Tips for filling your walls with art!
Our high ceilings pretty much demand gallery walls throughout our home, but I think even if that wasn’t the case I’d still have masses of prints hanging in every room. I just love the way they fill those awkward spaces (you know the ones, the wall behind the sofa, the corner of your bedroom, the space above your desk!) while adding character to a room.
We finally filled a patch of blank space in our living room with prints and it feels like the final puzzle piece has clicked in to place in this room. What a relief!
We’ve had a lot of practice at the ol’ gallery wall game, and we’ve now got it down to a fine art… and by that I mean we only fall out once and it’s a relatively low key argument. Go us!
When we put up this gallery wall, I actually filmed the process (you can see it here) but I thought I’d share a few quick tips that we always stick to when we’re hanging prints…
01. Bigger prints are better
Generally speaking, that is! I usually think larger prints (say, A3 and above) of a similar size make a gallery wall look a bit more ‘put together’ – a cluster of small prints can look a bit cluttered and random in my opinion. I tend to pick 3-4 larger prints and then balance it out with a couple of slightly smaller sized frames.
02. Plan it out, but don’t overthink it
I always lay out the prints on the floor of my bedroom and swap them around until I’m happy, I try not to go overboard with the planning because I think a sort of uniquely random arrangement looks more “undone”. The same for when we hang them – we don’t measure too much and tend to eyeball the gaps between each. There’s a bit of back and forth between Jord and I as we go but we usually reach an agreement and I’m always glad there’s a second opinion.
03. Go for a mix
This gallery wall in our living room is the perfect example of what I mean here – there’s a good jumble of photography, line art, illustrations, abstract and even a bit of typography too! I never stick to a theme, I always mix the frame finishes (white, black and wood) and I like a dash of colour in there somewhere.
04. Keep It In A Shape
When I lay out my prints, I tend to stick to a sort of rectangle or square shape – but very roughly! I think it works to sort of balance out the prints when there’s a similar gap between them and they fall in line.
Keep a shape in mind as you go so you don’t end up with a random mish-mash of prints for your gallery wall.
05. Throw In A Wild Card
It’s always fun to throw in a colourful print, a random charity shop find or just a big ol’ chunky antique frame. Even kids artwork or your own holiday photography is so fun amongst a larger selection of prints, there’s definitely no rules when it comes to piecing it all together!
06. Swap it out
If you plan your gallery wall with standard prints sizes (A3, 40x50cm etc.) you should be able to swap the gallery wall out every now and again too! I don’t know if anyone else has a stash of prints sitting in their hallway cupboard, but we always have more than a few pieces waiting in the wings ready to be hung on the wall. Don’t be scared to mix it up and change out your art every now and again, I promise it revives the entire room!
pink & red print* / magique print / floral art / rollerskates print* / sri lanka print* / face print*
*Some of these prints were from a collaboration with Juniqe, but this is post is not part of the sponsored work.
I love creating gallery walls because you can create something so unique and fun, and they’re not as scary as you’d think – just maybe make sure you have some filler on hand…
Are you a gallery wall fan?
