When we put together the gallery wall in our office (pre-desk styling), I basically winged the entire thing.
I kind of knew what I wanted to include on the wall but I didn't really have a plan for it. Instead, I collected every piece of art/hanging object we had at the time and just went for it, tweaking things along the way. Thankfully everything worked out okay and the wall looks pretty decent!
When I started thinking about putting together a gallery wall for our living room, I knew that I'd have to plan it out ahead of time for a couple of reasons:
- Our living room is the room we spend the most time in and I wanted everything included in our gallery wall to be something we wouldn't mind staring at for long periods of time.
- Our home is open concept and our living room is open to our dining room, kitchen, and foyer. I wanted anything I put on the wall to coordinate with the art and furnishings in the other spaces so everything would be cohesive.
I started the process by searching for pieces of art that I liked and that I thought would coordinate with a few pieces I already had.
Note: All images shown above are property of the respective artists. I claim no ownership.
Spoiler alert: all but one of those pieces ended up on our wall :)
After I narrowed down my art options, I started planning their layout.
I used Illustrator to enlarge a photo of our living room to it's actual size in real life. The photo was pixelated and grainy but it helped me start to visualize the size and placement of the pieces I planned to use.
I measured our TV and created a true-to-life black box to represent it. From there, I measured the size of each piece of art that was going to be included on the wall. I created separate boxes for each piece in their exact sizes (8x10, 16x20, etc.) and started placing them around our "TV".
I ended up creating 4 separate, slightly different layouts before choosing a winner. I forgot to include the measurements of my frames in my layout examples so I ran into a couple of spacing issues when I started hanging the art. I had to wing things towards the end so the final layout is different than I had planned but things turned out better than expected! I can't wait to share everything with you on Monday!
How do you accomplish things around your home? Do you wing it and hope for the best or plan things out ahead of time?
Psst: if you don't have Illustrator, you could always do things old school by cutting "frames" out of pieces of kraft paper or newspaper, taping them to your wall, and moving them around until you get a layout you like :)





i am loving it so far! love the mix! i am very much a "wing-it" girl when it comes to gallery walls. i don't like to plan- too much mathematical and spacial thinking makes my head hurt.
ReplyDeleteWow you really planned that. So much better than my hold it up and squint method. I would bargain you have less holes in your wall lol ;p
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see it!! xo Kristin
ReplyDeleteThat's genius! I love your method of using illustrator to plan your gallery! It makes my geeky engineer heart happy to see this type of meticulous planning :)
ReplyDeleteI use a combo of both...half-a$$ed planning and then winging it. ;)
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait to see the final gallery!! :)
I usually wing it and hope for the best...and make lots of holes in my walls in the process ; ] Looking forward to seeing you final wall!
ReplyDeleteI like laying things out on the floor, but when there's a giant space to fill that method does not so much work! Plus you can't see it up with all the things around it. I wish I had your illustrator (and styling) skills!
ReplyDeleteUsing Illustrator is pretty genius. Great tip!
ReplyDeleteVery scientific! This is a great idea
ReplyDeleteThat's some high tech gallery wall planning you have going on! I'm a laying them on the floor kind of gal myself, but I wish I could do something like this without getting frustrated instead!
ReplyDeleteLoving the technology incorporation into planning! It's all I ever do when planning rooms/walls out! Can't wait to see the finished result!
ReplyDeletelooks so good so far! I want to do a gallery wall over the tv too!
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