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Ideally, every home should exhibit just a little bit of its owner’s personality. There are few better ways of achieving this than with the help of a gallery wall.
It is a collection of artworks and personal photographs arranged using picture frames to create a little display. Displays of this type tend to be a great match for hallways and living areas, though they can be put up just about anywhere in the home.
Let’s take a look at how we might get the most from a gallery wall.
Look Through Your Collection
Your first step should be to look through your existing pictures, paintings and photos, and to decide which ones you definitely want to include. These can then inform everything that comes afterwards.
Choose Your Theme
Ideally, your gallery wall should all be united by a common feature. This might be a set of colours, or more general aesthetic, or a style.
You can find a lot of inspiration on the internet. Try to pick something that matches your personal taste, and the look of the surrounding room.
Choose a Location
Here’s where you decide where in the house you want to install your miniature gallery. If you have a suitable blank patch of wall that serves well, then you have a suitable location.
Ideally, you want to put your gallery wall somewhere that you’re going to see it frequently. There’s no point in hiding away your wall in an unseen area of the home.
Think about how the light enters the room at different times of day, and whether the size of the room is going to undermine the impact of the gallery.
Bear in mind that sometimes a surprising location can be an effective place for this kind of visual feature.
Choose the Frames
Even the most captivating image can be undermined if it’s installed into a substandard frame. Think about how you’re going to draw attention to the art (or photos) within the frame, and how you’re going to contrast it with the surrounding wall.
If you’d like to take the DIY approach, and you’ve got the right skills, you can build the frames yourself and add a personal touch to the entire gallery.
Hanging the Art
Hanging artworks is a precise art. Any slight misalignment is going to be visible, especially if you’ve got picture frames sat just a few inches from one another.
You could use a spirit level and draw straight, flush, and true lines, and then hang your picture accordingly. If you are a perfectionist and want extreme precision with little effort and no marks on the walls, then you could use a green laser level.
Simply set one up in the middle of the room and hang the artwork according to the lines. This way, you can be sure your gallery wall will be flawlessly aligned.
