Large plain walls make me antsy, they're just crying out with something to fill the space. I'm not one for filling every single corner of a room with artwork but I feel like it's the simplest thing to transform a room and give your home some personality. It can take a while to decide what you feel is right for a particular area of your house but one of the things I get asked most about are tips for gallery walls. Where do you buy the frames? How do you decide on a layout? We've put up a few in our time, so I thought I'd share some tips we've learned over the years.


1. Create a space on the floor first the same size as the area on the wall that you want to fill. This will give you an area to arrange everything on the floor first and play around with a layout until you're happy. Take photos of it, sometimes looking at a photo can help you gain perspective compared to looking with a naked eye. Does it look balanced? There's no right or wrong with gallery walls, you can make them as structured or unstructured as you like. Look to Pinterest for inspiration and gallery wall guides if you like {you can download printable pieces of paper to stick on the wall} or just go with your own style. If you're really stuck then you could cheat with this ready to go set which even includes a template to stick on your wall.


2. Don't be scared to use a variety of frames. For some of our gallery walls we've gone for uniform frames {like these in our hallway or these for our wedding photos} which are great and give a put together look with differing sizes. But equally, you can add more interest with a mix of colours and materials. I really like these glass frames and these brass hooks for hanging them off.

3. Decide whether you want to use photos or artwork or mix things up. I think black & white family photos look really lovely together. Ikea & Desenio have some great affordable artwork. You don't just have to use pictures, we've used antlers to add extra interest above our kitchen sofa and I've framed feathers/pages out of a book.



4. DIY wise I have to give all credit to my husband. He's v handy with spirit levels and drills leaving me to just decide where we want things. Ideally you'll work everything out before you start going into the walls but don't be too scared of getting it wrong if you then deciding you want to move something. Often if it's just up or down a little you can cover the extra hole with the picture but of course walls can be filled and painted if you're really not happy.


5. If you don't want to make holes or if you're in a rental property, look at these strips. They're super strong and similar to velcro where you put one strip on the wall and one on the back of whatever you want to hang. My husband helped my parents put up a gallery wall with these alone rather than screws as they were worried about electrical cables in the walls. I'd only use them if you don't want to drill as I saw on Instagram the other day somebody had used them and from road vibrations one photo had fallen off the wall and smashed although I think this is rare.

6. If you don't want to commit to putting something on the wall permanently, lean pictures against ledges or put up a picture ledge to be able to chop and change things regularly.

7. Not every room will suit a gallery wall, especially if you've already got lots going on/lots of colour elsewhere. In that case, we've used mirrors to fill large empty walls which give some interest and reflect light but aren't too busy. See this post on our vintage mirror wall.


8. Staircases are a great place to have lots of photos. I really want to create a sweeping family photo wall one day but feel like until we have children it doesn't have as much meaning? So until then we have this family wedding gallery at the bottom.

Some inspiration from our house //