I once saw this post where this girl found her dad's old engineering notes, and they were so pretty in great handwriting and diagrams so she put them in 4 frames and put them on a wall and I think that made such an awesome wall
I know many of you have struggled with gallery walls, so I hope this video helps! Also, happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian folks! (yes it's earlier than American Thanksgiving...) 🦃🇨🇦
I move in my new condo 1 year ago and didn’t do my galerie wall in the living room...why?....I have the pieces...just needed your video to kick me in the B...ha ha ha ! Thanks
I am considering a gallery wall for above my home office space and been collecting some cool postcards from every place I travel to. But I am afraid since they are all from different colors they may be too funky!
@@SensiblyTina ^^^^^^^ YES!!!!!!! Same in my house. I had a contractor almost refuse to do a front porch enclosure for me because I have a mosaic Welcome sign done on mannequin legs. And when he came inside and saw more mannequins done in glass he got all prissy on me like I was heathen. Hahahaha Life can be fun even in these crazy days. Keep it that way. And I too pray every time I hear a siren for not only the possible person injured but for the deputies safety in handling whatever problem they come upon. Tina I wish we were neighbors.
I've learnt that I'm very sentimental with items in my home and i like to have a connection or a story connected. Gallery walls of generic or art thats just up to fill a space doesn't speak to me at all. I'd rather an empty wall before a crowded wall of stuff. To me, it another extension of comodification.
Thanks for this informative video. One more tip... When placing all the paper cutouts on the wall to visualize all the art, carefully measure where the hanging hardware will go first, and nail them into the wall through the papers. That way you can tear off the papers and hang the art in the exact space the first time, without making additional holes, and messing up your wall. 🤔🤗
I haven't hung my gallery wall, but I measured the space and all my art pieces, created an Excel spreadsheet where 1 box = 1 inch, and then made boxes the size of the art and moved then around until they looked good. Now I just have to stop being scared and put it up lol.
Most people seem to have no concept about scale when it comes to hanging art or photographs. This is never more obvious than when looking at homes for sale online.
Ha-ha! You remind me of ads for art back in the late 70's and early 80's that offered "sofa-sized paintings". That's one way to get the scale right but fail miserably on the art itself, which was horrible.
I've been searching for a house online, and it seems to be popular now to actually stencil word art all over the walls of your house. At odd heights. With cringe-worthy sayings. I always think "that's gonna take a few coats of primer to cover it up". Ugh.
Nick, I am a professional carpenter that has had many occasions now to hang pictures for clients. Of course the technical skills of aligning many objects of differing dimensions according to eye level or sometimes top or bottom alignment of frames is within my skillset. What I appreciated so much about your video is on the composition of walls which is purely aesthetic and artistic. Many clients don't know how to express their ideas and may need help with their composition which can be very personal and subjective. As I said, I am a technical person and sometimes this creates a disconnect between what the clients want and what information I need to implement their vision. Your video gave me many tools and discussion points to bring up with potential clients in order to satisfy their gallery wall desires. Thank you for your exceptionally well-spoken and detailed presentation.
My favorite gallery wall that I’ve ever seen was a bunch of different old black and white photos of different shapes and sizes. All pictures of different people and places. I asked him who they were and he said “I have no idea, I bought them all at thrift stores because I liked the frames” 😂 This guys just had bunch of photos of other people’s family and it was amazing *chefs kiss*
Well we talk about we are all brothers and sisters in this world and one way or another. So I think that is a great idea. Plus being funky it's just a great idea. It's like when you go into some restaurants like Chuy's. And it has all these photos of Hispanic people in these frames and of course you don't know any of them. But the photographs are so striking and beautiful. Way to go
My favorite gallery wall belongs to my SiL.. its a mix of cross stitch, needle point, and embroidery pieces she thrifted from barn sales and yard sales over the years with a few pieces mixed in made by my mom back in the 70s, and some skulls. It's super eclectic, but it works! I'm currently curating a gallery wall of my own that will be all art made by myself or family & friends. It'll be on the wall in my office so the whole point is about it being what brings me joy, a sense of calm, and makes me feel loved. Oh! Another favorite gallery wall of mine is at my extended family's cabin. It was built in the 1800s and every generation of the 3 families who have owned the property have added to it. The cabin is remote and its hard and expensive to bring new stuff/update stuff... so the cabin has items that belonged to the original family that built it and every generation/family since including things like life jackets, kitchenware, bed linens, furniture, board games & puzzles, etc but my favorite is most definitely the family picture gallery wall in the upstairs hallway. All of them are dated with and labeled with who is in the photo. It's a time capsule for the property. My extended family had the place corn blasted and the logs resealed to restore the place, but they put the gallery wall back, exactly as it was and have only added to it. The cabin will be passed to their boys and eventually their grandchildren so I imagine the gallery wall is safe for another 100yrs at least.
