How to Build a Gallery Wall: A Guide That Avoids Chaos
A gallery wall, done well, is the most impactful thing you can do to a room. Done badly, it looks like a pile of pictures someone panicked about and hammered up in an afternoon.
The difference between the two is almost never about the art itself. It is about planning. Layout. Frame choices. The invisible logic that holds a collection together even when every piece is different.
Most gallery walls fail before a single nail goes in — because people start hanging without a system. They pick frames one by one, arrange them in their head, and discover on the wall that the proportions are off, the colours fight each other, and the gaps between frames look accidental rather than intentional.
This guide gives you the system. Step by step, from choosing your pieces to getting the last frame perfectly level.
Step 1: Choose Your Wall and Define Your Space
Before you think about art, think about the wall.
A gallery wall needs an anchor — a piece of furniture, an architectural feature, or a defined boundary that tells the eye where the arrangement begins and ends. The most common anchors are:
- Above a sofa — a classic. The sofa defines the lower boundary, and the arrangement should be roughly as wide as the sofa (or slightly narrower — never wider).
- Above a console table or sideboard — works especially well in hallways and dining rooms.
- A staircase wall — a gallery wall following the angle of a staircase is one of the most dramatic uses of the format.
- A standalone feature wall — a large blank wall in a living room, bedroom, or office that has no furniture anchor.
Once you have identified your wall, measure it. Write down the dimensions. This is not optional — it is the foundation of every decision you make from here.
The area your gallery wall should occupy:
- Above a sofa: roughly 75–80% of the sofa's width, starting 20–25cm above the sofa back
- Feature wall (no furniture): leave at least 20–30cm clearance on each side, and keep the bottom edge at roughly 130–145cm from the floor
Step 2: Choose a Layout Template
There are four gallery wall layouts that work reliably. Everything else is a variation on these.
The Grid Identical frames, evenly spaced, in rows and columns. This is the most ordered, architectural approach. It works best with matching or highly cohesive prints — same palette, same style. It suits contemporary and minimalist interiors, and it is the easiest to execute perfectly. Equal spacing of 5–8cm between frames is the standard.
The Salon Style Frames of different sizes arranged organically, covering a wall densely. This is the maximalist, collected-over-time look. It requires more planning than it appears — the key is to anchor the arrangement with your largest piece at or near the centre, then build outward, balancing visual weight across the arrangement. Mix portrait and landscape orientations freely.
The Horizontal Line Prints arranged in a single horizontal row, centres aligned, at a consistent height. Works beautifully above a sofa, sideboard, or along a hallway wall. Usually three to five prints. Simple, clean, effective.
The Asymmetric Cluster A loose, slightly off-centre grouping — usually five to nine pieces — that feels relaxed and editorial. The key distinction from the salon style is that an asymmetric cluster leaves more breathing room between frames (typically 8–12cm) and uses fewer, larger pieces rather than many small ones.
Which layout is right for you?
| Interior Style | Recommended Layout |
|---|---|
| Contemporary / Scandi | Grid or horizontal line |
| Eclectic / bohemian | Salon style or asymmetric cluster |
| Classic / traditional | Salon style with matching frame colours |
| Minimalist | Horizontal line or small asymmetric cluster |
| Transitional (mix of styles) | Asymmetric cluster |
Step 3: Choose Your Frames
This is where most gallery walls go wrong. People mix frames without a unifying principle, and the result looks like the frames came from five different houses.
You have two approaches. Both work. The third option (no system at all) does not.
Option A: Match the frames completely. All the same frame colour, same profile width, different sizes. This is the most cohesive look and the easiest to execute. A family of thin black frames, or thin natural wood, or thin white — you can mix print sizes freely because the frame itself provides unity. This approach is especially good for grid layouts.
Option B: Mix frames with intention. You can mix frame colours and styles — but they need a shared characteristic. The most common combination is black and natural wood (both are neutral and share an earthy, unfussy quality). Or all metallic (gold, brass, silver — cohesive because they share a finish quality). What does not work: mixing painted wood (white), dark wood, black, gold, and silver all in the same arrangement. That is not curated mixing — that is just random.
Profile width matters too. Thin frames (1–2cm wide) feel modern and graphic. Wider frames (3cm+) feel more traditional and give each print more presence. Be consistent within your gallery wall — do not mix very thin and very thick frames side by side.
Step 4: Curate Your Prints for Colour Cohesion
The art itself needs to feel like a collection, not a coincidence. This does not mean every print has to be the same style or the same subject — variety is part of what makes a gallery wall interesting. But there needs to be a connecting thread.
The easiest connecting thread: a shared colour palette.
Pick two or three colours that appear across your prints. They do not have to be identical, but they should be harmonious. A gallery wall anchored in sage green, warm white, and terracotta will feel cohesive even if the prints include a botanical study, an abstract wash, and a line drawing — because the eye reads the palette first.
