Creating a gallery wall in your home (no matter how big or small) can feel really daunting to begin with – where do I start? We at Simply Art have come up with an 8-step simple guide to making this process easy and enjoyable.
STEP 1: CHOOSING ART AND COLOUR PALETTE
This is one of the most important steps, you’re going to look at this art daily and therefore it is essential that it brings you joy! There really are no rules here, you may be creating a photo wall of your own work, or using beautiful wall art purchased from Simply Art. Whatever you choose make sure it is personally pleasing to you.
HOT TIP! Choose a colour palette that works well. Decide if you’re going with soft neutral tones, or bright and mighty colours. This can help to pull together the art pieces and give your wall a proper “gallery” feel.
STEP 2: CHOOSING FRAMES
Mixing frame colours is a great idea to bring some life to your gallery wall. We suggest to go with black, white and neutral unless you have a very specific colour palette that you are sure will work with the artwork and not overshadow it. All of our Simply Art pieces come with the option of framing in black, white or natural wood, which all work well together. Don’t be afraid to use 2 or 3 colours of frames in your wall. Sticking with a similar style frame is recommended.
HOT TIP! Decide which colour frame suits the individual artwork and then mix them up in the gallery wall (using 2-3 colours only).
STEP 3: HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL
Don’t be shy to mix up your artworks to include both horizontal and vertical pieces. This will make the gallery wall more interesting to the eye and less rigid. You can try placing horizontal pieces next to vertical (aligned at the baseline) to begin creating the wall.
STEP 4: INCLUDE OTHER PIECES
You need not only include framed artwork, why not add a ceramic or a clock, a floral letter or any other piece that can bring uniqueness to your wall. The 3-D effect will also be a pleasant break from the square and rectangular frames. A round or oval embroidered piece is another fun idea.
STEP 5: PLACING ART
We recommend measuring out the dimensions of the wall area that you’re using for the gallery, and then placing this exact measurement in tape on the floor (it will be the outer box surrounding all the frames). This way you can play around and lay out your art until you are satisfied with the look. Be sure to leave about 8cm between the frames on all sides. This is a good spacing to make sure its not stuffy, yet still a cohesive block. Take a photo of the mock up before you begin hanging so that you don’t forget where to place each piece.
HOT TIP! Place your biggest piece down first and then lay the other pieces surrounding this. Make sure you don’t put the biggest piece directly in the centre, but rather in the corner or off-centre. Then place your second biggest piece away from the biggest piece to balance the wall – you could place them in opposite corners and fill in the space between with smaller pieces.
STEP 6: HANGING
You need some nails, a hammer, a pencil and an eraser. From the photo you took, start measuring out (either with a measuring tape or your naked eye) where each frame will go and mark off the spot on the wall lightly in pencil. An easy way to do this is to pencil in the top corners of the frame, and then measure the distance to the hook on the back of the frame to ensure you have the right spot for the nail. You can then erase the corner pencil marks before hanging.
HOT TIP! If you have those big reams of paper at home, you can lay out the size of your area in paper on the floor and place your pieces on top, marking off all the drilling spots. You can then tape the paper to the wall and drill into the exact spots through the paper, which you can easily just pull away afterwards.
STEP 7: THE FINAL WALL
All done! Now you can enjoy your art in a beautiful gallery space. Be sure to update your wall on a seasonal or yearly basis to keep it fresh! With Simply Art’s range of affordable prints, you can reuse your frames and change your art regularly.