Hanging pictures can be so intimidating, especially when you’re staring at a fresh new wall and don’t know where to start. Or, when you’re like me and have too many pictures and artwork and you want to hang them all. So, where does one start when a room is ready to hang pictures?
Let me share my favorite trick for hanging a lot of pictures at the same time, so they all have a cohesive feel to really pull the whole room together with a gorgeous gallery wall.
When we started redecorating our study a few months ago, I gathered all the art and photos I’ve collected over the last several years and put them on my kitchen table to evaluate. I have a habit of buying prints and artwork on the spot when I love something too much to leave it behind, or it’s on super sale (like the painting above, left, by my friend, artist Erin Cooper), even if I’m not sure where I’ll put it in my house.
Most of what I buy has a similar feel, but after I had everything framed for this project and got it back to the study, I realized I have a lot of pictures and paintings I want to hang, and that not all of it looks like it will mesh together. But that’s really the beauty of having eclectic taste, somehow it all works.
Or it will, eventually.
I’m pretty sure.
So, the best thing to do is get all your artwork and pictures together to look at. See what you have, what will play nicely together, what shapes and sizes and colors will balance each other out.
Then get some paper (I use Kraft paper but newspaper works great too) and trace the back of all the frames with a pencil, cut the shapes out, put some masking tape at the corners of each one, and hang them up on the walls.
Arrange and rearrange until you feel completely happy. I’ve had the Kraft paper outlines of my artwork on my walls for a few weeks now. I look at it all together, rearrange it, leave it for a few days, and rearrange again. I’m a bit O.C.D., and you don’t need to operate like me, but the whole point of this trick is that you can evaluate and evaluate, and re-evaluate until you’re totally happy with your artistic combination.
This way you don’t have to put any extra holes in your walls, and things look right when you hang your pictures the first time around.
It’s a really effective little trick for getting your gallery wall just perfect.
Do you have any other decorating tips or tricks to share? This trick for hanging pictures is one of my favorites!
Allison
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
