s bed or flip the arrangement to create a horizontal line on top, then cascade the frames down a staircase wall.

Playful — quirky animal theme

Decide on a layout

Once you’ve selected the pieces you want to put on display, it’s time to decide on the arrangement.

• Lay out your selection on the floor or a large table and start moving them around until you find an arrangement you love.
• Alternatively, you could trace each frame onto a piece of crafting paper, cut it out and affix the paper to the wall with Blu Tack or painter’s tape to get a feel for it on the wall.
• Or you could use a digital mock-up tool such as Canva or even PowerPoint or work out the layout on screen. Upload a photo of your own lounge room or bedroom directly into the app to play around with your gallery wall design in your digital room.

Much like arranging your cushions, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the configuration. Settle on a layout that just ‘feels’ right and where you think the visual elements look balanced. Here are a number of gallery wall layouts to inspire you.

Twins

Triptych

Eclectic

Asymmetrical grid

Grid

Classic

Stacked

Boxed

Spiral

Organic

Reflection

Horizon

Hang your pieces

There are a couple of different methods to hanging your art.

• Once your layout is decided, take a photo (if arranged on a table) or save your digital mockup (if created on-screen).
• To start hanging, position the central artwork first on your gallery wall, ensuring it’s straight with a leveller or levelling app. Attach your picture hook and hang the frame.
• Using that as your anchor point, hang each piece around it in the configuration you decided on, referring back to your photo or digital mockup for correct placement, if necessary.

• Alternatively, you can take some crafting paper (or a few sheets taped together) and lay out your artworks on it.
• Trace around them so you have the full mock-up of the layout on a large piece of paper.
• Affix it to the wall with Blu Tack or painter’s tape and align, then stand back to take it in to ensure everything is in the position you want it.
• Once you’re happy with the layout, simply hammer in your nails directly into the wall straight over the paper.
• Remove the paper and your nails are in perfect alignment. Attach your picture hooks and hang your frames.
• If you’re using stick-on hooks, instead of nails, poke a hole through the paper with a grey lead pencil to mark each spot. Remove the paper and affix your stick-on hooks in the marked positions.

🔥 HOT TIP

Once your frames are aligned with a leveller or levelling app, use a small piece of Blu Tack on the inside of the bottom frame and press it firmly against the wall to prevent your artworks from jiggling out of alignment over time.

More in-store at Early Settler

Visit us in-store and online to check out our huge range of wall art, canvases and framed prints for your gallery wall. And don’t miss our tips on how to select a bedhead.