When planning a gallery wall layout, I usually start by pulling out any art I already own. I like to lay the pieces out on the floor along the wall I’m working with so I can see how they look together and play around with the spacing. I can move everything around to my heart’s content before any nails go into the wall. This time, though, I had to change up my process a bit.
The first hurdle was space. This room is on the smaller side, and we have two sofas in here. One is pretty easy to move, but the other is not. And because you step down into the room from the kitchen, there really wasn’t anywhere for the furniture to go. So my usual trick of laying all of the artwork out on the floor, like I did when designing our dining room gallery wall, wasn’t going to work.
Starting With Three Pieces I Knew I Wanted
The second hurdle was self-inflicted. We’ve been slowly collecting pieces for this room, and there were three that I wanted in very specific spots. I don’t typically box myself in like that, but I felt strongly about where I wanted these pieces, so I was determined to work around them.
The first piece is a very large, dark and moody painting of aristocrats gathered around a table. Mike spotted it at a vintage store and immediately had to have it for this room. Since it’s the largest piece in the collection, I knew I wanted it to be the anchor that everything else worked around. But I didn’t want to simply center it on the wall. I thought the arrangement would be more interesting with the painting sitting off center toward the left side of the room.
Another piece is a small 12-inch square dog print. Nothing special and probably a piece most people would pass on, but I loved it. When I was sourcing art for this room, I specifically looked for pieces with dogs as the subject. I could immediately see this one hanging just above the arm of the sofa, easily visible when sitting there.
The third piece is one I found a couple of months ago at another vintage shop. It’s a vintage Ohio burgee flag. Proof that you just never know what you’ll find or what you’ll be drawn to. It was the perfect addition to the mix, and I could immediately see it on the right side of the wall near the built-ins.
So before I had figured out the rest of the gallery wall layout, I had already given myself three fixed points to work around.
Using Paper Templates to Plan the Gallery Wall Layout
From there, I went through our home gathering the other pieces we had already purchased with this room in mind. I also grabbed a few pieces we already owned that I thought might work with the collection. Once I had everything together, I stood in the room staring at the wall trying to figure out how to get started.
Not being able to lay everything out on the floor really stumped me for a minute. I knew I needed some way to visualize the arrangement before I started hanging anything. It took me forever to get this room painted, and the walls gave me some trouble along the way. The last thing I wanted was to make a bunch of unnecessary holes if I could help it.
So I decided to see if ChatGPT could help. I sent it a photo of each piece along with its measurements and gave it the height and width of the wall. I asked it to create a collected gallery wall layout around the three pieces I was already sure about. From there, I wanted it to work everything else into the arrangement.
After three tries, I abandoned that plan. It kept changing the proportions and sizes of the artwork I had given it, and I didn’t trust the gallery wall layouts it was giving me enough to start putting holes in the wall.
Testing the Layout Directly on the Wall
I then remembered that I could create paper templates and use those to test different arrangements directly on the wall. I have a very large pad of graph paper, so I grabbed that, some scissors, tape and a pen, and traced the outline of each piece.
The templates solved half the problem for me. I could finally see the actual size of each piece on the wall and move them around without making any holes. But I was still having a hard time figuring out which pieces should be grouped together and where each one fit within the larger arrangement. I knew the collection worked together, I just couldn’t quite see how to put the puzzle together.
Designing the Gallery Wall in Sections
Using what little floor space I had between the sofas, I started laying a few pieces out. I put one of the British hunting scenes down first. Next, I picked up the architectural etching and placed it below and off to the right of the hunt scene. I could immediately see that the black frames and larger white mats on each worked really well together.
Putting those two pieces together also created a space above the etching and to the right of the hunt scene. It looked like just the right amount of space for the pair of narrow castle scenes. Once I put them in place, I could see the grouping starting to come together.
Then, I randomly picked up this small European landscape in an ornate wood and gilt frame. It had been hanging in our living room. At the last minute, I grabbed it, along with another similar piece, to see if either could work. When I placed it below the hunt scene, I could immediately see that it belonged there. The red in the ornate frame tied in with the hunters’ red jackets as well as the thin red mat around the print.
