4 Design Guidelines to Keep in Mind for a Very Good Gallery Wall

Here’s a post I can’t believe I’ve never written before: my secret to an “elevated” (a.k.a. none-junky looking) gallery wall. This will not be a long post, because it’s actually quite simple, and my tolerance for writing about gallery walls expired many years ago after writing possibly 100+ articles on the topic during my time at Apartment Therapy.

Ah, the illustrious gallery wall. Forever in style, yet somehow forever dated…if done the wrong way. I frankly prefer to call them salon walls, maybe because I tend to be snobby of “trendy” things, but also because it feels very…European and I kind of equate a full wall-to-wall art moment with old family homes with narrow hallways and creaky staircases to proper salon walls.

When I was designing my dining room, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to create a statement by filling an entire wall with art. I had so many pieces that I had never hung, gone unused, unadmired, so it only made sense to put a handful of them all together in one place. Little did I know while doing so that it would become the topic of conversation for nearly every Zoom call I ended up taking during a nearly two-year period no one ever saw coming.

Anytime I get on a video call with a new person, almost immediately they call out the wall of art behind me. Over time, depending on our working relationship, they’ll probe with more questions, eventually asking for my “professional advice” for how to hang art in their own home. I never mind it. It’s my joy, of course, to help people feel good about their everyday surroundings, but I realized recently that I always have the same pieces of advice. Someone who knew I had a blog asked if I had a post I could send them about it, and I said loudly, all surprised at myself: “believe it or not…I don’t. WHY DON’T I?”

So, this is the post, and it’s really only four things to keep in mind if ever you yourself are looking to hang numerous pieces of art together in one place. Ready?

Go Big…and Then Go Bigger

This is my #1 tip for anyone building a salon/gallery wall: opt for larger pieces than you think…in a larger configuration than you think. So often, I’ll see gallery walls where the largest artwork is 8×10 or 12×16 and it takes up about a 2×3 foot section of a wall (where the rest is empty, not even filled by furniture). Small pieces, small arrangement. Don’t be shy with your art. “But Arlyn, what if I already have my art, and it’s on the smaller side?” Ah, glad you asked. Just frame it larger by adding matting, and it’ll take on a whole new life.

The keystone of my gallery wall is that large black and white print of the pencil shavings which I believe is 26×38 fully framed. Had I gone with much smaller pieces surrounding it, it would have felt off-balance. And had I kept that piece out entirely and just filled in with 8x10s and 12x16s, the wall might have felt overwhelming…too much to look at. I don’t have a formula for sizes or anything like that, but if there’s one takeaway here, it’s to opt for larger art or larger framing of art in general for something like this.

Vary Your Sizes & Shapes…But Not As Much As You Think

While you could certainly do a very clean, grid-like gallery wall where everything is the same size, my eye prefers something with a bit more movement, but not too much movement. Most of my pieces hover around the same size, with a few larger and a few smaller, and I think that keeps things clean and minimal but still visually interesting. Some square, some rectangular, some horizontal, some vertical, equally mixed around the area you’re filling. Try not to put all the horizontal pieces together or all the vertical pieces together, and try not to put all the smaller or larger pieces together either. The wall should feel varied and just eclectic enough.

Keep Your Frames Cohesive

This is another biggie for me. While you can always just opt for the same color frame across the board, I prefer to mix it up…but again—say it with me—not too much. Here, I did black, white, light wood and then threw in one brass frame for fun. To me, doing this keeps the wall about the art, rather than a plethora of framing options and thicknesses and textures stealing attention away from the main attraction. A wall full of frames is busy enough. Bring it down a notch by keeping things more on the cohesive side. Oh, and don’t be afraid to go outside the box frame and put up something unframed or that isn’t a print. I did two pieces just clipped to the wall to mix it up a bit and loosen the look.

Alternate Matting

I already mentioned matting to some degree here, but let’s talk about this a little more. I love a mix of some pieces with matting, and some without. If I had to choose a ratio, I’d go with 3:1—2/3 matted, 1/3 non-matted. Some thick matting, some thinner matting. It keeps things elevated, and stately but a bit unexpected.

And that’s it! I hope that all made sense! While it feels like a lot of “rules,” it’s really more guidelines to keep in mind if you like the look of what I created. If you’re after something else, by all means, write your own rules. I just get asked about my wall so often that I figured it was worth writing down what my brain thought about when putting it together. Happy to answer any other questions should you have them, or if you have any other ideas for posts like this. Let me know!

See you tomorrow, friends.