How To Create A Gallery Wall With Family Photos

Gallery walls are a classic home decor trend that I believe will never go out of style. From the symmetrical designs to walls featuring your children’s artwork, your options are limitless when it comes to creating a gallery wall. I recently decided to create a gallery wall with family photos for my home. This is the first of many gallery wall projects that I will be doing.

If this is your first time creating a gallery wall, the idea may seem a little bit daunting. There is a lot to consider and you may be wondering:

How will the idea that I have in my head translate into reality?
How do I choose the right pictures and frames?
Will it actually look good?

In this post, I will walk you through all the steps that you will need to create a gallery wall, by taking you through the process with me.

gallery wall with nature pictures

For this project, I chose to create a gallery wall with family photos. It turned out so beautifully, and I will certainly be repeating this process in other rooms in our house.

It is important for my husband and I to have photos of our children around our home. We want them to know that they matter and to be able to see their faces reflected in the walls of our home.

** For the purpose of this post, I will not be sharing their photos. I will instead be sharing these wonderful vintage landscape images.**

Where to hang a gallery wall

The first thing that you will likely need to decide is where to hang your gallery wall.

There are many popular options such as along stairways, in hallways, living room but in reality, anywhere you have a wall is a great place to consider hanging a gallery wall.

Before you get started, I would recommend assessing the wall and the space surrounding it. Not only do you want to ensure that you have enough space on the wall, you also want to make sure that the gallery wall will fit in with the rest of the decor in the chosen room.

Space is important when deciding where to hang a gallery wall but your design can be as small or as large as it needs to be. You can hang your pictures around windows, door frames, or around other pieces of furniture.

The gallery wall that I created for this project is in an area that also has a bench, so I also needed to pay attention to the distance between the seat and the bottom of the lowest frame so that it is comfortable to sit but also aesthetically appealing.

how to create a gallery wall

How To Hang A Gallery Wall In These Easy Steps

Step 1 – Select your gallery wall style

Your options are limitless when it comes to selecting your gallery wall style. The style that you choose may depend on your personal style or the theme or ambiance you already have going in the selected room.

It can be difficult to imagine what your gallery or photo wall will look like when it is all finished, so spend some time online looking for inspiration. Pinterest is a great place to start. You can also do some research on Instagram, searching for terms such as #gallerywall.

Step 2- Gather Your Supplies

In order to create this wall of photos, you will need:

Graph paper
Picture frames
Photos
Hammer & Nail (or another method to hang your frames on the wall)

Step 3- Choose The Photos

As you will find during the research phase, you can select any type of photo for your gallery wall. Some people choose to use artwork while others opt for portraits or family photos. If you have children, I am sure you will have plenty of artwork laying around the house. Instead of letting them clutter up your space, why not display them in a frame.

Whatever you choose, make sure that the pictures selected are cohesive and complement each other. Spend some time considering different combinations and different positions and orientations of each picture.

Black and white gallery walls are growing in popularity for this reason. It is easier to manage a monochrome look rather than worrying about clashing colors from photos. Alternatively, you can do what I have done for this gallery wall and choose photos that have a similar theme and color palette.

Step 4- Choose Your Gallery wall Layout And Style

You may choose to create a symmetrical or asymmetrical layout for your gallery wall. The choice is entirely up to you.

I initially wanted to create a grid gallery wall, but when I started the project, I opted for a different layout with mixed frames.

Step 5- Choose Your Gallery Wall Frames And Do A Mockup

Frames can cost anywhere from $5 to over $500. Depending on how big your wall is, you may need to use several frames. Consider these costs as you start to lay out a plan for the wall.

The mock-up is a great way to outline your gallery wall without actually drilling any holes. You can create a mock-up for your gallery wall by drawing an outline of your frame of choice on graph paper. Once you have the outline, you can cut out a paper template and stick it to the wall using painter’s tape.

This step is crucial to ensure that you are able to get the right spacing between the frames.

I used my laser leveler to make sure that the lines on the walls were straight. I also previously used it for the chair rail in my dining room.

The placement is the last step in the process of planning the gallery wall.

how to measure a gallery wall

Step 6- Hang The Picture Frames In The Right Spot

Check and triple check before you nail the wall

There is nothing worse than making a hole in your wall only to find out that you picked the wrong spot.

When hanging your frames, measure the distance from the top of the frame to the fastener and measure the same distance on the wall that you have mapped out to ensure proper placement. It’s important to choose the right hangers for your frames