Apr 5

Apr 5 The Easiest Way to Hang a Gallery Wall

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The Easiest Way to Hang a Gallery Wall | House Full of Summer, home diy project, wall decor ideas, coastal wall art, tropical leaves, gold framed frond art, wooden frames with white matting, 9 frames, coastal home interior, tropical chic style, spri…

Our living room walls remained empty for over two years after we moved into our home. Indecisive much? Maybe. But also the "living room", which is actually just a secondary sitting space for us, was not a top priority. Eventually, I decided a large gallery wall would be the best option to fill the extra tall space and become an interesting focal point.

As always, I googled every picture frame sale available and when I settled on some large frames from IKEA, I realized that shipping was going to completely offset the great price of the frames, (this was before the IKEA in Jacksonville opened up) making this deal much less appealing to me. About a month later, a friend posted a photo of the beautiful frames that she had used for a gallery wall and I quickly went online to check them out. I opted for nine 18x24 inch natural wood frames, after measuring them out on my wall. I simply multiplied the width (and length) by 3 and then added 2 inches in between each frame (+4 inches), for a total space of 76x40 inches. I hung them in "landscape" vs "portrait" to fill the right amount of space on the wall.

In addition, I wanted a crisp white mat for these frames. I searched high and low and found the very best deal online. These were, and still are, on sale.

Let me preface this by saying that writing these steps out sounds MUCH more complex than this process actually is! Hopefully the pictures I've included will help. :)

What you'll need:

Masking Tape
Nails or Screws depending on your situation
Hammer or Drill depending on your situation
Tape Measurer

First, I laid out the frames on the floor in the shape that I wanted them on the wall, with two inches of space between each edge. Using masking tape, I started at the edge of one frame and ran the tape even across each bracket on the back of the frames, starting with the middle column. (Picture a grid of 9 photos, then use the middle photo as your center and starting point.) I just poked a little hole in the tape where the brackets were on each frame with a pen. As I stuck the tape over the frames, I used a measuring tape to make sure that my two inch spaces were still exact.

Next, I measured about 5 inches above the top of the furniture in the living room so that if I wanted to move the furniture against this wall it wouldn't be touching the wall decor. I measured the length of the wall and marked its center where the bottom of the wall collage would start. Using the masking tape that I laid out on the middle column of frames, I stuck the bottom edge on the center/bottom point I had just marked on the wall and then pulled the tape taught in a straight line. (You may need to grab a stool like I did so that you can reach all the way to the top of the grid.)

Moving to the bottom row of frames, I repeated the masking tape step and poked holes where the nail hole of each bracket was. I took that piece of tape and matched the center hole with the bottom hole of the masking tape I had already stuck to the wall, forming an upside down T. This created the basis for the "grid" of nails I needed to insert into the wall.

I repeated the same thing for the next two rows, moving up to the center row, then the top row. Because my frames were pretty light weight, I didn't feel the need to use screws or drywall anchors. I simply hammered a small nail into each hole in the masking tape then hung my frames. They were spaced perfectly - all besides one, which had come with a slightly crooked hook on the back. I eyeballed the measurement and moved the nail up just a half of centimeter, then it was exactly even with the rest of the frames.

My "helper" was there for moral support, as usual. She clearly won't be cleaning up the mess, either.

"Okay, now that "we've" cleaned up, surely it's time to play...right, mom?" - Sum ;)

Isn't it such a great feeling to accomplish a goal with much less effort than you had originally thought it was going to take? I was very pleased with my work and began the next tedious process of figuring out what I was going to put IN the frames. If you've seen my Instagram posts, you already know what I ended up choosing. And if not, you can see my finished project below. Don't I look proud? :D It's such a great feeling to bring your visions (no matter how small) into fruition!