6 Major Mistakes People Always Make With Gallery Walls, According to Design Pros

My husband and I bought our house 11 years ago, and we’ve been ticking off our to-do list ever since. Finishing the backyard fence was number one because we have a Great Dane (hi, Chunk!). My handy husband replaced the carpeting in our bedroom with pretty grey tile, painted our wooden kitchen cabinets a creamy white, and installed an island, which has become the gathering spot. Then there are those little projects that live in my head but fall to the bottom of the list because they are more aesthetically pleasing and less practical. One example: a gallery wall. We have a staircase in our entryway that I’ve always wished had a collage of family pictures decorating it, but I found the project intimidating. So in the name of research (wink, wink), I enlisted the assistance of a few design pros to help create a #goals gallery wall. Now I’m sharing everything I learned with you.

Using Any Old Frames

Sure, it’s tempting to grab frames from any discount store, but both Gomez and Joyce agree that if you want your gallery wall to be a focal point in your home for years to come, using a custom framer is a worth-it investment. “When you buy a frame with a matboard in it from the store, there’s usually some acid in it, which can discolor your photo over time,” Gomez explains, while showing me an example of this. “Custom framers use matboard in which the acid has been removed, opposed to buffered, so that doesn’t happen and your picture is preserved,” she says.

Gomez recommends researching a local custom framing company (you can use this helpful framer finder) and going into your appointment with your design style and wall measurements. Then talk to your framer about glass quality (museum glass, for example, protects against UV and florescent lighting; it’s also non-reflective), specialty cut and quality molding, and unique frames that accentuate details in each photo. “You want to find a texture in the photo and match the frame to it,” Gomez suggests. For example, we used the cream ribbon in my daughter’s hair bow as a design guide for one of the frames.

Designing It Too Matchy-Matchy

“A big don’t,” warns Angela is “making everything look too cookie cutter.” So instead of using a few similar frames or even photographs from a single photoshoot, Gomez encourages mixing and matching. “Aim to make your gallery wall cohesive—not cookie cutter—by keeping your matboard color palette the same, but varying it in design.” We went with a scheme of gold, green, and antique white for my personal gallery. Another tip: don’t be afraid to use shots from different shoots; you can even mix color photos with black and white ones, she points out.

Framing Only Photos

One of the best ways to personalize your gallery wall is by framing physical family heirlooms, suggests Gomez. “If your memories are sitting in a drawer, they can’t tell a story,” she says. Ideas of what you can frame: matchbooks or menus from special places you’ve visited, wedding invitations, wine or champagne corks, a pressed floral wedding bouquet, and your favorite artwork—kids’ drawings encouraged.

Starting to Hang Your Frames on One Side of the Wall

“This is a design mistake I see often,” recalls Dustin. Instead of starting to hang your photos on one side of the wall, which results in it looking off, the pro recommends choosing the largest photo as your anchor, then laying your photos out on the floor to perfect the spacing before hanging each piece on the wall. “I’ve also seen people use painter’s tape and pieces of paper to map out the design prior to getting out your hammer and nails,” Dustin says.

Spacing Your Frames Too Far Apart

“This is one of my pet peeves,” laughs Gomez. A great rule of thumb she shares: Use the size of the frame and matting as your guide on how far apart to space your photos. For example, if your frame and matting are three inches wide, hang your pictures about three inches apart. Once you have a design you like on the floor, move to the wall and use painter’s tape to mark your spots. We played with more of a perfect design but ended on a staggered one that looked uniform yet creative. Start by hanging the anchor piece on the wall first and building off of that.

Completing Your Gallery in One Shot

Some of the best gallery walls, Gomez reveals, are ones that you can continue to build out for years to come. So while the initial installation project is one phase, it’s a good idea to use a wall with some extra space so that you can continue to frame your favorite memories as time passes. A gallery wall that grows is one done right; just keep a folder of information on your frames, matboards, and molding so you can reference it when building it out in the future so everything looks cohesive, adds Gomez.