Gallery wall ideas that use sizes you can actually buy
Most gallery wall ideas fall apart at the ordering stage, because the arrangement in the photograph was built from frames somebody already owned. These layouts are planned around the sizes you can buy, which is a different and more useful problem.
A gallery wall is an arrangement problem pretending to be a shopping problem. Get the arrangement right on the floor first and the buying is trivial; buy first and you will be trying to make seven random rectangles agree with each other.
Three gallery wall ideas that work with A-series sizes
- The even grid. Six A4s or six A3s in two rows of three, identical gaps throughout. Formal, calm, and forgiving of a mixed set of images, because the regularity does the unifying.
- The rising row. Three or four pieces along one horizontal line at their centres, in different sizes. Suits a stairwell or a long wall, and unlike the other two it wants uneven sizes.
Spacing, which matters more than the layout
Pick one gap and use it everywhere: five to eight centimetres between frames is the range most arrangements land in. The exact number is far less important than using the same one throughout, because the eye reads inconsistent gaps as a mistake and consistent ones as a decision.
Treat the whole group as a single rectangle when deciding the height, then hang it by the rule in the hanging guide - the centre of the whole group at eye level, not the centre of any one piece.
How many pieces, and in what sizes
Odd numbers are easier to balance than even ones, and five to seven pieces is the range most domestic walls take without tipping into clutter. Below five it reads as a few pictures; above nine it needs real planning to avoid looking like a noticeboard.
Vary the sizes deliberately rather than accidentally. A group where every piece is A4 has no hierarchy and the eye has nowhere to land; one large piece among smaller ones tells the eye where to start, which is most of what makes an arrangement feel composed.
Test it on the floor, then on the wall
Lay the arrangement out on the floor and photograph it from above. Mistakes that are invisible while you are crouched over them are obvious in a photograph, which is the cheapest review you will get.
Then cut paper rectangles to size and tape them up. Live with them for a day. This step feels unnecessary and saves more holes than anything else here, because a layout that reads well on the floor can be wrong for the wall's actual proportions.
What to put in it
A gallery wall of unrelated bought prints looks like a shop. One made from things you or your family made looks like nowhere else, and it gets better with time rather than staler.
Where a gallery wall goes wrong
Two failures account for most of them. The first is growing it one piece at a time, which produces an arrangement nobody designed and which can never quite be finished. Decide the whole thing, then buy it, even if you buy it in stages.
The second is scale: a wall of small pieces on a large wall reads as clutter however well it is spaced. If the wall is big, something in the group has to be big too, and that is what the anchor layout is for.
Frames: match or mix
Matching frames make a mixed set of images read as one thing. Mixed frames make a matched set of images read as collected. Pick which problem you have.
If the images already share a palette or a subject, you can afford varied frames. If they do not, matching frames are what will hold the wall together, and that is the more common situation.
Compare the available sizes and prices before ordering. Free UK delivery is included in every price.
Plan for the artwork as well as the wall
Use the Library of Congress guidance on caring for paper when choosing where to display original works. Then follow our hanging guide. Product measurements, rather than demonstration room images, determine how much wall space your framed prints need.
Good to know
How much space should there be between pictures?
Five to eight centimetres is the usual range, but the exact figure matters far less than using the same gap everywhere. Inconsistent gaps read as a mistake.
How do I plan a gallery wall before drilling?
Lay it out on the floor and photograph it from above, then cut paper rectangles to size and tape them to the wall for a day. Both steps cost nothing and save holes.
What sizes work together on a gallery wall?
A-series sizes all share the same proportion, so A4, A3 and A2 combine without any piece looking wrong. One larger anchor with several smaller pieces is the easiest arrangement to get right.
Should all the frames match?
Match them if the images do not already share a palette or subject - the frames then do the unifying. Mixed frames suit a set that already hangs together.
