How to Design a Gallery Wall
As Simple as Level 1 TETRIS!
How To Create A Gallery Wall In 5 Easy Steps
My grandmother was a remarkable person. She was elegant, intelligent, warm, kind, beautiful and …. a talented artist! Painting on canvas with oil was her hobby.
Did your grandmother inspire and influence you as a person?
What I love most about her paintings is that they continue to bring back beautiful memories of and help me to feel close to her.
Her art work evokes a sense of quiet and serenity, often focusing on natural scenery, as subject matter. Personally, I love the calm richness found in earthy colours.
At first, the idea of a gallery wall was daunting to me. Would it look super busy and chaotic? Most concerning was all the math that must be involved to achieve those perfectly spaced paintings all on one wall! I mean, do gallery walls require Rainman level math skills?
I was happy to learn that no, they do not. Let me put it this way; it’s like level 1 Tetris!
How to create a gallery wall
Here are some tips to follow to put up your own gallery wall.
Materials required: Tape measure, hammer, finishing nails.
- Measure the area of the wall where you want to hang the gallery.
- Measure out the equivalent space on the floor. You can use painters tape on the floor to mark the corners. Beginning with the paintings that will make up the outer shape (likely a rectangular or square), fit all your prints inside! I did not want my paintings flush with the wall, so I left a two (2) inch border around the outer edge.
- Arrange (and rearrange them again!) on the floor to see what layout you love best, making sure there is approximately the same amount of space between paintings. Just eyeball it. No need to have the exact amount of space when you are working with different sized pieces.
- Take pictures to compare various combinations.
- It’s Hammer (and nail) Time!
On a DIY project scale, ranging from low to high risk, a gallery wall scores pretty low. If you are putting up art you already have, it’s very inexpensive.
The picture frames do not need to match, and neither does the art, personally I tend to gravitate towards decor that does not match, but goes together, if that makes any sense .. (?)
I hope you feel inspired to try out a gallery wall in your own space! Our gallery wall is in our reading nook.
Stay tuned for my upcoming post on : Art under $100 : 15 places to buy affordable art. (One of the sources offers FREE ART!)