How to create the perfect gallery wall at home
Gallery walls (or salon walls, if you prefer), are a widely popular way of filling a blank wall, and can also take the pressure off if you don’t want to commit to a large piece of art. They’re a forgiving form of displaying art: since the viewer’s attention is diffused around several pieces, it’s possible to display a variety of prints, photographs, posters, and even your children’s art. Plates, small sculptures and other 3D objects that can be fixed to a wall can lend depth and texture. But how to go about it? Hanging multiple pictures is a complex art, after all.
‘The grouping of pictures can be done symmetrically or asymmetrically,’ says historical interiors specialist Edward Bulmer, ‘although the latter feels more comfortable if the weight of pictures is roughly balanced either side of the centre line. If I’m hanging watercolours or prints in a group, I mark out the wall size on the floor with two tape measures and arrange the pictures before hanging.’
‘It’s generally sensible to hang your largest picture first and work around it,’ recommends Freddie de Rougemont, a specialist in the Old Masters Group at Christie’s London. Visualise how you want the completed wall to look and play around with a few arrangements laid out on the floor before you start to make any holes in the wall.’
If you have a set of similar pictures all of the same size, you may want to hang them in a perfect grid, but otherwise a looser and more informal arrangement is the way to go. ‘I like an undulating line to the tops of the frames, rather than lining up the tops (or the bottoms),’ says Edward. Rita Konig agrees, advising that you should always ‘break a line: I like the edges to be castellated (for want of a better word) rather than a neat frame around a jigsaw puzzle. This is much more forgiving.’
When it comes to the gaps between pictures, don’t let them become too regular. ‘Watch out for tramlines,’ says Rita. ‘You don't want a map of Manhattan appearing on your walls, so just nudge a picture left or right to stop long avenues appearing. Finally, I often hang things in pairs – for example two matching pictures side by side or two pictures that are not connected, but that look good together one above the other.’
Gallery wall ideas from the House & Garden archive
© Anna Malmberg1/21Designer Marta de la Rica’s holiday home in Biarritz is layered with interesting textiles and collections of art and objects. In the dining room, a gallery wall of antique and vintage finds adds to the bistro feel she has created by furnishing it with multiple small tables rather than a single large one. ‘Sometimes, it’s just me and my husband, but we can also have 14 for dinner,’ Marta explains.
Paul Massey2/21When creating a gallery wall, look beyond the main living spaces of your house. In Cath Kidston’s west London house, she has added character and interest to the bathroom by hanging a selection of works gathered over the years. Walls in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Plaster II’ provide the perfect soft neutral backdrop.
BROOKE HOLM3/21Restaurateur Keith McNally’s New York apartment is filled with an impressive collection of art – he has been collecting for over 40 years and has more than 200 works, mostly from the 20th century. Here, the paintings stand out against the the pale plaster walls and create the ideal focal point for the sitting area. Arranging your gallery wall above a low bookcase is another brilliant option, as it adds to the lived-in, eclectic feel of a room.
James McDonald4/21Creating a gallery wall need not involve affixing numerous pictures to the wall. If you’ve got existing shelving, you can use these to showcase your collection, as the owners of this converted warehouse in London have done. This could be an excellent solution in rented accommodation, or if you’re worried about committing to a permanent display.
The monochrome photographs, including works by Antony Cairns, Josef Koudelka, Susan Meiselas, Helga Paris, Sarah Moon, Miyako Ishiuchi, Kansuke Yamamoto and Kikuji Kawada, complements the pared-back aesthetic of the space perfectly. Designer Nicola Mardas has introduced a splash of colour with red cushions from Yastik by Rifat Ozbek on the sofa below.
ERIC PIASECKI5/21If you’ve got particularly high ceilings, consider hanging larger works in an interesting way to make the most of the space. In the magnificent Great Hall of this Connecticut newbuild with interiors by Steven Gambrel, one wall has been hung with striking pieces by Catherine Opie, James Welling, Martha Jungwirth, Joseph Montgomery, Andreas Eriksson, Martin Boyce and Henni Alftan. The picture rails and picture lights give a pleasingly elegant effect that works very well in this impressive space.
Paul Massey6/21It is no surprise that graphic designer Adam Ellis’s London house is filled with eye-catching prints, many from his own studio and archive. In the hallway, he has cleverly hung a collection around a mirror, which reflects pieces on the opposite wall and enhances the brilliantly bold and colourful effect as soon as you enter the house.
