Design Tip: Gallery Wall

Hello Everyone, I can't believe it's Friday already! Today I wanted to share a few tips and some beautiful  inspiration on how to create a gallery wall in your home. On numerous occasions I have had people ask for help to come up with a design for displaying their photographs or children's art and here are a few guidelines I like to use to create the most unified gallery display. I am currently trying to figure out what to do with the bare walls in my hallway and I have been searching for inspiration on Pinterest.
Here are a few tips for designing a gallery wall:

-Search for inspiration photos on Pinterest of gallery walls. Choose a layout for your frames: grid, stairway, in a row, clustered together or displayed on a mantle shelf.

-Frames can all be the same color but vary in texture and size or you can choose a number of frames in two different colors such as: silver and black or brown and gold and vary the sizes. Arrange them so they balance each other across the display. To achieve a sophisticated look stick to either all black and white photos or all color photos.

- Create paper stencils that are the same size of each frames and play with the layout on the wall using blue painters tape, so you do not damage the walls.  To hang you can hammer a nail right through the paper and rip it off once the picture looks be in the desired location.
 
- If hanging in a grid, the frames should all be the same size and color. Hang them close together - and about 2″ apart.  Make sure the distance is the same between the sides of frames as well as above and below the frames.


-If using shelves be sure to vary the heights of the frames- using some tall vertical ones and some smaller horizontal ones. You can also hang some on the walls and place some on the shelves so add dimension.

-A couple weeks ago I read a blog post by Janell Beals from Isabella & Max Rooms where she suggested hanging frames using OOK Picture Hanging Hardware. She says that it is the best hardware to hang frames and I can't wait to try this myself, thanks Janell for the great tip!!!

Here are some of my inspirational images for gallery walls:

Simple black and white photos give a symmetrical classic look when displayed with large

mattes in the same size frames. In this photo the matte and the frame seem to

disappear into the background giving all of the attention to the photographs.

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When displaying photos on a stairway use the form of the stairs to guide the bottom of the frame display. Every 2 stairs measure approx 2 feet up and make sure the frames stagger the same way the stairs do.

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You can also layout the frames on the floor to achieve the proper
composition before hanging them on the wall.

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These black and white photos and frames create a very balanced and clean composition...

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By using identical frames, varying the size of the photographs and hanging them close together
it gives drama. It looks like an actual art gallery display, check out that glass ceiling!

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This display looks like a collage, the photos are all the same subject and seem to tell a story.

The colors are balanced and it is beautiful! Also a great way to display children's art in your home.

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Another way to display photos is using a ledge or mantle. Group frames
in varying heights, widths and colors and evenly distribute them across the display.

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I will post photos when I find frames for my gallery wall so stay tuned...
Have a great weekend!