Bless'er House

The Most Efficient Way to Create a Gallery Wall

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A few simple tricks for creating a perfect gallery wall.

I’m a tease. There, I admit it. I told y’all I was ready to share our gallery wall at the beginning of last week when my photos from Shutterfly arrived, and then typical perfectionist me decided to spend days picking and tweaking and analyzing. But hark! It is done!
I’m so excited about the naked-wall-that-is-no-more. Surprisingly, I tried a strategy that even hairbrained little me could do to prevent a bajillion nail holes going into our drywall, and that makes it even more exciting.
Two weeks ago, I shared my Distressed Frames that I gave a little makeover with chalk paint and Vaseline, and they worked perfectly to add a vintage flair to our wall. I had seen this gallery wall planning technique on several other blogs, and I gave it a go. And then tweaked it a bit…as I do EVERYTHING it seems. Life’s all about striving for self-betterment, right? That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
First thing, I used a roll of old dollar store Christmas wrapping paper to trace and cut out each of the frames for the gallery wall. The entire time I was doing this step, I kept thinking, “Really? Is this necessary? This seems like an obnoxious step. I could just wing it and nail holes where I think the frames look good as I go.” Don’t listen to that voice. This step is worth it to not cut corners. I’m glad I stuck it out, and you’ll see why.

Once your frames are cut out, lay the paper pieces over the frames and mark where to put the nail holes. I also wrote a short description of what the frame was so I could visualize it a little better as I planned.

I used clear tape once I started experimenting with the frame cut-outs on the wall so I could visualize the gallery. The colored painters tape was distracting to me, but if that’s all you have on hand, it still works.

Once I had all of my paper pieces up, I realized I still needed several more smaller frames to fill in the gaps. And I decided to move around a few of them. This was the part when I was SO GLAD I went through the tracing/cutting process of the paper. I would have hated to nail in those frames only to discover I didn’t really 100% love it.

Once I was happy with the frame placement, I recruited Robert, as I usually do (this man deserves an award for putting up with me), to hammer in my nail hole placements. (Okay, I honestly could have done this step but he insisted on helping me because he’s just awesome like that.)

When I was toying around with the frame placements though, I figured out the most efficient way to create the perfect gallery wall.
Staring at that blank wall can be daunting and really confusing on where to even begin, so I started with the biggest frames first as my anchor for the entire gallery. I put those five big frames (in blue below) on the wall first, leaving enough space between for at least a 5×7.
Then, I placed my smaller frames, 8×10 and below, to fill in the spaces between the larger ones.

 For the last step, I made sure to space out my S initials so that I didn’t end up with any too close together. I paid attention to textures too.

And that was it! It took forever to decide on the photos I wanted for the frames, but it was so much fun taking a trip down memory lane as I sifted through all of them. Do you recognize some of them from our Beach Trip a few weeks ago? Waking up before sunrise was SO worth it for those!

After watching me tweak this thing for a week, even Lola got frustrated with me I think. And then I took about fifty photos of the wall as I marveled over it.

The lower wall of our stairs is still blank, but I’m in search of a dresser or console table of some kind for DVD storage before I can tackle that part. Once I get that figured out, we’ll be able to move the shelves under our TV to the office and start building our faux fireplace. (Did you think I’d forgotten? I told y’all, I’m a tease when it comes to this stuff.)  This cookie cutter of ours is looking less and less basic, and I’m loving it! Our little home is finally developing some personality.

What do you think? Any tweaking I still need to do? Believe me, I’ll do it.***Update:  You can check out the full stairwell gallery wall here!

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Comments

  4. Nif says

    This looks fabulous! I want to do a gallery wall on the stairs to my finished basement. You have just given me the courage to do it! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  10. MJ Nunes says

    I absolutely love it. I’m one for “winging it,” so I love the paper set up idea. Now to choose between a million photos to put up 🙂

    Reply

  12. Revi says

    A lovely personality it is, too! The extra work and patience paid off. I totally agree about spacing things out – and would not change a thing in your final composition. 🙂

    Reply

  16. Good Time Charlie says

    Oh my goodness, this is GENIUS! You have just saved my future frustration and swiss cheese looking wall. Having a gallery wall going up my stairs is on my DIY list, but I was loathing starting it. This is such a great idea! Sharing today at The Handmade Hangout at Redouxinteriors and pinning. Thanks!

    Reply

  20. JBArts says

    You never cease to amaze! this is brilliant..and I want a cowboy handyman lol. Guess I am going to have to buy the hubby a hat lol. I cant wait to see what you bring this week!! see you tonight!!
    Jess @liverandomlysimple

    Reply

  22. Inquirer says

    This is a great gallery!!
    Any recommendations to where to get the oval frames from? Walmart and Target dont carry oval frames :/

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Thank you! Most of my oval frames came from a few trips to the thrift store, but I’ve seen oval frames in Hobby Lobby and Michael’s before. You might have some luck there. 🙂

      Reply

    • Lauren says

      Thanks, Tyra! To be honest, we just eyeballed it. Maybe we just got lucky in the level department but you could definitely use one if you wanted to double check everything. I think if you had a grid formation for a gallery wall, you’d need to.

