How To: Gallery Walls

It’s true, nothing is as impactful in a space as a large scale piece of art. But when you don’t want to fork over a couple hundred bucks (at a minimum) for something special, a good ol’ gallery wall can really make a statement too. When my husband, Kale, and I started traveling, I made a habit out of buying a piece of art wherever we were to remember the trip by. It wasn’t long before I had a collection of random pieces that all meant something, but had absolutely no plan for.

In our first condo, I had a couple of glasses of wine one night and busted out nails and a hammer (you know, as one does). We had a large wall leading to the second story that was large, awkward and very boring. Without measuring a thing, I just started hanging. Not a method I would recommend, but it turned out ok:

When we moved into the Bungalow, we immediately settled on an awkward wall/corner in our dining room that needed something focal. I wanted it to be much tighter in composition and definitely less haphazard. So, I got a little crafty with some old holiday wrapping paper and it worked like a charm:

(photograph by Hilary Rose Walker of Our Style Stories for Houzz)

Because it’s such a large collage wall, I didn’t want to over-do it on the collage walls throughout the rest of the house. However, when we started on our daughter’s nursery, I was adamant on incorporating some travel-themed art work above the dresser.

I have been obsessed with Rifle Paper Company for quite some time. Each year, they introduce new calendars – one of which is the perfect floral, travel inspired goodness that I was looking for. Once the artwork is cut out, they just so happen to fit perfectly into Ikea’s Ribba frames (which are $19.99 each!). Since I wanted them to be more of a grid pattern, it was important to take the time to get them straight.

Step One: Find yourself some wrapping paper or butcher paper. I prefer to use the wrapping paper with the light blue grid lines on the back. Makes lining everything up super easy.

Step Two: Trace! Since they were white frames, I used a ballpoint pen rather than a marker with a very light hand. I didn’t want to risk marking up the edges.

Step Three: Mark your nail locations. I’ll be honest, this is where a better quality frame might be worth it for some people. The Ribba frames require you to loop your own picture wire. Not as big of a deal when you’re doing a random gallery wall cluster or maybe just a single piece on the wall. It can be annoying when you’ve got 8 frames you’re trying to get perfectly aligned. I measure each point where a nail needs to be placed with an ‘X’ on the wrapping paper.

Step Four: Take your wrapping paper sheet and tape it onto the wall to hammer in some nails. My husband uses a level to make sure it’s all straight before putting unnecessary holes in the wall.

Although it is hard to see, if you look close, you can see I marked which piece went where. After the last nail is in, you simply rip off the sheet and place your frames! Really easy and for the most part, completely foolproof.