Dabl at Home
5 Steps to Curate Your Perfect Gallery Wall
A gallery wall is a curated display of photos, posters or prints, creatively arranged on a wall using photo frames.
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Gallery walls are perfect to decorate an entire room, utilize a variety of frames you may have in the house, and display tons of artwork or photos that make you smile! If you get resourceful, this can be a very affordable decor for your home. Visit flea markets, search Facebook Marketplace, and check out what’s hidden in your own closets at home. You likely can build out a gallery wall, and we’re here to show you how!
Step 1: Do a Test Layout
Measure the amount of space you want your gallery wall to take up. Then, use painter’s tape to map out those same measurements along your floor. Lay out the items you want to hang for your gallery wall. You don’t need to be too matchy-matchy, but you do want to try and stick with some sort of color palette. (If your frames are not coordinated, it’s not something a can of spray paint can’t help). Once you’ve got your layout as you like, take a quick picture for reference.
Step 2: Trace Your Items on the Wall
As you plan where to put your items, hold them up and trace around the outside in pencil. If you have kraft paper, you can also trace on there, and then, cut out the paper, and hang it up with a piece of painter’s tape.
Step 3: Start Big
It may seem instinctive to place your biggest frame front and center, but play around with it being elsewhere, like toward an outer corner or slightly off-center. Start with your biggest item first and build out from there. Place your second largest piece on an opposite corner from your first. Then, you’ve just got the space in-between to fill!
If you are using heavier items, like a large mirror, for example, you’ll need to secure them to wall studs. In this instance, first identify where those studs are, and then design the layout from there.
Step 4: Measure Even Space Between Items
You’ll want to use a variation of horizontal and vertical pieces to achieve the most interesting look. While the items on your wall vary in size, the space between them should not. Depending on how much wall space you have, try to place about 3 to 8 inches between each piece of wall art, around all sides.
Step 5: Nail Your Items to the Wall or Try an Alternate Method
If you are skilled with a hammer and nails, let the banging begin. If you worry about putting too many holes in the walls, you can also get adhesive hook-and-loop strips.
If you find you don’t have a ton of frames to utilize for your gallery wall, we love these ones by Kate and Laurel, which come with ten frames, in three varying finishes: white wash, charcoal gray, and rustic gray.
Need help finding art? You could make it super easy and purchase this ready-to-go gallery wall featuring tropical art prints by ArtbyHannah. The online store RedBubble is another fun place to source art -- they sell already-framed photos, posters, photo prints and more! How could you not be happy with a a poster like this one with a dog wearing swimming goggles?
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