      Reply

  24. Vicky says

    Hi Lauren, I love your gallery wall! Just wondered if you did a post on how you did the distressing of the frames? I had a look but couldn’t see anything? Vicky

    Reply

  25. Sarah says

    Great tutorial, thanks! I’m also wondering where you found the curtains that are next to your staircase (the beige and grayish curtains)… I have been searching for months for the right curtains and I really like those!

    Reply

  26. Taylor @ TayRose Design says

    Lauren, so glad that you reiterated how taking a little bit of extra time with the prep saves tons of time with the installation! What I love about this way of hanging is that you can do it yourself without having to have another set of eyes standing back to see if the frames are evenly spaced, or, more importantly that the holes are even for those frames that have 2 hooks!
    Love your work, and how you make it all seem so simple to do!

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Thank you Taylor! It really is worth the extra work. I’m all for saving time but sometimes those extra steps pay off in spades. 🙂

      Reply

  27. hannah radford says

    I LOVE this! Definitely replicating something similar.
    Can I ask how did you attach your pictures to the wall? It looks like they are not in the frames and are separate….

    Thanks

    Hannah (UK)

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Thank you, Hannah! Yes, I decided to take the glass out of the frames since some didn’t even have glass at the thrift store. I just attached the pictures straight to the wall with Command strips.

      Reply

      • hannah radford says

        That’s great thank you. Although have no idea what a command strip is?? Must be called something else over here 🙂

        Thanks

        Reply

        • Lauren says

          Basically, it’s heavy-duty poster tape. I believe you could find them on Amazon. Just search Command Mounting Squares and you should be able to see them.

          Reply

  28. Stella g. says

    I do this! We move a lot so I’ve gotten in the habit of folding those papers and sticking them inside the back of my frame for the next move. It saves me so so so much time. And for the larger frames I use newspaper. Seriously, this is a lifesaver technique! And your wall looks awesome!

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Thank you, Stella! Frames definitely help a ton with keeping up with the keepsakes. I thought this was going to be so complicated to create, but this technique helped so much.

      Reply

  30. Bre Teague says

    Turned out great! Question…. What did you use to hang the photos that aren’t in frames? The ones that have frames around them?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Oh I use 3M mounting strips. They’re great! And I like that the frames don’t have glass in the front to eliminate glare and gives me the option to change them out really easily if I need to. Although I never do because I love this wall. 🙂

      Reply

  32. Lisa says

    I love your wall!! I’m doing it too!! In fact my – initial is S too!! Where did you find them all? I love the small square onewhere did you find that one?

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Ooh! I’d love to see if you try it too! I found all of our initials mostly at Hobby Lobby (during 50% off sales), Michaels, and Kirkland’s. The small square burlap one is from Kirkland’s, but I got it over a year ago, so they might not carry it anymore.

      Reply

  33. Heather says

    I love love love this beautiful gallery wall. Wondering how you put the square pictures in the round/oval frames, but it appears you can see the wall color behind them as if there is glass on both sides????? Love that look, but have no idea how to accomplish it. Would love to know how you did it.

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Thank you, Heather! I actually just put the pictures directly on the wall with no glass. I used Scotch Mounting Strips and they’ve held up there for over a year now.

      Reply

  34. Stephanie says

    love your gallery wall but also loving the “greige” paint color, do you mind sharing the name of it?

    Reply

  37. Jacki says

    This looks to be a stairwell where you could do pictures on the other side as well. Did you choose to do that ? Why or why not ?

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Hi Jacki! Yes, it is a stairwell. I’m currently working on the upstairs portion of the stairwell now. It’s in the brainstorming phase. 🙂 We just finished the playroom that the upstairs opens up to, so I wanted to have that part done first.

      Reply

    • Lauren says

      Aw thank you, Heather! One of these days I’m hoping to launch design services. Somehow we keep finding projects to do. Haha!

      Reply

  39. [email protected] says

    Speaking of dvd storage, I fit about 400 of them in sleeves, and created a binder alphabetically with all the titles…they all fit under my tv in a cabinet. best decision ever. the cases are in a tote in the shed…the hubby didn’t want to part with them, but we haven’t wanted/needed them for years!

    Reply

  42. Rosie says

    This is amazing! Thank you so much for this fabulous tip. I am definitely going to try this as we attempt to decorate our stairway!

    Reply

  43. elisabeth says

    I am in the middle of unpacking all my frames, photos and getting walls ready to display my treasured memories – so this was the perfect article for me! I am in the middle of distressing some old and inexpensive frames and will head out to find some cheap paper to tape to the walls. Great ideas and love all your photos!! Thanks.

    Reply

    • Lauren says

      Hi, Mandy! I do not know the sizes of each frame. However, The largest of these are 16×20. The smallest of these are 5×7. I hope this helps.

      Reply

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