A gallery wall is not a lot of pictures on a wall. It is one shape made of pictures, hung so the eye takes it in as a group. The shape is what you decide first; the pictures come second. Four shapes cover almost every wall.
The grid
Identical frames in rows and columns, with identical spacing. Two by three, three by three, two rows of four. It is the calmest layout, it suits a set (six photographs from one trip, a series of prints in one style), and it is unforgiving: one frame a centimetre off shows. Use one frame size and a laser level, and treat the whole grid as a single picture when you apply the centre and furniture rules from our hanging guide.
The salon hang
Mixed sizes, mixed frames, filling a wall edge to edge. It is the layout on this site’s homepage. The trick that keeps it from looking like a jumble is an invisible line: either a horizontal line that runs through the middle of every frame, or a bottom edge that every frame in the lowest row sits on. Start with the largest piece slightly off centre, put the second largest diagonally opposite, and fill in with the small ones. Keep the gaps equal.
The row
Three, four or five pieces in a single line, same height, above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard. The row can be identical frames or mixed sizes aligned along the centre line. It is the easiest layout to get right and the best answer for a long low piece of furniture. Odd numbers look more settled than even.
The column and the stairs
A narrow wall between doors or windows takes a vertical column of two or three. A staircase takes a stepped row that follows the angle of the stairs: hang each picture so its centre sits at the same height above the tread below it, and the group climbs with you.
Spacing: 5 to 8 cm, always
Whatever the layout, the gap between frames is 5 to 8 cm, and it is the same gap everywhere. Closer than 5 cm and the frames fight; wider than 8 and the group falls apart into separate pictures. Small frames can sit at 5, large frames at 8. Measure it with a block of wood cut to the gap, not by eye.
Frames and mats
Mixed frames work when they share one thing: all black, all wood, or all with white mats. A wall of entirely different frames works if the mats are all the same white and the same width, because the mats become the unifying element. Buying frames in one size range from one shop is the cheapest way to get a wall that looks planned, and the poster and frame retailers on this site sell the standard sizes that make the grid and the row easy.
Lay it out on the floor
Arrange the frames on the floor in the shape of the wall, in the layout you want, with the gaps measured. Photograph it from above. Then cut paper templates the size of each frame, tape them to the wall in the same arrangement, and look at it for a day. Adjust on paper, not in plaster. When it is right, mark the hook position through each template, take the paper down and hang. Picture rails make this reversible; if you have one, you can skip the templates and simply move the cords.
What goes on the wall
A gallery wall that mixes photographs, prints, a small painting and something flat but not a picture, a letter, a pressed leaf, a menu, looks lived in. One that is all the same kind of print looks like a shop. The homepage walls on this site are built the first way on purpose: a few things that belong together, not a set that matches.