Creating a gallery wall is an easy way to add some depth to your home decorations. You can create it anywhere you want, or even in multiple locations depending on your budget!
It’s best to start off by picking a area of your house that has enough space for you to display all of your favorite things. A bedroom, living room, or dining room are great places to begin.
Next, pick a collection style (mixed media, geometric, nature) and determine how many pieces you would like to include in your gallery.
And lastly, choose your starting materials- paper, old pictures, magazines, etc. To keep track of everything, use index cards or plastic sleeve folders to organize and store your bits and bobs.
After gathering your supplies, take your time to experiment with different layouts and styles. Don’t be afraid to try new things! Once you have found one layout that works, stick to it.
Decide what you will put up on your wall
Starting with the theme of this week’s article, “how to gallery wall,” we are going to talk about how to organize and design your gallery wall.
The first thing that you need to do is decide what kind of pictures or decorations you want to use for your gallery wall. This can be done by looking through your collection at home, looking through magazines, browsing the internet, etc.
After you have determined the type of pictures you would like to use, then you should determine if there are any special features that these pictures should have. For example, some people prefer bright, flashy pictures while others find more classic pictures more appealing.
By knowing the characteristics of good galleries, you now know how to pick out the perfect picture! Now all you have to do is look for those pictures that fit the description and take them from there.
Buy your materials
Choosing your gallery wall colors is probably the most important part of creating your own gallery walls. Luckily, you do not need expensive professional grade supplies to get great looking results!
Many people start off by buying all sorts of pretty frames in rich colors, but then struggle to match them together. Using solid color frames can look very boring so it is better to mix it up.
Mixing frame shapes, material types and textures are ways to add some diversity to your gallery wall. An easy way to begin is to buy several pieces of each type of frame and compare them side-by-side. You can use those that work well together as starting points for finding matching sets.
Good sources for framed art include flea markets, online sites like Amazon, or brick and mortar stores.
Organize your space
After you have determined how many walls you have, what style of gallery wall is best for you, and where those walls are, then it’s time to organize your space!
You will want to group like photos together and make sure there are no holes or empty spaces in your galleries.
Tear out pieces of paper and create categories to organize all of your pictures by. Make sure to include things such as Album, Subject, Tag, and Contributor under each category.
Work on your theme
As mentioned before, starting from scratch is always the best way to do things because you have no limitations or assumptions built in. By creating your own themes, you can use whatever styles and colors you want, and add new features as you desire!
The hard part will be choosing which style to start with but there are many free gallery wall design templates available online that you can look into. You can also create your own by using plain white or black background pictures and adding different shades of color through Photoshop or other editing software.
Another important thing to remember when designing your gallery walls is to keep it simple. There are lots of ways to add decoration and textures to your wall, so don’t get too carried away with them. Just take your time and do what feels natural for your picture collection.
Make your display
Now, let’s talk about how to make your gallery wall! First off, you will need some materials to create it. You can use pictures or prints as decorations, but be sure they are artist designed and not ones that have been printed in a store.
Take your time to find designs that match your style and go from there. If you have someone special in your life, why not frame a picture of them and add some sweet notes? Or maybe put up a quote or two, framed and hung on a shelf.
Color is another key element when designing your gallery wall. Pick colors that appeal to you, and do not contain too much black. A little white space adds balance to the design, making it more appealing.
Try new things
A few months ago, I did not know what gallery wall was! Nor do most people outside of professional studios. But now you can create one in your own home or even start a new collection here!
Mostly, it is just using some empty walls as display space for all of your loved ones’ pictures. You can mix and match how many photos you have per group (i.e. top photo “walls” with only one picture, middle row of two pictures, etc.), but try to keep each area an equal size so that it looks balanced.
TIPS: If you are having trouble deciding which pictures to put into a specific area, organize them by genre first (nature, sports, music, etc.) and then choose the best ones within those groups.
And don’t forget to use color theory to pick your colors! Red, yellow, and green together will create a bright effect, while blues and purples go well with more neutral shades.
Personalize it
Now, let’s talk about how to gallery wall in more detail. First of all, personalization is key!
You don’t have to be a professional photographer to add depth to your own photography.
By mixing and matching photo styles, backgrounds, and layouts, you can create your own unique gallery walls that tell our story.
And I bet there are lots of stories to tell — yours just depends on what you want to showcase.
Whatever you choose, though, make sure they’re inspired by photos (and therefore art). If there’s something you love but others may not, chances are other people will feel the same way.
That wouldn’t exactly inspire trust, would it?
Another good tip – if you’re looking to do a lot with galleries, try grouping similar pictures together. It makes for some easy design changes later.
Make it interesting
While creating a gallery wall is not necessarily difficult, doing so can get boring very quickly. Try mixing up your hanging styles or finding new ways to organize and display your pictures!
The first thing that makes a gallery wall special is how interesting the walls are. You do not have to use all white walls in this style, nor do you need to mix picture types (for example, still life with landscape pictures).
If you enjoy painting yourself, create a series of art pieces and group them into a collection or album. If you love fashion, take some large sized photos of outfits and hang those on a frame or board edge-to-edge.
Whatever you choose to do, just be sure to give each item appropriate amount of attention by editing out distractions like cars, people, etc.
