Gallery wall: a family photo wall

How many pictures, and what sizes

The common mistake is starting from a number. Start from the wall instead: measure the free width and height, and decide how much of that space should be filled. A good gallery wall takes up about two-thirds of the width of the furniture below it (a sofa, a console or a bed) and doesn't sprawl to the edges.

For the arrangement, a composition that almost always works is built around one larger picture that acts as an anchor, with several smaller ones around it. When every picture is the same size, the result is tidy but flat; when they are all different sizes with no anchor, the eye doesn't know where to land.

An odd number of pieces tends to look more natural than an even one: five or seven rather than six. It isn't a law, but it works often enough to be a good starting point.

Matching frames or mixed

Two approaches, and both are right. What doesn't work is something in between.

The first approach is full consistency: the same molding, the same shade and the same width on every picture, even when the sizes differ. That gives a calm, orderly wall where the pictures themselves are the only variety. It is the safe approach, and it almost always looks intentional.

The second approach is a deliberate mix: different moldings and shades, tied together by one constant. All wood, or all gold-toned, or all with a white mat of the same width. That constant is what makes the mix look like a choice rather than the result of shopping at different times.

What doesn't work: three black frames and two wood frames with nothing connecting them. That reads as chaos, not a mix.

A mat ties a wall together

This is the least talked-about trick. When every picture on the wall gets a mat in the same color and the same width, a repeating white band appears around each one, and the eye reads them all as one series, even if the pictures themselves are completely different in character and color.

It also solves a practical problem: pictures in different proportions. A portrait photo, a square photo and a panorama don't sit well side by side, but if they all sit in frames of the same outer size with a mat that makes up the difference, the wall becomes completely uniform.

And on a family wall, where the pictures come from twenty different years and in different quality, that is exactly what holds it together. See our picture mats page.

Plan it on the floor before you drill

Don't start on the wall. Lay all the frames out on the floor in an area the size of the wall, and move them around until the composition looks right. It takes a quarter of an hour and saves holes.

The spacing between frames should be even, usually 5 to 8 cm. Too little and the wall becomes a dense block; too much and the group breaks apart into single pieces. More important than the number itself is that it is the same everywhere.

Once the layout is settled, cut paper to the size of each frame and tape it to the wall with painter's tape. Look at it for a day. That is when you discover everything needs to move ten centimeters to the left, and it is much nicer to find out with paper than with a drill.

For height there is one rule worth remembering: the center of the whole composition at eye level, around 145–150 cm from the floor. Above a sofa, the lowest frame usually sits 15–20 cm above the back of the sofa.

Building a gallery wall at the studio

The advantage of framing a whole wall in one place is that you can see the entire composition together before it is made. Bring all the pictures at once, lay them on the table, and choose one molding that works on all of them, instead of finding out after three frames that the fourth doesn't fit in.

It is also the moment to decide which pictures need reprinting. On a family wall, some pictures usually come from a phone rather than as a print, and some are old and small. Everything can be reprinted in sizes that suit the composition, rather than settling for what exists.

Come to 3 Naftali Palatin St., Booth 147, Rishon LeZion with the pictures or the files, and if possible with the wall measurements and a photo of it too. No appointment is needed.