How to Make a Gallery Wall the Easy Way

Although it’s not as easy as hanging a single piece of art, when faced with a large expanse of wall space in a room, a gallery wall is such a great decorating element to use. Not only can you stylishly share family photos, but other artwork can be mixed together. And if you keep the frames in a cohesive style or color a gallery wall can make for a very impressive statement wall. Here’s how to make a gallery wall in your house with a simple DIY gallery wall template.

We have used gallery walls in several rooms and spaces over the years as I worked out our own decorating style and worked with a sometimes tight budget that didn’t allow for large pieces of art.

This gallery wall was designed to help disguise a small tv.

This gallery wall in our daughter’s room was filled with some of her favorite things.

So how do you create your own gallery wall?

How to Put Together Your Own Gallery Wall – The Easy Way!

There’s a simple trick to creating a gallery wall and that is to create kraft paper templates of the frames and art pieces you plan to use. By taping those to the wall (with painter’s tape, so you don’t ruin the paint) first, you can avoid multiple holes and attempts to hang each piece.

Supplies

framed photos and artwork, like:
- family photos
- art prints
- sketches
- kid’s artwork
- architectural elements and artifacts
- tv’s (an arrangement of art around a tv tends to help it blend in)
- postcards
- vacation mementos
- grandma’s china
- jewelry
- game pieces
hammer
nails
screws
screwdriver
brown kraft paper
painter’s tape

Instructions

01. Prepare your wall space

To start you need a big blank wall space, obviously. Which you likely have if you’re here working on this project. 😉

02. Collect your framed photos and artwork

You can use family photos, art prints, silhouettes and other mementos. Gather up what you think you want to include in your gallery wall.

03. Make your own templates

Trace each frame onto a roll of brown Kraft paper, labelling each one with the art, the frame colour (so you don’t have all black on one side or anything) and the orientation (portrait or landscape).

04. Arrange (and rearrange) your kraft paper templates

Using painter’s tape, arrange each paper frame template on the wall starting with all the large frames first, filling in the spaces with smaller frames.

Make necessary adjustments, moving around the kraft paper templates (because they’re so much easier to move) until you’re happy with the arrangement.

starting a gallery wall with kraft paper templates

creating a gallery wall with kraft paper templates of art and frames

05. Measure for hangers

For each frame, measure the location of the hanger on the back. Then measure and mark the hanger placement onto the coordinating paper frame.

06. Affix your hanger

You can do this right through the paper frame template in the marked location to the wall. If a frame or piece of art has two hangers instead of one, make sure to use a level to make sure they’re correctly placed.