Today’s post is a how-to guide on the ever-elusive conumdrum of gallery walls. Sometimes it can be very overwhelming to figure out what exactly you should hang on your walls. Art? Posters? Photographs? And then where do you find all of that? People get really nervous about doing the wrong thing, whether it be in the way they hang art (how high?!), committing to nailing holes in their walls, or not knowing what kind of art to commit to. More often than not, I see people hang maybe 1 or 2 teeny tiny frames on a gigantic wall (extra points for if you have them hung in a stairstep design with maybe some kind of tiny corbel shelf next to it – EWWW) which is almost worse than having nothing there at all.

Scale and proportion is everything and I understand all too well the anxiety of not knowing what to do with big empty walls. With several large wall spaces in our house,  I’ve wrestled over and over again with them and I’ve finally landed on a few tricks that work well for us.

Click through for my top tips as well as a seriously fab giveaway from Minted!

In our formal living room, the main focal point is undeniably the large wall behind the sofa.    It’s a huge space, and while the aqua walls continue to delight me, I realized that I couldn’t stare at a blank wall any longer. In the past I’ve put a single (giant) canvas there, but it still felt undesigned, like it was just floating in the middle of the great big wall. The answer for this particular problem was to do a gallery  of  framed art prints, photographs, and things that inspired us. And Minted was gracious enough to help us out with some of their fantastic pieces.

Step 1.  Look for art that inspires you. I love everything from photography to abstract paintings, and I want to find images that will continue to inspire me as time goes on. I think art needs to have an emotional connection to you in some way – you need to have a personal response to it.  Depending on the style of the gallery wall you’re doing, you might want to go a more eclectic route (this is what we ended up doing) with a mix-and-match of paintings, photographs, and drawings. Others may prefer to have a set of 4 similar photographs or art prints. The sky is the limit.

Step 2.  Measure your wall space and have a rough idea of what it is that you want to do. Repetition is the key to filling large wall areas. Gallery walls can be done in a variety of different ways – a casual mishmash of different sizes (love this) or a dramatic and more formal set of frames all in the same size (see this colorful version or this one).

Step 3. Determine the statement you want to make with your frames. All black for drama? White to make the art pop? An eclectic variety of frames for visual interest?

Step 4. Now get to hangin’. For this step to be as painless as possible (erm, emotionally and physically – no more holes in walls or busted thumbs from hammers!), I highly recommend going with Command Strips. I promise you will love them. Plus with all our random Oklahoma earthquakes, I’m not worrying anymore about the frames toppling off the wall. BONUS.

For us, I wanted the “formal” living room to feel more laid back and approachable. We’re not overly formal people, after all. And the best way to accomplish that in my mind was through a casual collection of photographs, watercolors, and drawings.  I explored around the Minted’s art selections and came up with some art print options that fell within the aqua/navy/yellow colorscheme I’ve been going for. Simon and I sat down and chose the ones that we both loved the most – photos that reminded us of time spent in Paris, some pretty seascapes, and a gorgeous shot of Venice. We then added in some fun drawings and graphic prints to even it all out.  I did a rendering in Illustrator to get an idea of what the various sizes would end up looking like so there wouldn’t be any big surprises when it all arrived in the mail.

The end result turned out really beautiful – I love the white frames against the aqua walls. Everything feels fresh and casual but still pulled together. And the gigantic wall finally doesn’t feel so empty and intimidating. I also added in a random watercolor drawing I’d done a few years ago that had been languishing in a corner. It fit in perfectly with all the other blues of the Minted pieces.

Plus I love that we were able to do a custom photo print starring one of our family photos from Shannon Ho.  It makes me ridiculously happy to see that sweet picture every day.

So are you ready for a really amazingly generous giveaway? Minted wants to help you create your own gorgeous gallery wall too! Enter to win a $200 gift card to Minted – and you don’t necessarily have to use it on art. They have a ton of really beautiful things! And they’re also doing a stellar bridal sale right now too —  ENDS MONDAY | SPRING WEDDING EVENT: ENJOY 15% OFF ALL WEDDING ORDERS. CODE: SPRINGWED15

a Rafflecopter giveaway
For further inspiration, check out my Pinterest board with some of my favorite art — Follow Pencil Shavings Studio’s board HOME: Artwork on Pinterest.