Galleries, collages, collections—by any name, grouped art is an easy way to showcase your personal style on most any wall in your home. But you want to get it right. To help, we’ve assembled inspiring examples and professional advice to help you create your own gallery walls. Grab a hammer and get hanging.
Size It Up
In her soaring entry hall, designer Cara Fox curated framed art pieces of multiple mediums to fill the two-story space. A large still life by Jill Barton anchors the sweeping display. “I always start with the largest pieces first, and once they are up, I cluster others of similar sizes and then fill in with the smallest pieces last,” Fox explains. She used gold frames to help unite the collection, and took inspiration from European museums as she painted the curved, paneled wall a soulful blue-gray.Â
Deck The Halls
Consider the impact you can make displaying art pieces on facing walls in a hallway like the Alder & Tweed design team did in this modern mountain home. A large bison image draws the eye down the passage and delivers surprising scale to the framed art of various sizes. The designers paired white walls and minimalist framing with wildlife and vintage photos to create a sophisticated mountain display that allows the hallway to feel open and spacious.Â
Raise Your Game
Think beyond framed art—galleries of surprising collections can create dynamic, personalized displays as well. In a Park City home, an expansive exhibit of vintage game boards enlivens a spacious family room. The boards are arranged in an orderly grid to lend a structured pattern to the walls, but the boards’ varied colors, shapes and sizes deliver interest to the overall presentation.Â
Mix It Up
Designer Suzanne Hall composed a mountain home’s gallery from a variety of objects—framed paintings, drawings, a map, baskets and tiny dolls—and displayed it inside a cozy reading nook. “Some arrangements are very formulated, but this is more flexible because the pieces are all so different,” says Hall, VP of Design for Alice Lane Interior Design. To avoid a haphazard look, Hall anchored the display with larger framed pieces and built around them. “Too many small pieces don’t work,” she explains. A sleek wall sconce enhances the display and adds light to the space. “This is a living gallery—you can add and subtract items.”Â
Take Shape
Look to architectural features for guidance. Inspired by their living room’s barrel vaulted ceiling, homeowners Kyong and Donnie Millar centered an art collection above an antique credenza. They filled the space with an arched display of treasured pieces, many purchased at European flea markets. “Collecting what you love creates a more unique and authentic gallery,” Kyong says. “If you see something you love, buy it. You’ll eventually find a spot for it in your home.” This salon-style gallery offers the couple plenty of opportunities to add and reposition collected pieces within the boundaries of the arched backdrop.Â
Congregate Color
Frame vibrant collections in white to craft an eye-catching gallery. “The colorful and cheerful nature of the work is harnessed by the white mattes and white frames,” says designer Kristin Rocke, describing a gallery of children’s art she curated in a client’s hallway. Size plays into her display as well. “It also works because of the scale,” she explains. “Small works on paper would lack strength individually, but in a grouping, they are bold and brave.” Rocke aligned the pieces along the top of the display and organized the remainder in small collections separated by 1-inch spaces within the groupings. She chose three frame sizes to create a sense of order. “I find it’s best to limit sizing,” she says. When asked how to mix treasured art, Rocke simply suggests, “with abandon.”Â
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