How to create a killer gallery wall

My whole life, up until three months ago, I have lived in rented houses. This meant that I have been daydreaming forever about being able to whack a nail in the wall and create a beautiful gallery wall of art. Now, I can finally do just that, but creating the perfect gallery wall doesn’t just happen. I’ve gathered a few handy tips to help you nail your art presentation.

Gather your art in one place

First, get everything want to hang in one place. I like to lay it all out on the floor, so I see what I have to work with. This also allows you to identify themes in your art. This can be colours within the art, the type of frame, or the content of the art (portraits, still life etc.).

Once you’ve got it all around you, start grouping pieces into themes you’ve noticed. Don’t worry about where they’ll go just yet. Take your time to find the thread that connects what you have. You may find that you have two or three distinct groups.

The example above is the theme of religious art. I also picked out colour themes of gold, red and blue. Some of my religious art didn’t quite marry with this theme, such as the image in the large wooden frame. I edited it out of this gallery wall. It will find a nice home elsewhere.

Think about where you want it to go

Once you have your themed groups, think about where this gallery wall is going. Kitchen? Bedroom? Lounge? How do you use the space and how do you want the art to reflect this?

For example, I created a gallery wall with my religious art in the lounge room. I chose this room because it’s where I go when I want to pray. It also keeps these meaningful and beautiful pieces in a place that we spend a lot of time, which brings ours minds back to God. That’s pretty specific to me, but you get the idea. Perhaps you want the calming landscape in your bedroom, or the bold graphic piece in your office.

Thinking about where you want the art also helps ensure you have enough room. You might want to hang a large piece of art, but find that the room is too small or vice versa. It can also help to run a stud finder over your chosen wall to understand where the studs are (especially for really heavy things), but also to sus out if there are any electrical lines behind there. You don’t want to nail through your power lines! I found that I needed to reshuffle my artwork to avoid some electricals, so it’s handy to know.

Once you’ve got your group and your location, it’s time to get into the structure of your gallery.

Build around your biggest piece

Building the gallery is all about working with size and shape to create a sense of flow and balance. I find that starting with the largest piece makes it easier to figure out where everything else should sit. Think of it as your anchor.

I lie the art on the floor first, and shuffle the pieces around until I’m happy with how it looks. This takes the pressure off putting nails in your wall only to regret it later. Starting with the largest piece, I place my smaller and medium items around it. You can create subgroups within the gallery, if you have the same frame or size to work with. Play around until you find a mix you like most. If you need tips for what might work best, read on…

An off-centre gallery wall is a happy gallery wall

Placing things slightly off-centre helps our eye keep moving across the wall. If you place your central (largest) piece right in the centre of a wall the eye tends to stop there, and not keep looking. Shift things a little off the centre to keep the wall flowing.

In a similar vein, using frames of different sizes and shapes is great to create interest. Just try to stick to one or two colours or sizes, to keep things cohesive.

This is where your measuring skills are required. Before you put a nail into anything, find the centre of your wall and mark that out. Measure your artwork and allow for the desired spacing between and above/below pieces. It can be helpful to cut out paper in the size of your art and put that on the wall first. You can then shift it around until you’re 100% happy, then nail right through the paper and tear it off.

I’m too impatient for that and prefer to measure and mark up on the wall before hammering. But definitely worth giving that a go if you want to see what the layout looks like on the wall.

Don’t hang too high

This advice should be taken with artistic license, based on the scale of your gallery. However, it’s generally best to hang your art at eye-level. You should be looking at the centre of the artwork without lifting or lowering your eyes. Most people tend to hang their art way too high. Bring it down, people!

Now, if you’re covering a lot of your wall, it’s okay to go above and below eye-height. I did this with my lounge gallery, to create interest and flow. However, I made sure that my central piece was at eye-level and that the others were only slightly above or below this line. It not only makes it easier to take it all in, but it avoids awkward space below the art that can happen when it’s hung too high.

Hopefully that’s helpful! If you’re looking for more resources, I found Emily Henderson really helpful and I highly recommend you buy yourself a level to keep everything straight. Happy decorating!