Letting One Grouping Lead to the Next
As I kept working, I realized that figuring out one grouping was helping me figure out the next. The pieces I put together created negative space around them, and that space started to dictate what could go there next. Sometimes I needed a certain size or shape to fill the space, while other times I was looking for a frame, color or subject that connected back to the pieces around it.
That’s when I realized I didn’t need to figure out the entire gallery wall layout at once. I could design it in sections. So, I mentally split the wall into thirds and started working on one section at a time. I laid out a small grouping of the actual artwork on the floor and then transferred those pieces to the wall using the paper templates.
Once the paper templates were on the wall, I tweaked and adjusted them until the spacing looked good. I also made notes directly on the templates with the spacing between each piece. In some places I wanted a couple of inches, while in others the pieces sat much closer together. Having those measurements written down meant we could recreate the layout when it was time to take the templates down and hang the actual artwork.
Hanging the Gallery Wall
Once I had the gallery wall layout figured out, the rest was a breeze. I had Mike hang the large painting since it needed a drywall anchor, and I didn’t trust myself not to mess that up. Once that was up, I added the rest.
As I worked my way around the wall, I double checked the width of each piece. Then I figured out where the nail needed to go depending on whether it was hung from a wire or a bracket. I marked that spot directly on the paper template, hammered the nail through the paper and into the wall, pulled the template down and hung the artwork in its place.
It went surprisingly fast. I had made notes on each template about the spacing in relation to the pieces around it, but I didn’t end up needing them. Since I had already adjusted the templates on the wall to get the spacing where I wanted it, I really just used each template as a hanging guide. I had everything hung in about 30 minutes and that’s only because I filmed some of the process.
One Thing I Would Do Differently
The one thing I probably should have done was make sure all of my templates were actually level before I started. I had eyeballed them when I was working out the layout. Because most of the artwork hangs from a wire or a single bracket, it really didn’t matter. I could level those pieces once they were on the wall.
The Ohio burgee was the one outlier. It hangs from two grommets along the top, so I marked the location of each one on the template and put a nail in each spot. Turns out my template wasn’t perfectly level, which means the flag isn’t either. It’s just a hair lower on one side and, as Mike said, “Who cares?” We’ll see how much I fixate on it as I move through the room. I may move one of the nails if I can’t stand it. For now, I’m leaving it.
The Layer This Room Needed
With every layer we’ve added to this room, the built-ins, styling the shelves, finding the right sofas, bringing in the antique pine cabinet and now this gallery wall, the room has felt more and more pulled together.
Not finished or perfect. There are still things I want to do in here. But it feels considered in a way that is hard to explain.
There are rooms that function. There are rooms that are pretty and function well. And then there are rooms where you can feel that the details have really been thought through. The furniture, the art, the colors, the old pieces mixed with the new. They all start to feel connected instead of like a series of individual decisions.
I’ve felt that way about other spaces in our home. Our little half bath off this room gave me that same feeling when we finished it, but this is the first time I’ve really felt it on this scale. Maybe because I’m a designer, I’ve put extra pressure on myself to get there. And there have definitely been times throughout this project when I’ve wondered if I would.
The gallery wall added another layer that I think this room really needed. Beyond filling what was a very large blank wall, it brings so much more of our personality into the room. These are pieces we’ve collected because we were drawn to them, not because they perfectly matched some plan. There are dogs and hunting scenes, old architecture, landscapes, the giant dinner scene Mike had to have and a random Ohio flag I couldn’t leave behind. Together, they say something about us and the things we like.
And I think that’s also why the room is finally starting to have that cozy, slightly masculine feeling I’ve wanted from the beginning. You could call it a man cave, but in my head it’s always been more of an English snug. The kind of room you want to settle into and stay in all day when it’s cold outside.
It’s not finished. It’s definitely not flawless. But it feels pulled together, personal and really considered. And I think that’s what I’ve been trying to create in here all along.
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