It seems that people have completely opposite opinions regarding the gallery wall. It can cause skepticism because of simplicity, and vice versa, make a person abandon an idea, because of the uncertainty that something worthy will turn out. In fact, the truth is somewhere in between. Absolutely everyone can do it, but for this it is necessary to make some efforts and have some ideas. We divided the whole process into six stages. We will try here to describe in detail all the work.
For this project you will need:
- Level.
- Hammer.
- Roulette.
- Narrow head nails.
Wall measurement
There are several ways to design a gallery wall, but we believe that the easiest way is to measure the wall, transfer these dimensions to the floor and build frames directly on it. Therefore, first we need to find out the dimensions of the wall. We measured the wall and the space that the frames will occupy.
Sketch the layout of the frames on paper
You can skip this step, but I like to have an idea of how the frames should be arranged before I really start to lay them out. This will help to more fully take into account all the features of the wall when arranging the frames, for example, the presence of a rail to protect the walls from damage by the backs of chairs.
There are many ways to arrange frames, and if you have a creative outlook, your intuition will probably tell you how to do it. But if you don’t know where to start, here are a few options.
Option 1: Align Bottom
The lower parts of the frames are aligned in one line, while the vertices can be staggered. We stopped on this option, since it allowed us to leave an even space between the rail and the edge of each frame.
Option 2: Align Bottom and Top
This is difficult enough to do, as you will need a framework that fits perfectly perfectly. The easiest way to do this is if you buy them in 1-2 sizes, with which you will work.
Option 3: Top Align
Usually we use this style. The upper parts of the frames are aligned at the same level, while the lower ones are located in different ways.
Option 4: Center Alignment
This option looks more natural, but as a result, it may create an impression of randomness. There is an imaginary line that runs through the center of the gallery. Some frames go a little higher than this line, others a little lower, but the line itself remains the same.
And again, you can always arrange your frames randomly (bases of some kind of alignment), but if you don’t know where to start, you can use the options given above.
Note: we like it when the space between the frames remains the same as much as possible. For this gallery wall, we chose a distance of 3 cm, but if the frames were large, then it could grow to 5 cm.
Space markings on the floor
Mark the floor according to your wall measurements. As the bottom edge, we used tape measure and marked the edges of the gallery.
Laying out frames
This part of the work is the most interesting. Position your frames relative to the marks left on the floor. We aligned their lower edges with the tape measure, placing the frames 3 cm apart as far as possible, trying to take into account the balance of large and small frames, but without creating obvious symmetry.
Perhaps the result that suits you will not come out the first time.
Measurements for fixing frames
Then flip all the frames, leaving them in their original places.You will have to find out the dimensions of each frame, as well as make a mark where the nail will be located in the wall for its fastening. In our case, several frames had the same dimensions, so we only had to measure those that were different (for example, 4 cm below the top edge, 12 cm from the edges).
The easiest option is to draw a frame layout and write on each of its dimensions and location of the nail. This may seem tedious, but this approach will greatly simplify the work when it enters the stage of making holes in the wall.
Hanging frames
Now that you have recorded all the measurement results, the next part of the work will not cause much difficulty. The easiest way to start is with a frame that is located relative to the alignment line (in our case, this is the bottom frame, since the entire gallery will be aligned at the bottom edge). We started from the bottom right frame and continued to the left. You need to know the overall dimensions of the gallery, so the whole composition will be in the middle.
Here I will tell in more detail. Let's imagine that the nail should be 12 cm from the edges of your frame and 18 cm from its lower edge (here I give the location relative to the lower part, since alignment goes along the bottom). To determine the place where you need to drive a nail, you will have to add additional distances at which the gallery should be located from the edge of the wall (or from the rail, in our case). Therefore, if you need to place the frame 22 cm from the edge of the wall, then the nail needs to be driven 34 cm from its edge. We wanted the distance between the frames and the rail to be 8 cm, so we added 8 and 17 cm, getting 25 cm from the rail. So the first nail was driven in at a distance of 35 cm from the edge of the wall and 25 cm above the rail.
Other tips:
After you mark the location of a pair of frames, you will have to take other frames as the point of the report, and not such things as the edge of the wall or the edge of the rail. Remember to add the extra space that you want to leave between the frames.
Do not drive all nails at once. Hang one frame on the prepared spot, and then move on to the next. In this case, if you mess up something, you will have to change the location of one nail, and not all.
And finally, pick up nails of small sizes, but at the same time quite durable.
Everything is ready!
Rejoice at the result. Once you understand how this method of creating a wall-gallery works, you will cope with any kind of such decoration: a combination of fine art and photography, various layouts, etc. Now we have 5 or 6 wall-galleries in our house - we really like it !
