I love a good gallery wall. As someone who dislikes clutter and too much furniture or a lot of knick-knacks, gallery walls have become my go-to decorating tool to add interest, color, and personality to a room. But putting together a cohesive and interesting gallery wall is hard work, of course so is finding and selecting art for your decor in general (hence why I started my own printshop). But I have two secrets that make designing and hanging a gallery wall a breeze — Photoshop and Framebridge.
SELECTING ART
The hardest part about a gallery wall is selecting your artwork and/or photographs. My advice is to create a color scheme that brings all of the pieces together, think of it like mixing prints and patterns. Also, don’t be afraid to mix media — you can do a combination of photos, drawings, paintings, prints, etc. For my living room gallery wall, I went with a mix of figurative, decorative, and abstract paintings and drawings (all in print form). And despite the diverse subject matter, I used color to balance and bring everything together. You can see my full living room here.
LAYOUT
The second most challenging part of creating a gallery wall is figuring out the layout of your art on the wall. I personally, prefer non-perfect, non-symmetrical layouts and I always advise to group art in odd numbers (3, 5, or 7, etc.). Here is where Photoshop becomes your best friend. I create a to-scale “wall” in Photoshop and add images of my selected art (again to scale). I can then move them around and try different arrangements with the click of a mouse. And a bonus tip, if you are using Framebridge, you can screenshot or download an image of your art in their frame so you know exactly what your end result will look like. And finally, remember it is important to vary the size, frames, and orientations of your art.
FRAMING
Speaking of framing! If you have not discovered or used Framebridge you are really missing out. I am kind of obsessed and use them for all of my framing. As an artist, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the frame. In fact, I always mention to students in the Uffizi, that many of the elaborate gilded frames they see were more expensive than the paintings (really interesting article on artists and frames here). You cannot have art without a frame or a frame without art. So you see, if your gallery wall is only as good as your art, and your art is only as good as its frame, then framing is what will make or break your gallery wall.
All of Framebridge’s frames are custom and made to order. Not only is each frame stylish, it is also incredibly light weight and comes ready to hang (hardware pre-installed on the back with nails and picture hangers). And since I have my wall laid out to scale in Photoshop, I can easily grab those measurements, hammer my nails into the wall, and hang my framed prints. It literally took me 15 mins to hang my frames once they arrived. Speaking of arriving, each frame comes expertly packed so you never have to worry about dents or broken glass.
Simply put, Framebridge’s prices and quality can’t be beat. You can either send in your prints and/or pictures to be framed, or you can upload them directly online. I love the online upload option. Once you have uploaded your image, you can preview it in all of Framebridge’s frames (with or without a matte) and in various sizes. You can even preview your framed art on the wall!
All of their frames are made to order to the exact size you want your print. If you use the upload option, your new framed prints will arrive on your door in about a week (shipping is always free). I have also teamed up with Framebridge to offer framing in my Preppy Printshop.
HANGING
If you use Framebridge this part of creating a gallery wall is a breeze. Their frames even come with expert, step-by-step instructions on how to measure and hang. If you are not using Framebridge, be sure to pre-measure everything. You can also use the trick of taping up paper templates of your frames. For smaller frames, or when I cannot nail into the wall, I like to use the Command Picture Hanging strips.
And there you have it, the perfect (and easiest) gallery wall! What are your thoughts on gallery walls?
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