I was helping a friend hang a gallery wall in her home a few weeks ago. She had a stack of frames (mostly from Ikea and Target) filled with all beautiful things and memories, but for some reason, she couldn’t make her layout feel effortless and casual. Upon looking at the mix of frames and material, I agreed: It did feel stiff. We changed one thing and it easily came together.
We took a couple mats out of the frames and filled them with something that would fill the whole frame! I know it might be difficult to remove the mat from a frame that maybe you paid for (or paid extra for), but every gallery wall needs at least two things that are mat free, in my opinion. Or! If everything is mat-free, add at least 2 mats. It helps things feel gathered and more modern and less stiff or repetitive.
There is one exception! If you are using all the same frame in the same size (in a grid arrangement or otherwise), the gallery of frames can all look the same.
I hope that helps anyone else putting together a gallery wall. Take a look around the gallery walls in your home (and on the internet!), do they follow this easy rule?
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Nice tip! I’ve been sitting on stack of frames being trigger shy to create a gallery wall. Effortless and casual is definitely the style I’m going for. Will need to try this!
Great suggestions! I was wondering why my gallery wall didn’t feel quite right. I love the mismatched frames as well but played it safe and purchased the same frames in varying sizes. Hopefully, I can pull this off! Thanks again!
Agree 100%. I also like to mix in a couple of things that aren’t in frames (a horse shoe, a clock, whatever) just to break things up even more.
Nice tip! I’m working on a gallery wall for my kids’ playroom and I notice that I have both types of items and love the way it looks.