Gallery walls in the home are all the rage and we love them.

Let’s be perfectly honest. Gallery walls are hard. Really hard.

Every year at the West Coast Art and Frame show in Las Vegas we spend months planning out walls—what to hang, how to frame the art, where to place the art on the walls. It’s really easy to plan a gallery wall when you have a company filled with brilliant graphic designers who can whip up layouts, to size, in PhotoShop. It’s a completely different affair when we are on the show floor, nail and hammer in hand. Even with the layouts in front of us, no one wants to nail the first whole. We usually make John do it. But, once we are in the swing of things, it all comes together.

The key is pre-planning. Gallery walls can’t be thrown together on a whim so we’ve put together some helpful tips to help you get the most out of your gallery wall.

Easy tips for planning your gallery wall.

1) Curate

2) Consider an Anchor Piece

  • While it’s not a must-have, using an anchor piece can make creating your gallery wall easier. Pick something you absolutely love and build your collection from that one piece.

3) Framing Your Art

  • Keeping frames simple helps your display look less chaotic. Don’t be matchy-matchy but, pick frames that go well together. Using white or neutral mats will help your art look like a collection designed to go together, even if the pieces are from different artists. We love art without mats too.

4) Location, Location, Location

  • Pick the right space. Gallery walls are the perfect focal point for a room so choose a powerful spot that will WOW.

5) Art Hanging Tips

  • Breathe. You can do this. Our best advice on hanging a gallery wall is to create image templates and test out your arrangement before you hammer a single nail. Apartment therapy has a great post that you should read. My Domaine has this amazing post that also comes with templates to help you see what different arrangements look like.  Plus check out these cute videos Target created.