gallery wall tips
Gallery walls are a great accent piece for a room and for tricky/unique corners like this one in our home. We recently built out this wall and I wanted to find a unique way to utilize this space. It’s a small corner (I’m going to add an accent chair soon) and I didn’t want to take up too much floor space with other furniture, so I thought I’d create a gallery wall.
It might be surprising, but I’ve never made a gallery wall in this house (until now) 🤣. Although I was a little doubtful that it would turn out pretty, it was so fun to create! AND it turned out to be a perfect way to style this corner. Let’s go over some gallery wall tips so you can create one effortlessly!
For our gallery wall, I used vintage art. I wanted to use an assortment of landscape, still life, and vintage portraits because honestly vintage art is just so beautiful to me. The art all has a warm, muted neutral color scheme which helps to create a cohesive gallery wall. While I was selecting the art I was also super mindful of color so I can mix and match the different pieces. Shades of green, yellow, and touches of brown and black played a huge part in this beautiful wall! I played with balance and scale a lot when styling this corner as well. I took an abstract approach and played with focal points since I had a lot of ‘distractions’ to work around ie. light switches, cold air return, and my thermostat. The larger frames are the focal part of the gallery wall (placed at the top, drawing your eye away from distractions). and then the smaller frames filled in below those and around all of the much-needed fixtures on the walls to finish off the gallery. I absolutely love the look of the oversized art on top, balanced off by the smaller art pieces on the bottom.
Tips for Selecting Art
Mix handpainted, hand-stitched, oil + watercolor artwork as well as portraits, the more variety the better!
Mix landscape and portrait orientation.
Pick various sizes and shapes, now is your chance to play with dramatic scale!
Utilize texture in not only the art but the frames! Vintage frames are perfect for incorporating different textures.
Your frames and artwork don’t all have to match, pick a color palette to help make the wall feel cohesive without being too matchy-matchy.
Shop Gallery Wall Art
Tips for Creating The Layout
Place all of the frames on the floor first, try out several different layouts until you get it just right!
Space similar size and shaped frames out in the gallery wall so they don’t look repetitive. I like to balance things diagonally.
Play around with scale, balance, and placement to create the right layout for your space.
Tips for Making a Functional Gallery Wall
Incorporate your light switch/outlets into the layout of the gallery wall. Sometimes it’s just not possible to hide them and that’s okay!
Switch out your standard light switch cover and/or outlet cover for a more aesthetic one to match your gallery wall theme.
Gallery walls are the focal point of the room, but they are also a really great way to style unique spaces like the small corner I styled ours in. This space definitely isn’t the focal point of this area in our home, but now it’s so much more special!
Shop Switch Plates
Something I had to consider for our space was what to do about the thermostat, light switch, outlet, and cold air return. Oftentimes people will try to cover up their thermostat, however, ours is cute enough that I decided not to cover it up. Instead, I wanted to incorporate it into the layout of the gallery wall. It's really nice to be able to access the thermostat without having to uncover it! The covers for our light switch and outlet fit the aesthetic so I was able to arrange the frames around them so they look like part of the gallery wall. What do you think?
I hope these tips are helpful when creating your gallery wall. If you’ve been hesitant [like I was] I would give it a try. It's such a fun way to push your creativity. Gallery walls are a great way to use/fill up space, especially small corners like this. I love being able to display so many of my favorite vintage pieces in this cozy corner!