Create An Eclectic Gallery Wall!

A gallery wall is a great way to add personalization, interest, color, and style to your home or work space. One easy way to make a gallery wall is to create one around a central theme. Old maps, vintage flea market art, needlepoint samplers, vintage paint by numbers - all make interesting themes for gallery walls. 

What's your passion? Gallery walls are a great way to display personal collections: don't keep those vintage family photos in a drawer - display them as a gallery wall with a collection of unique frames. Aside from displaying art that has a similar theme, another way to create a gallery grouping is to create a display that is tied together by color. 

Here are some other ideas of gallery wall groupings:
 Vintage flea market & thrift shop art - makes a great Bohemian style display!
Old maps: this is even better if they have a personal meaning: how about maps of all the places you've lived or visited?
Hand stitched needlepoint samplers
Children's art - as well as your own childhood artFavorite record album covers (many shops sell frames specifically for these!) 
Vintage advertising
Sheet music of favorite songs
Vintage art from favorite old books
Vintage family photos
Groupings of something you like or collect, whether it be frogs, sailboats, botanical prints, leaves, etc.
Add mirrors for depth and sparkle

A collection of vintage prints and needlepoint.

Vintage or rustic artwork from thrift shops and flea markets adds interest to a room. 

Collections of vintage items - not just artwork - add interest. 

An interesting grouping from Southern Hospitality

A charming collection of old tiles framed.

Create a display with a common theme, in this case, hand-stitched samplers.

A collection of vintage floral prints.

 A tightly displayed collection

Nicely coordinating collection from Pop of Pretty



Old prints with a clean look

The variety of frames used here adds interest

Color pop with bright photo mats

Another display with a common theme: vintage crate labels.

Beautiful office space. The brightly colored wall really sets off the black and white photos and frames.



An interesting display

Another arrangement of vintage photos in black frames

Ceiling to headboard bedroom display

A floor to ceiling display



Art collection

This themed gallery wall displays a collection of apples. What would your theme collection be? 

This simple grouping has a big impact.



Mirror grouping

A botanical collection

Photo via Pottery Barn



This moody display is almost fantasy-like

I love the look of this mixed art collection that spans from ceiling to sofa height.


How To

When I created my own gallery wall I just hung my largest "focal" picture first, and then worked around that central image, holding the pictures up in various spots one at a time until I created the balance I wanted and had them all hung. For those of you who like to have things perfectly spaced, you can create templates from paper in the sizes of your frames  and tape those to your wall to get an idea of what your grouping will look like before committing with hammer and nails. Time consuming? Yes, but worth it if exact and perfectly balanced is the look you are going for, or if you are covering an entire wall. 

An example of using paper templates from BHG

I much prefer a unplanned, bohemian approach and was happy to have all of my artwork hung with just a few minutes of thinking about what looked best next to what. Check out some of these grouping arrangements for ideas below.

Each of the arrangements shown above is well balanced in response to the wall sizes and size of decor.

Family tree arrangements (above) are a great way to display family heirloom photos.

What arrangement you choose will have to correlate with what size art you are hanging. 

Here are some final gallery wall images to inspire you, in my favorite of all styles, Eclectic Bohemian!

I love the boho style of the artwork displayed in this narrow hall

This gallery wall was created around the room's architecture 

Bedroom wall display

via New York magazine

A mix of art and plates

I love everything about this space: the books, bedding, wallpaper and art.

Old family photos

Well coordinated color ties the wall art to the rest of the decor.

Barn decor

Moody browns and neutrals

I love the use of vibrant colors in this display.

Again, the wonderful wall color accentuates the entire look.

Quite a collection!

What do you think?