Assembling a gallery wall might seem tricky at first thought, but a few helpful hints will streamline the process – we promise! In this video you’ll see how Cherished Bliss blogger Ashley Thurman’s came together with retro-inspired pieces from her Styleboard, Gallery Wall & Decor Ideas. Shop Ashley’s picks to get the look and don’t miss her step-by-step process below.
Begin With the Walls
After moving five times in four years I’ve learned that one of the fastest ways to feel at home is to start decorating the walls. Until your walls have something on them, it just feels like you’re spending the night somewhere. Admittedly, I don’t always get this done as quickly as I’d like, but it’s something I always aim for. Since we just made our fifth move a few months ago, you can imagine how excited I am to partner with Hayneedle and share how I created our newest gallery wall.
Gallery walls can seem very challenging and a little frightening if you’ve never actually created one. I promise it’s not as difficult as it may seem, and I’ll be sharing a few tips and tricks to make the process a whole lot easier for you.
Frame Tracing
First, trace all your picture frames – and any other wall hangings you’ll be using – onto a piece of paper and cut them out. Wrapping paper or craft paper is easiest to use because it’s usually big enough for most frames. If you do have a larger piece to hang, you can always tape pieces of paper together.
After you have all your tracings cut out, flip your frame over and poke a hole using a pencil where the nail will be. This allows you to see exactly where the nail will need to be hammered into the wall, eliminating excess holes in your wall!
Arrange to Your Liking
The next step is really up to you and how you prefer to plan things out. You can either make a sketch of how you would like to layout your gallery wall, or if you’re more visual, you can lay everything out on the floor first. Once you’ve figured this out, begin taping the paper cut outs onto the wall in your desired arrangement. By doing this, you can play with the arrangement on the wall without actually moving the pictures around.
Once your layout has been finalized, you can begin hanging the pictures in the place of your cutouts.
Helpful Tips for Hanging
Here’s another tip: Make sure you start from biggest to smallest because no matter how much you plan with the paper, things do look a little different once you get the dimensional products on the wall. Hanging the biggest items first lets you get your spacing correct. It’s easier to fill awkward spaces with the smaller items than moving around the larger ones.
Since I’m in love with this giant chalkboard, and it was larger than all my other items, I started with that. I then moved onto the wooden trays, following up with the picture frames. Last, I filled in spaces with the metal arrows and other accessories.
– Ashley Thurman, CherishedBliss.com