Jake Curtis7/21Some sort of unifying principle can help a gallery wall feel coherent. In his London apartment, Ben Pentreath has hung a collection of largely black and white prints, photographs and posters against a deep olive green wall. The monochrome nature of the pictures isn’t completely consistent, but it helps the scheme to feel deliberate.
Line T Klein8/21Not all gallery walls have to feature regular spacing. In the Copenhagen apartment of creative consultant Michael Dansk, the gallery wall in his sitting room is broken up into sections, with four prints clustered at the top, and three larger artworks. The irregular divisions and the use of ceramics within the gallery wall helps it to feel informal and spontaneous.
Michael Sinclair9/21If you’re a traditionalist, you can still embrace the gallery wall with judiciously chosen paintings and engravings, and heavy gilt frames will make them feel as though they’ve always been there. Antique dealer Jack Laver Brister is a keen collector of ‘gentleman portraits’, one of which anchors the salon wall in his previous cottage in Frome.
Paul Massey10/21The owner of this apartment spotted this set of Gary Hume prints at a Louis Vuitton fashion show and immediately bought the lot. Interior designer Paolo Moschino opted for white frames to sit within white panelling to show these colourful works to their fullest advantage.
Paul Massey11/21A gallery wall is a perfect way to deal with the vast expanses of wall that are often created by a kitchen extension. The dining room of Sarah and Ned Corbett-Winder’s London house is a great example. The raw plaster wall above the table displays prints and paintings, some of which are by Ned’s mother, the artist Kate Corbett-Winder. Using plates alongside the series of square and rectangular pictures makes the arrangement more interesting.
Rachel Whiting12/21Centring a series of prints around another object can be a good helpful to bring depth to a gallery wall. In this house belonging to a pair of artists, Beata Heuman arranged ‘trippy and quite naughty’ prints by Walton Ford, in a variety of shapes and sizes, around a convex Regency mirror.
Simon Brown13/21You don't need large numbers of pictures to make an effective gallery wall. This asymmetric arrangement in a country house by Chester Jones and his son Toby Jones employs larger pictures, all abstract mid-20th-century pieces, to lead the eye along the wall, avoiding making the sofa the centrepiece of the room.
Paul Massey14/21A tightly hung set of related prints can break up a wall and create a zone around a specific piece of furniture. Rita Konig has created this scene around a console table at her County Durham farmhouse with a set of botanical prints, which look wonderful against a backdrop of Edward Bulmer’s ‘Invisible Green’.
Christopher Horwood15/21A series of small pictures can work well hung vertically between windows, as interior designer Sally Wilkinson has done in her one-bed flat in Chelsea.
Paul Massey16/21If you’re fortunate enough to have beautiful panelling in your house, don't be shy about filling the spaces with art. In the loo of this Norfolk house, Carlos Garcia has filled the rectangles offered by the panelling with prints of birds. The prints are of different sizes and orientations, but are all framed and mounted in the same style, and they look particularly beautiful against a backdrop of Edward Bulmer’s ‘Nicaragua’.
Christopher Horwood17/21In this elegant and inviting family home in London, interior designer Natasha Howard made the most of the owners’ art collection, creating a gallery wall above the main bedroom’s fireplace. It’s proof that you don’t have to hang a gallery wall against a plain background and wallpaper can work wonders.
Owen Gale18/21Every bit of wall space in Violet Dent’s London flat has been used to display pictures, prints and paintings soured from all manner of places. There is no rhyme or reason to it, it’s simply a gloriously eclectic gallery wall across the entire flat.
Paul Massey19/21A diverse mix of artworks covers one wall of the owner’s bedroom in this colourful Chelsea maisonette. Frames of different colours and sizes add to the eclectic appeal, but all are mounted in the same way with a wide border to bring them all together cohesively.
Owen Gale20/21The stairs leading up to the first floor in Sandra Barrio von Hurter's house are covered in a small part of her and her husband’s art collection, with pieces bought from around the world or as gifts. It’s a brilliant way to fill an awkward shape and expanse of wall.
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Matthew Kissiday21/21This mini gallery wall by a bathroom sink in a Connecticut house by Elizabeth Hay is ever so charming. Bathrooms are not always the most obvious place to display art, but we’re firm believers that they should be decorated with as much care as the rest of the house. The reverse glass paintings Elizabeth has used (found at Tallulah Fox in Petworth) are the perfect choice for a bathroom.
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