Creating a Gallery Wall: An easy step-by-step guide

You don't have to live in a mansion to have a gallery in your home these days. In fact, a gallery wall is a very popular way of showing off your favourite artworks, photos, and images. Sadly, putting up a gallery wall can be a challenging experience, and I don't mean just getting all the frames to sit straight (although that does help!). You don't need to panic though, as you can find out all about the challenges you will face when hanging a gallery wall, and how to solve them in our step by step guide below. Read on to find out more.

your guide to creating a gallery wall

Choosing a wall to use The first thing that you need to get right when creating a gallery wall is the actual wall that you will use. This is because not every surface in your home will be a suitable home to show off your artwork and pictures. In fact, if you already have things like floating shelves and wall mounted light fittings on a wall, it could be quickly overwhelmed if you add a whole bunch of framed pictures as well. It's best, therefore, to pick a clean wall where there isn't much going on. Additionally, if you are planning in hanging your pictures on a wall that your furniture leans against, you will need to be careful. This is because you will need to leave space between the item, such as the top of your sofa and the start of your gallery. About 6-7 inches should do the trick.

Picking the images Once you have decided on a space to hang your gallery wall, it's time to pick out the images that you will use. Sadly, as many people have found out collecting a whole bunch of photos and artwork they like isn't quite enough to make a gallery wall work in a room. Instead, the images all need to be tied together by a particular theme. One that is especially popular is colour. This is where the images are all monochrome, pastels, or even infused with bright and bold hues. Alternatively, you may pick subject as the theme that brings everything together, popular ones being places you have travelled to, family pictures and portraits, and landscapes, and even retro or kitsch.

Finding the right frames

Once you have a group of images that work well together, it's time to find frames that will show them off. If you are looking for calmer feel, or you have bright images to display it is often a smart move to go for frames of all the same style and colour, just in different sizes. Alternatively, if you have a very cohesive theme, or you are looking to create texture, or an eclectic or vintage look mixing up many different styles of frames such as the one you can find at like Best4Frames is a smart idea. You can even get frames custom made for images that aren't a regular size, something that means you won't have to face the frustration of leaving out any of your favourite images when creating your gallery wall.

Make a plan Next, and this really is the key to the whole project, it's time to plan out how you will hang each individual image and how they will look when arranged together. Happily, instead of spending hours holding pictures up on the wall, and still not being able to see them properly there is a better way, and it to use wrapping paper that has the faint squares printed on the back.

Avoid the higgly-piggly look by planning your wall first.

In fact, all you need to do is roll out the paper on the floor, and the arrange the picture on it until you find a visage you like. Then trace around the picture frame using the squares and add whereabouts the hanger will go.

Putting them up Don’t worry if DIY isn't your strong suit either, as this next step will make thing so much easier too. It's sticking the paper on the wall and then hanging the pictures over the top to get them in the perfect position. Of course, it's always wise to use a spirit level to check how straight they are as you go.

Finally, once all of the pictures are hung, you remove them from the wall and take down the paper guide. Then you put the pictures back up, and they should all be in the right position and look fantastic! In fact, making your gallery wall this way will not only ensure it looks great first time around but that the hassle you experience when putting up is significantly reduced as well.