A practical approach:
- Start with your largest, most important print — the one you love most and are least willing to compromise on.
- Identify the two or three dominant colours in that print.
- Build the rest of your collection around prints that echo or complement those colours.
For abstract and tonal work, browse the Abstract Art collection. For cohesive botanical sets, the Botanical Art collection offers a range of prints that work beautifully together. The Aura Art collection is particularly well-suited to gallery walls — the dreamy, diffused palette holds a group of prints together with very little effort.
Style variety within cohesion: A gallery wall that mixes a photograph, an abstract print, and a botanical illustration can feel wonderfully curated — provided the palette connects them. What the eye registers first is colour. Style, scale, and subject all come second.
Step 5: Plan on Paper (or the Floor) Before You Touch the Wall
This is the step most people skip. It is also the most important.
The floor method: Lay all your frames face-down on the floor in the rough shape of your planned arrangement. This lets you see actual proportions, actual spacing, and actual visual balance without committing anything to the wall. Adjust until it looks right. Take a photo with your phone — this becomes your reference when you are on the ladder.
The paper template method: Trace each frame onto paper, cut out the templates, and tape them to the wall with painter's tape. This is more work upfront but gives you a true-to-scale preview on the actual wall. You can see whether the arrangement is too heavy on the left, whether a piece needs to go higher, and whether the overall shape reads as intentional.
Both methods will reveal problems that would otherwise only be visible after the nails are in. Take the extra hour. It is always worth it.
Step 6: Establish the Anchor Point and Work Outward
When you are ready to hang, do not start at the edge. Start at the centre.
Identify the visual centre of your arrangement — usually the largest piece, or the point of symmetry in a grid layout. This is your anchor point. Hang this first. Everything else is positioned relative to it.
Working outward from the centre means:
- Errors in positioning become smaller as you move out (not larger, which happens if you start at an edge)
- The arrangement naturally balances around a defined focal point
- It is easier to keep the overall arrangement centred on the wall
Spacing: Be consistent. Decide on your gap width (5–8cm for a neat, contemporary look; 8–12cm for a more relaxed feel) and stick to it throughout. Inconsistent spacing is what makes a gallery wall look accidental rather than designed.
Step 7: Get the Heights Right
The golden rule for gallery walls: the centre of the entire arrangement should sit at approximately 145–150cm from the floor. This is standard eye level, and it is where the arrangement feels most naturally placed.
When hanging above furniture, maintain a gap of 20–25cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom frame in your arrangement.
A common mistake: starting the arrangement too high. When individual pieces are hung at a comfortable height but the overall arrangement climbs too far up the wall, it detaches visually from the furniture and feels like it is floating rather than relating to the room.
Mark your centre-height line on the wall with painter's tape before you start. Hang relative to this line, not relative to gut feeling.
Step 8: The Finishing Details That Make the Difference
Once everything is hung, step back and assess.
Lighting: A gallery wall with directional lighting — a single picture light, a wall-mounted spot, or uplighting from a floor lamp — looks significantly more intentional than one in flat ambient light. Shadows from angled light add depth and make each piece feel considered.
Consistency of glass or no glass: Decide upfront whether you are framing prints under glass (or acrylic) or leaving them without. Mixing glazed and unglazed frames in the same arrangement creates an inconsistency that is hard to articulate but easy to feel. Stick to one approach throughout.
Horizontal levelling: Every single frame must be perfectly level. A slightly tilted frame in a gallery wall reads immediately. Use a spirit level or a good phone levelling app on every piece, not just the large ones.
Gallery Wall Shopping Checklist
Before you buy anything, answer these questions:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What wall, and what are the dimensions? | Sets the scale of the entire project |
| What is my layout template? | Grid / salon / horizontal / cluster |
| What is my frame approach? | Matching or intentionally mixed |
| What are my two or three anchor colours? | Ensures colour cohesion across prints |
| What is my largest anchor print? | This determines what everything else works around |
| What gap width will I use between frames? | Consistency makes the arrangement feel designed |
Where to Start Browsing
For gallery walls, it helps to start with a collection rather than individual prints. Collections are curated to work together — the palette, style, and scale have already been considered as a group.
The Best Sellers collection is a good starting point for a first gallery wall — these are the prints that customers most often buy in multiples. The Aura Art collection and Abstract Art collection both lend themselves naturally to the asymmetric cluster and salon-style layouts.
For more help deciding what art will work in your space, the how to choose wall art guide covers the fundamentals.
A gallery wall is not a project you finish in one sitting. The best ones are built over time, with each piece chosen carefully rather than all at once. Start with three pieces arranged well, and add when you find something that genuinely belongs.
Browse our best sellers to find prints that work for your walls.