How To Create a Gallery Wall

| | | | | | |

How to Create a Gallery Wall

I’m a big fan of the gallery wall, and always have been. In fact, I’m pretty sure I had a teenage version of a gallery wall in my bedroom at my parents’ house; it just wasn’t called a gallery wall back then. I’m thinking it was called my “poster collection.” These days I still love the idea because I always have so much art I want to display and can’t bear to eliminate any. So this way I don’t have to! Problem solved. All the art all the time, that’s my motto. For the longest time we’ve had a mishmash gallery wall of bits and pieces that we have collected here and there. In the new house it was kind of feeling haphazard so we wanted to do a refresh. After lots of curating and changing our minds and measuring and hanging, we finally got it! And I thought I’d share tips in case you want to tackle the same.

First, pick your art. I went down the beautiful rabbit hole that is Minted’s art selection and went on a total frenzy. Ryan and I really wanted to choose pieces that we felt represented us and the things we love — there are pieces depicting all of the places we’ve lived and the things we love to do. So right off the bat, it helps if you have some parameters. Maybe you want to stay in a certain color palette, or have works by certain artists. Whatever it is, set some parameters for the art you choose or you’ll drive yourself crazy with all of the incredible art you find.

While you’re choosing art, keep framing in mind. Part of what I didn’t love about our old gallery wall was our old busted frames. Minted has the option to frame pieces in an array of perfectly simple, clean frames, which I love. I also like to keep a few pieces unframed, and hang them in other fun ways with clipboards or binder clips. I love a slight variation in frame selection or hanging techniques on a gallery wall for a little visual interest.

When we were choosing art, I wanted to be sure that it would all fit on the wall so we did a little Photoshop magic. It was a huge help! If you’re putting together a gallery wall and the images are online, screenshot all of your art and open it in Photoshop. Create a document the dimensions of your wall, scaling it so that one foot of wall is equal to one inch in your document. Resize your screenshots so that they’re the right size and scale. Then you can drag them around into different configurations and make sure all your art looks good together. Getting an idea of how all the pieces would work when they were next to each other was totally invaluable. This was about halfway through our process of eliminating pieces and rearranging:

How to Create a Gallery Wall

When you finally have all your art chosen and in your hot little hands, it’s smart to lay it out on the floor first to make sure your plans work. Too many times in my life I’ve started nailing things into the wall willy nilly and just ended up with a wall full of holes. Lay your pieces out on the floor and make sure the arrangement you envisioned will work in real life. Once I got all of the physical pieces I ended up rearranging my plans just a bit.

How to Create a Gallery Wall

After you’ve got your layout, hang ’em up! And as my dad always says: Measure twice, cut once. It’s so worth it to get out a yardstick or ruler and measure your nail holes to make sure everything lines up nicely. Then you don’t have to go punching a bunch of unnecessary holes in your walls. This, friends, is the point where Mr. Lovely and I test the strength of our marital bonds every time. I want him to measure. He wants to hammer nails. There is a great showdown of stubbornness on either side. And somehow it all gets hung up in the end.

How to Create a Gallery Wall

There! You’ve got a gallery wall! I’m so pumped on our choices from Minted — they feel fresh and clean and they brighten up the room just like I’d hoped (see the before and after?!).

How to Create a Gallery Wall

I think my favorites might be the prints of photos that I took my very self. The ferris wheel and the Parisian building are from our time in Europe. Minted also has an option to print your own images in a whole bunch of different sizes and I’m so glad we tried it out. I love that the reminder of those travels hangs on our wall now! The rest of the art we used all turned out to work so nicely together! Our picks and their sizes:

Spotlight Fan Palm 8×8, Natural Wood Frame
Fragment 5×7, Unframed
NYC Map 8×10, Black Wood Frame
Rainbow 8×10, Natural Wood Frame
Roof Party (blush) 5×7, Unframed
Float (saffron, artist signature) 24×24, White Wood Frame
Magnifique 11×14, Unframed
The Big Picture 24×18, Natural Wood Frame
Blue Cactus 16×20, Natural Wood Frame
Mineral 2 (sunset) 11×11, White Wood Frame
A Helpful Reminder (blush) 11×14, White Wood Frame
Midcentury Moments (artist signature) 16×16, White Wood Frame
The Big Picture 11×11, Black Wood Frame

How to Create a Gallery Wall

How about you — have you ever tried a gallery wall in your home? It’s a project that’s sometimes tricky to put together but so cool in the end. I’d love to know what kind of art you’d hang in your own gallery wall! Photography? Lettering? Paintings? Family photos? Hope our tips help you figure it all out! xoxo

How to Create a Gallery Wall

How to Create a Gallery Wall

This post is sponsored by Minted. All opinions and ideas are my very own. Thank you for being supportive of the partners who help keep Lovely Indeed rocking!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

5 Comments

  1. Pingback: Internet priče vredne pažnje… | Branas Divine World
  2. Would you mind sharing what sizes you purchased for each one? I love the whole setup but want to make sure I don’t botch the sizing lol.

  3. If you have a large empty wall and a few photos, paintings or posters, this is a great opportunity to create an entire composition. If the images do not match in style or color, combine them with the same frames. At one time, I discovered a great abundance of quality posters here https://soposters.com/