Reader Request: Gallery Wall

Gallery walls or photo walls have been all over the blogosphere, so when one of our readers requested that we do a post about gallery walls we were up for the challenge!  A gallery wall is a great way to display photos, display artwork, and a great way to incorporate some of those small and hard to place favorite items.

Whether your photos and/or art coordinate or are totally unrelated, you can bring a collection of photos together with frames that coordinate. Check out my photo wall here in our office.  I couldn't find a piece of art work that was big enough to command this wall space. So instead,  I grabbed a bunch of frames that I already owned. I either kept the frames as is with a wood finish, or painted over them in white.

You can also Mix n' Match Frames for a unique look.  In my photo wall, I kept everything coordinated with color (either wood or white), but some of the most creative photo walls are those where the frames don't necessarily coordinate at first glance. It's fun to think that two frames that have totally separate sytles can end up pairing perfectly together. Check out the gallery wall below from a design*sponge feature of karen hill and frank marshal.

Here is a personal favorite of mine. This photo is from design*sponge's feature of Kevin Corn. Isn't it beautiful! I love the linear quality and the black & white.

Another thought is Mixing and Matching Media. Who says that the frames all have to be filled with photos? Throw in a poster, piece of professional artwork, some favorite paper, or your kids artwork. There really are no rules. Check out this wall from Style Files. She pairs artwork, with DIY art, family photos and more!

Via Style Files

To read up more about gallery walls, check out design*sponge. 

They had a wonderful, in depth post about them here. So much inspiration!  Click here.

The whole process of getting everything up on the wall can be overwhelming, but there are a couple of good ideas for how to get this done without freaking out. In our office, we gathered all the frames we wanted to use and mapped out the layout on the floor. This way we could see the big picture before putting a bunch of holes in the wall. We started with the "center" frame and then worked our way out from there, one-by-one.  It was frustrating at times....but it was well worth the effort!


Check out this genius method, found via Little Green Notebook. These instructions were provided via Roost. Wax paper is your friend. I wish I would have used this method!