I love a good gallery wall. I think they are eye-catching, warm and they just about make me swoon. I love how no two gallery walls are alike, and somehow even the order of the pictures says something about the person who lives in the home they dwell. The great thing about a gallery wall is that it is created over time. You don't have to have a ton of frames to start, and if the space allows, you can continually add to your collection - an ever growing art piece.
We have a collection of frames we melded together in our last house and I have been dying to hang them in our new house. I love reworking old things to fit into a new space. Originally, I had thought of designing a gallery wall around a TV, but as I stared at the blank black canvas of our guest bathroom, I just couldn't resist. Here is how we created an eye catching gallery wall in our guest bathroom (swoon.)
So where do you start? I asked a gal at West Elm who styles the store how she created their amazing gallery walls. Her take: Pick the biggest piece of art and hang it. Grow everything around that one piece. She doesn't measure, she just feels out the wall, the look and the space. And the results are amazing. I think this is great advice for you free-spirited individuals but for my type A self, this was a recipe for disaster (or at least a lot of extra holes in the wall). I compromised with kraft paper and some painter's tape.
I traced each piece of art on the kraft paper and then cut out the tracing. I also penciled in which piece of art was which on the paper because many of the frames were similar sizes. Then, using painter's tape so that I wouldn't damage the fresh paint (FYI this black paint is SW's Tricorn Black and it is uh-mazing) I placed the largest art first and started placing and rearranging each piece of art until I found the perfect spot for each one. BOOM! Gallery wall magic.
The kraft paper also makes the hanging portion a breeze. Just measure the location of the hanging device on your picture frame and mark it on the kraft paper. Nail through that spot on the kraft paper and then tear the paper off the wall from around the nail. Fool Proof Gallery Wall Hanging in Minutes!
If you are looking for a unique way to display your art collection, this is it! There is no right or wrong way to do a gallery wall - its all up to what you like. Share your gallery wall love in the comments section below!
