Filling empty walls with decorative life is sometimes not that easy: Do you choose a shelf that you can equip with decorative elements? Or do you mount a mirror? Or do you prefer to attach pictures? The latter can provide a very personal and individual touch and become a very special eye-catcher if you skillfully combine several pictures – as a so-called gallery wall. Here you can find out what to consider when attaching and combining.
Once hammered into the wall, removing a nail and hiding the hole is cumbersome. Therefore, the arrangement of the picture walls should be carefully considered. It is best to prepare yourself well and plan the total work of art in advance. These steps will help:
For the correct installation of a Gallery Wall you need the following things:
Once the initial preparation has been made, it is time to look for the right motifs. Of course, these should also fit into the room to be equipped. If you are looking for picture walls for the bedroom, you should take a look at which colors dominate there. In order to have a particularly harmonious effect, the image motifs and frames should pick up on existing tones. But you can also deliberately set accents by deviating from the color concept or using complementary colors so that the Gallery Wall stands out. In most cases, however, subtle motifs with small color highlights are the best choice for fitting into the room and still being noticed. In addition, the motifs should match each other stylistically and not each individual should stand out.
The combination of different image sizes as well as portrait and landscape formats is particularly exciting. Frames and suspensions may also vary, but the mix of colors and materials should match. Otherwise, the Gallery Wall can appear restless and random. It looks harmonious when the picture frames find a common end at one point, i.e. end at the same height. If you like it neat, you can attach several pictures of the same size symmetrically. Before mounting, you should have an idea of what the wall should look like.
In the next step it gets more concrete: Look at the available space on the wall where the Gallery Wall is to be built. Now cut out the gift or wrapping paper in this size. You can now arrange your pictures on this in order to better plan the final attachment to the wall, without having to hammer nails into the wall and possibly have to pull them out again later. If you like the arrangement, draw the outlines of the pictures (with frames or hangers) on the paper. Then turn the frame over to see where exactly you need to hammer in the nail and mark the spot on the paper as well.
You can now attach the large piece of paper with the recorded images to the wall with adhesive tape or thumbtacks where the Gallery Wall is to hang. This procedure ensures that you don’t have to work directly on the wall, hammer in nails and reposition them. If the paper is hanging, you can look at it again from a distance and recognize distances and placement better and, if necessary, change outlines and draw new ones.
In the end, the paper should be hanging straight on the wall (this is best done with a spirit level). If you are satisfied with the arrangement, you can hammer nails through the paper to the marked places. Then you can simply tear off the paper.
Now all you have to do is hang the frames or pictures in their place using an alternative method of hanging and, if necessary, use a spirit level to straighten them. Then the Gallery Wall is ready and provides a great eye-catcher in the bedroom, living room, children’s room, kitchen or hallway. You can always further develop your picture walls: enlarge them or exchange motifs. This makes the wall decoration dynamic and practical.
A motto is great for a gallery wall: Lovers of certain cities can, for example, combine impressions of their favorite city and almost feel transported there when they look at their gallery wall. Various plant motifs also look great on a gallery wall and create an urban jungle feeling. Of course, it is particularly individual and personal if you stage your own photos in a gallery wall and, if necessary, mix them with letter posters or other suitable motifs.
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