How to plan and create a gallery wall

I've done a few gallery walls between our last home and this home. My favorite is galleries with photographs! Here is the process I go through when creating any type of gallery wall.

1. Design with paper: First create your gallery wall using regular paper the sizes of frames you want (or think you want) and tape them up on the wall using painters tape. I tape multiple pieces of paper together to achieve the right size if needed. Then it is easy to rearrange them until they look like you want. Look at it for a few days or a week and keep tweaking if you want. Note: if you don't have all your frames yet add at least 2 inches to the length and width of the photograph/picture size when you cut out a paper. So for an 8x10 you would use a 10x12 paper or larger. I prefer smaller frames for the most part. This also works for plates, mirrors or any other objects in a gallery wall. Just cut paper the same size.

Also don't be like me and leave the white paper up for 6+ months so that you start thinking it looks totally normal to have paper on your wall. 

2. Vision with frames: Gather your frames and arrange on the floor in mimicking your wall placement to make sure you still like the look. I didn't have all my photos printed yet at this point especially because I knew I wanted a few from Dexter's newborn photo shoot but having the frame sizes picked actually helped me pick out ones from his session that I wanted in this gallery wall.

3. Measure hanging placement: Measure on the back of each of your frames how far down from the top of the frame the screw needs to be for hanging it. Then make a mark on your papers on the wall to correspond to this measurement. You can put the screw in right through the paper and then tear the paper away after so you are sure to get it in the right spot. Note: the nice thing about a gallery wall like this is that if you are off by a little bit it doesn't matter since nothing has to be lined up just perfect

4. Place on the wall: Hang your frames on the screws you put in the wall.

Here is the finished product once I had all the photos printed for it and the printable I made printed out at kinkos.

In case you are interested in what sizes the photos are, here is a guide.

1. 8x10 landscape
2. 11x14 portrait (photo by Brittany Lauren Photography)
3. 5x7 landscape
4. 8x10 portrait (photo by Brittany Lauren Photography)
5. 8x10 portrait (photo by Brittany Lauren Photography)
6. 8x10 landscape
7. 5x7 portrait (printable I made that says "find joy in the journey")
8. 5x7 portrait
9. 11x14 landscape (photo by Brittany Lauren Photography)

I really like how this gallery wall in our family room turned out. I may tweak it over time if I get a new photo that I really want up there. If I do, I think I would move frame #1 up higher and fit another frame in below it, probably a 5x7 size.

Hope this helps you create beautiful gallery walls in your home!