How to Create a Gallery Wall That Will Brighten Any Room

We love a well curated Instagram feed, but nothing beats going old school and moving those colourful photos off the screen and onto your walls. And while minimalist décor is all well and good, bare walls can really be taking the trend too far. Why not create a gallery wall full of your favourite memories that is sure to brighten up any room and inject your own spirit into the space? You may have heard that gallery walls are out, but who really wants to follow the crowd. What is really out are basic matchy-matchy frames and photographs with no meaning cluttering up your sanctuary. Here’s how to create an eclectic gallery wall that is sure to transform your space.

Select your photographs

First step before you can start to create your gallery wall is to curate your collection for display. This is probably the hardest step, as you will have so many amazing experiences captured on film that you will want to share. The best way to narrow down your selection is to decide on a theme. For the hipster house this was simple. We love to travel and although we have been to some amazing places, we feel ourselves called back to South Korea and Japan over and over. So naturally we wanted to make these memories a focal point of our living room. 

Choose three standard sizes for your photographs; a small (8” by 6”), medium (10” by 8”), and large (12” by 10”). This will make it easier to get your photographs printed as well. The eye works best following a key colour in a triangular pattern. You will want to select three photos with the same key colour to print in the large size. For our wall we selected three landscape views where the sky makes up half the background and there is a gold tone located centrally. The sky provides a unifying theme and the gold moves the eye around layout.

Depending on the space you have for creating the gallery wall, you should aim to have one to two more of the next size down from the one before it. So for our wall space of roughly 185cm x 130cm that meant three large photographs, four medium photographs, and five small photographs. I recommend keeping the three large photos in the same orientation. For the  other two sizes, mix it up, but keep it at odd numbers for visual interest.

Frame your memories

Selecting your photos from a theme gives your gallery wall consistency along with personality, but the frames will allow you to add an eclectic edge to your display. Simple, box frames have their place, but not here. Here is where you can inject a bit more personality into your work. Part of the joy of creating this gallery wall is choosing the frames to fit the feel of each photo. For our wall, we tried to keep a balance between gold, silver, wood, antiqued, and new finishes.

To frame your photographs, use a pair of pliers to remove the pins from the back of the frame. Do not bend them to remove the backboard. Keep the pins in a safe place. With a microfibre cloth and glass cleaner, clean the glass of the frame. Be sure the glass is completely dry before you put the photograph in. Make sure not to touch the interior of the glass. Check that your photo is centred and carefully place the backboard back in place. Use a small hammer to carefully replace the pins into the frame. You are ready to hang your photographs.

Create the gallery wall

You will need a hammer, picture hooks, measuring tape, and a level. Measure your wall space and mark out that amount of space on the floor. Layout your framed photographs in that floor space to see if you like how it works together. Feel free to try different layouts, see all your options. I recommend starting with one of the large frames as a central point and building off of that. Place the other large frames so that the three large works create a route that will take the eye around the display. Fill in the other photographs so that the final display is not too balanced to maintain interest and leave areas to build on the gallery in the future.

Once you have finalised a layout, it is time to hang your photos. The key to putting the wall together is measuring. Measure the size of each frame and where each bracket is located for the hooks. If you do not feel comfortable free-handing your hang, trace the frames onto paper and mark the location of the bracket for the hook on the paper. When using the tracing method, use painters tape, or low adhesive masking tape, to attach the tracing to the wall. Opting not to use the tracing method, work carefully and measure twice.

Hang your gallery wall

Start hanging your wall with the central photograph. Measure where you want this photo, and with either the tracing or a pencil, mark this location on the wall. Using this central frame, measure and mark the location of the other frames, working out. Using the locations of the brackets on the back of the frame and the size of your picture hooks, measure and mark the location of where to hammer in the nails to secure the hooks. Once again working out from the central photograph, create your gallery wall working slowly out securing the hook and hanging the frame.

As you hang each frame, use the spirit level to make sure each frame is straight. If you need to make small adjustments as you hang feel free to do so. If you are using the tracing method, start your hook into the wall over top of the paper. Once the hook is most of the way in, remove the paper and finish securing the hook.

Your personal gallery wall is now complete. Upkeep is easy, dust when needed and carefully clean glass with microfiber cloth as needed. Lastly, take a snap of your snaps and share it to your Instagram to not only share your substantial diy decorating skills but to also show true self-awareness by creating a wall within a wall.

Looking for some more ideas to dress up your interior? Find out how to upcycle old furniture or make your own galaxy painting over in our D.I.Yurt.