Gallery walls display pictures and artifacts of family & friends and memories of good times.
You can create your own gallery wall on most any wall in your home, however they are especially popular on staircase walls.
Here are some tips and tricks to create a gallery wall in your home.
Cohesive Element
The most elegant and sophisticated gallery walls contain photos and keepsakes encompassed by a similar element.
The easiest way to do this is to use all black frames or all white frames.
You can use square and round frames, big and small frames, and even shadow box frames for 3 dimensional memorable objects.
Your cohesive element can be anything you want - perhaps the color blue, the shape of a circle, or a vintage feel.
Equally Spaced
The gallery wall should take up the entire wall (or at least the majority) and each item should be somewhat equally spaced apart.
Leave Room for New Items
If you do not currently have enough items to fill your wall, consider purchasing picture frames now and hang them empty.
This will encourage you to make new memories or help you remember old memories by hunting down old photos and keepsakes to fill the wall.
Black and White
For a more elegant look, use black and white photos wtih with a white matte.
Photos in a sepia tone are also nice.
Simplicity in framing will allow the photos and keepsakes to take center stage.
Avoid Small Items
Avoid using lots of smaller items to keep your gallery wall from looking junky.
If you have smaller items, consider framing each one in a larger frame (or framed together as a collection) to give them the appearance of more importance.
Old or New Items Are Both Great
Your gallery wall can be either old photos and items from decades before or it can be a wall of items from the past few years that you intend to continally grow.
For a new gallery wall, use candid photos of fun times and unique moments that bring back great memories instead of staged studio photos.
Staged studio photos will just remind you of your hair cut and clothing, not bring back a memory.
