Are you a fan of gallery walls - you know, the curated display of photographs, posters or prints, creatively arranged on a wall using photo frames (or not)?

My gallery wall has been years in the making. Yes - years! And I’ve finally got it done. I’ve procrastinated for so long - wondering, which wall in my apartment would be the best and do I need to choose a theme and did someone mention picture frames? There’s quite a bit to consider. But consider I did, and I’m so happy with how my gallery wall turned out. It has really  brought some character and personality to our living space. 

If creating a gallery wall in your home is a job you’ve been putting off for a while, I’m here to help you put it back on your ‘I’m so excited to get this done’ list. It doesn’t have to be complex or take hours to achieve. It's all about bringing together your favourite pieces that also showcase your personality. I thought I’d put together a few ideas that helped me decide what my gallery wall would look like. If you've never been sure how to get started, these tips should help you decide whether you’d like a gallery wall and if you do, what you would like it to look like and how best it can be achieved.

my five top tips are -

1. choose your space

The first step is to decide WHERE you will put your gallery wall. Ideally, you want it in a place where you will be able to appreciate it — somewhere you see every day — but not in direct sunlight or you may find over time artworks will fade or warp from sun exposure.

Some popular places to hang a gallery wall are -

• the wall of a staircase

• above your console table in an entry

• behind an office desk

• above a bedhead or sofa 

• down a hallway

• in a dining area

There isn’t really a right or wrong place to put a gallery wall but you should take a cue from your artworks. If you mainly want to hang smaller pieces, the scale might not be right for a large living room wall — instead finding a more intimate space around the home and vice versa, if you have large artworks, you’ll need a larger area to play with.

2. Create a theme

This is the fun part! 

Think about what your subject matter could be. Is this gallery wall going to be family photos only, children's art, travel photos/memorabilia, beautiful artworks - or a bit of a mix of all of the above?

Next, think about creating a cohesive colour palette. Do you like a colourful cacophony of artworks, or prefer a more subdued colour palette of neutrals? Are you into a monochromatic colour story, with each piece carefully considered or do you prefer colours that blend in  with your room decor or suit the tone of the room in which they’re displayed? 

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and if you prefer to just keep things personal and fun, don’t worry too much about a theme in terms of the subject and the colour palette - just go for it! But if you’d like your gallery wall to look a little more curated, then sticking to a theme and a colour palette can help. 

My gallery wall has a travel theme.

Experiment with different styles and types of wall art – whether that’s a mixture of bold block colour prints, bright quirky patterns, typography images or your favourite family photos.

It’s quite obvious that I had a travel theme for my gallery wall. It features photos from some of my most memorable trips. Each piece can standalone as a statement artwork and yet they all speak to one another because of the similar colour palette. I love it!

3. measure up

The best gallery walls get the scale and placement of artworks just right — and this doesn’t happen by chance! So, before you begin hammering into your walls, take some time to map out your composition.

Start by measuring your wall space. Measure the same space on the floor. Use markers to identify the 4 corners or better still, use some string to form a perimeter of your working area. Then, lay your collection on the floor. You can either lay your artwork (framed or unframed), measured pieces of newspaper in various sizes, or just your empty frames (which is what I did). Place your biggest pieces first, and build around them. I placed my biggest pieces towards the middle but a little off-centre. This will be your jumping point for placing all your other pieces. Why off-centre? It’s so your eye travels around the gallery wall, rather than slamming straight to the middle of it. Mix landscape and portrait orientation for interest, play with scale so you have a few larger and smaller frames in the mix, and try a few asymmetrical looks.

Stand back and look at them all together. Does anything jump out as wrong? If yes, take it out. Or is there room for you to add more? Play around with all the art placement for as long as you like, moving things around with no fear of wall damage. 

Once you’re happy that your artworks look good together, take a photo of the layout so you can use this as a guide to buy or source the right prints and photography.

4. Pick your frames

You know your sizing, you’ve curated your artworks, now it’s time to select your frames.When you are happy with the layout, get your frames. You need to decide whether you want them to blend in or contrast with the wall, or to stand out in their own right. Decide if you want them all exactly the same, or if you want lots of different colours. A white or neutral frame is perfect for Scandi-style interiors, while black picture frames are more suited to contemporary or industrial themed interiors.

Maybe even think about collecting different styles of frames in the same colour; this too can add interest. Are they going to be different sizes? You might also decide that some of your artworks will be canvases without a frame. 

5. Hang your artwork

This is the most nerve-wracking part for me (but it doesn’t have to be). A mistake lots of people make is not hanging their wall art at the correct height. My rule of thumb is that the centre of the gallery should be at about eye level - I would say anywhere between 170cm to 180cm from the floor.

I used these picture hanging strips to hang mine.