Art changes your home by adding texture, style and personality to your space. Art becomes your room’s focal point, creates a color palette and sets a tone for your design style. While many spaces call for a single piece of art that is a show stopper, other walls are begging for a gallery of mixed art pieces to create what we call a Gallery Wall.

What is an art Gallery Wall exactly?  It is a collection of art, photos, wall decor, signs, sayings, etc. that you bring together to create a unique statement.  Generally it is on a wall, but we have seen it on ceilings, tables and columns too.  

An art wall is a great reflection of you, your family or your business and can be large or small, big or tall.   

Here is how we create a Gallery Art Wall:

1. Choose A Theme

In our example, we choose a pet theme filled with assorted pets and people. You can keep the theme very loose, like black and white photos or get very specific and choose a breed of dogs.

2. Pick A Color Palette

Art is often the focal point of the room and often is the start of your color palette. You can choose a very specific color combination such as black and white or a spectrum of colors that work together.

3. Determine The Location

We recommend the wall you choose is the one you see when you enter the room, but you can literally create a gallery wall in the hallway, around a doorway or on every wall in a room. Once you decide the space, measure the art space. You can decide to hang art floor to ceiling or focus the art at eye level.

4. Establish the Vibe Style

From modern to vintage or from eclectic to minimalistic or a combination, this choice sets the parameters for the frames you choose, the introduction of typography and the flexibility in art choices. 

5. Finding The Focal Point or Center of Your Gallery Wall

Choose one piece that is the “center” of your gallery wall or a combination of a few pieces that you plan to hang in the center of your gallery. This does not necessarily mean you must hang one piece of art right in the center, it is often more pleasing to the eye to hang the center piece of art slightly off center and build your wall around it.

6. Decide The Frame Rules

This is a great time to decide if you will use one color frames, mix the size and color of the frames, or go with non-framed canvases.

7. Mix Up The Scale

Scale is one of the most important design rules to master. A mixture of small, medium and large art, fabric prints and furniture pieces often make the most eye pleasing spaces. While clever designs can be done with a single scale, such as, a wall filled with 4×4 art pieces or oversized photo art, a mixture of scale is a better place to start, allowing more flexibility.

8. Custom Art and Gallery Wall Budget

You may create a wall around a piece of art you were given, a work you created yourself or a photograph of your favorite furry pet. But if you are starting from scratch, finding the perfect art for your gallery wall can be a challenge. We recommend you find the first art piece as your starting place. Include photos, art you already have or mix inexpensive prints and art to create a cost effective gallery wall.

8. What Is The Spacing

The space between art pieces can be very close or spread out to fill the wall. You want to be consistent across the entire wall, keeping the space side the side and top to bottom.

9. You Can Allow For Expansion 

We are going to assume your art wall has room to expand and you are going to add to it.  With your “rules” in place, your space established and your excitement to expand your wall you can begin adding pieces that you find, buy and make. 

10. Pre-Plan Your Layout

You can use the floor to pre-layout your gallery, hang paper templates or wing it when you layout your gallery wall. This article from familyhandiman.com has some great tips on hanging your gallery wall art.

Now let’s talk about our favorite subject – Pets. Don’t feel like every piece must be pet themed. You can create a Gallery Art Wall devoted to a pet, all pets, a favorite dog, love of cats… or sprinkle them into your theme. The rules are pretty wide open, but sticking with most of the rules will help you create a great gallery wall.  We want you to make one promise before you proceed, if you are an artist, like to craft, maybe you do mixed media, please consider putting one or more of your pieces into the art wall.

Take a look at our Pet Art Galleries To Find Art That Speaks To You:

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