Northwest Framing | HOW CAN I MAKE MY OWN GALLERY WALL?

HOW CAN I MAKE MY OWN GALLERY WALL?

Our shops can help

By Jennifer Parsons

Creating a gallery wall isn’t as hard as you think. Especially when you have our shop designers to help you. Choose items that are fun and trendy or traditional to create a look uniquely yours for your home or office. A gallery wall starts a conversation and allows someone to get a glimpse into your history and personality. It makes a statement.

FIND A THEME

If you are aiming for a truly eclectic, bohemian wall full of mismatched pieces, you don’t need a guide. You can just start by choosing a theme based on color, art type, or other unifying element. If you want something more uniform, decide on one type of mat and one type of frame and have all your pieces match.

If you aren’t sure of your style, think about what makes you simply – happy. Go with that feeling.

COLOR

Color can be intimidating, but you really only have to focus on one if you wish. In some rooms for example, the art within the frames can all share a similar shade of green, bright neon colors, or black and white photography. Using decorative pillows, a lamp, rug, or vase can help tie it all together in a room. Pick a color that makes you feel relaxed or excited.

You can take it further by developing a color palette, such as a wide range of various blues, greens, and grays. You don’t have to learn your color wheel to get this sophisticated. Online tools like these will give you a palette based on the colors in an image you’ve uploaded. You can also go online and look for images of gallery walls that speak to you.

If you’re stumped by color combinations, you’ll probably find neutrals easier using various hues of nude, earth tones, and white.

ART STYLE & MEDIUM

FRAMING

Using frames of similar colors or styles, such as all black, all light wood, or all gold frames, is a great tool to unify the collection. A uniform mat size or mat color can also be used. You can still mix paintings and photography, black-and-white and color, and then use that same frame color for the grouping. If you don’t wish to have all of your frames one color in the event you have existing pieces you want to mix with, it is completely acceptable in the design world to use frames of different colors, styles and widths. You’ll have a playful eclectic look. There is no wrong formula. Find your friendly neighborhood frame shop.

PICTURE FRAMING

To understand what goes into picture framing and its components, you can learn more here.
Custom picture framing will help your art last for generations to come and protect your art from moisture, harmful UV rays and damage. Tip: Always store art pieces flat where nothing will be pushed up against them or placed on top of them. Never roll your art piece for extended periods of time as that will cause wrinkles and creases.

PRINTING PHOTOS & ART

Gallery walls can be made of all photographs, original or printed art, memorabilia and objects, or a mixture. If you have art or photos already in mind but need to print them from digital files on paper, metal or canvas for your gallery wall, our stores can help you. Bring in a memory stick or forward a link to our shop to download the images. Our designers can talk with you about size, how big the photos can be printed for the best quality, and the substrate choices. Each of our shops have a printing displays where you can hold and touch samples of our papers, canvas and metal before making your selection.

Don’t know what kind of art you want but want to browse a selection of choices? Let our designers know you are interested in finding art for your home or office. We can help.

Our printing is crafted in our Portland production facility with high quality printers that far surpass prints created in drug stores and warehouse clubs. We print from 4 x 6″ up to 150″ on three kinds of papers: matte, luster and rag textured. Photos can be done with a white or black border by request. Wrapped canvases come ready-to-hang. They’re available in museum wrap with a black or white edge, or extend the image around the canvas with a mirror or gallery wrap. For our metal prints we “bake” your image onto an aluminum panel with hanging hardware for a wall display. They are available in high-gloss or matte silver finish and they are scratch, fade and water resistant.

ARRANGEMENT

For easy arrangement ideas for your wall, visit one of our shops and look through the templates we created for our customers. You’ll find several configurations sure to fit in almost any space or stairwell.
Try placing one large piece in the middle of several much smaller pieces, as an anchor, or choose pieces that are all similar in size.

THE MECHANICS

Let’s remember two things. One, you may have to fill a few holes, but you won’t ruin your walls.
Two, there is very little mystery to whether you’ve hung something securely or not. Jiggle it. Unless you’re hanging a large piece of taxidermy, or your toddler can climb ladders, you’re probably going to be okay. Here’s some additional insight into the art of hanging a gallery wall:

Interior Design firm Studio McGee offers tips on spacing and height on the wall.
The DIY Playbook offers helpful tips on hardware and hanging.
Hanging art on different wall surfaces? Here are notes about 4 Common Wall Hanging Myths for homes with brick, tile and plaster walls.

Remember that, ultimately, the only rule that matters is that you like how it looks. To obtain more ideas and become familiar with the art of framing enjoy our gallery of framed art. A trained designer is waiting to provide you with a free design consultation for a gallery wall that could display your original art, photographs, and/or memorabilia.