Dishonorable mention to those peel and stick wall decals that look like a Family Tree or Disneyland Castle with open spots for 5x7” frames. They’re a little too “live laugh love” for me 😅
Hey Nick! You should consider a video series where your viewers send you pics/videos of their own homes and you rate our interior design skills, give us pointers, maybe even do a little light roasting. I'm really proud of my new space and I think you'd like it!
The problem is that a lof of your interior design depends on your funds. You can be super rich and have no taste, sure. But if you do have a taste, it's so much easier to create sth beauthiful with a lot of money. I'm also proud of my new space, but in some places I had to go for a compromise. E.g. if I wanted to spend more, I would have the kitchen, hallway furniture and wardrobes custom-made. It would definitely look better. Why I'm saying that is: although I love your idea, I think it can be difficult to deliver value with such an assessment without knowing what funds/ stores sb has access to.
I would love this!! I finally invested in some decorations for my home office which initially consisted of only white walls (the horror). Now they are bold with personality, but I want to see what Nick thinks of them!
Great tips, thank you! I completely agree about not using generic art. I have a gallery wall in my home office where every piece was purchased directly from an artist I love through Etsy, or their own artist website... places like that. And the wall makes me happy when I look at it because I love every piece and I know I supported independent artists in the process.
I did an entire gallery staircase but only of gold mirrors (different sizes and shapes) and it looks spectacular! Everyone is obsessed. It was insanely expensive because I used antique and vintage mirrors.
I personally love the eclectic style of finding new pieces and sticking them wherever you want. I don't know what this says about me... but I actually loved the examples you showed at 1:27, 1:34. 3:01 wouldn't be my cup of tea, but I still appreciate whoever did it for their individualism.
The other thing is, I think they DID plan that gallery wall out some. The colors in the images DO go together if you look closely. Plus, I actually liked their kitchen area too.
I think your comments about MOOD of the space is super important. Let's be brutally frank for a minute: if your gallery wall is 12 photographs of your most beloved family members who have died? The mood is not going to be right for a cheerful yellow breakfast nook! If a young person in your family has disclosed to you that Grandpa Sylvester abused her as a child? Don't expect her to sleep in a guest bedroom with a gallery wall that heavily features Grandpa Sylvester! I love the idea of paintings, framed art prints, mirrors, and small shelves of objets d'art on a gallery wall, but family photos can be tricky. Think it through!
I have two gallery walls in my house. One is our “travel wall” going up our stairs. It’s all photos or small paintings from places we’ve been. No matching frames, mattes etc.and very random. We love it. The other one is in our den and it’s all wildlife photos or paintings. Love that one too.
Before I moved into my first apartment with my now ex boyfriend I made pieces for a gallery wall in the kitchen. I got an old cookbook and cut out pictures of food and recipes. Found 6 or 7 small and medium frames that were wood or gold (all used). It was so fun to make and looked so cute.
The first time I did a gallery wall, I found it useful to start with a large imaginary rectangle and hang everything within it. The tops of the frames are in line, continue down the sides, then get to arranging the space between items. I don’t strictly adhere to that, but it was a good place to start. Before I stumbled upon that tip, nothing was getting hung!
Here's one tip I once read about gallery walls that I thought was very useful and that I successfully implemented myself, back when I had wall space for this kind of things: using lines and their intersections to organise the different elements of the gallery. You can for example make a cross with a long vertical line and a long horizontal one where the intersection is the centre of the gallery wall and every element is placed from the centre to the borders in the 4 spaces that the lines have created. Or have that centre of "gravity" be a top corner of the wall (which I did and it looked surprisingly great without much effort). Or have one long horizontal line at the top of wall and the elements go downwards from there. And so on. Thinking of it in terms of lines / centres of gravity makes the whole process easier and helps keep a good balance.
I love framed album covers. I did this in one of my children’s rooms. My mom sent me old kids albums I loved from my childhood. They were well worn and scratched so not the best for actually playing. I purchased simple frames from Ikea and hung them up. Not only do all of my kids absolutely love them, they make me smile every time I see them. Vintage albums in simple frames make symmetry a breeze. We have other albums up as well in other areas. Most signed by the artist. As music lovers it works perfectly for us mixed with unique pieces of art and photography. I take forever to decorate but it’s only because I want to make it personal and unique to our family. Plus I always have the internal battle between wanting symmetry with wanting something more eclectic. I have been planning out a gallery wall for family photographs and I am so grateful Nick released this video. I was hoping he would toss a bit of his knowledge our way. I know what I want but I also know how easy it is to mess it up. His advice was so helpful. I finally feel like I can proceed.
I just helped my son hang an arrangement of old album covers in his new apartment. The eclectic mix of musical artists and the graphic art specifically done for their albums make for a striking display!
I have a vertical simply framed mirror (about 22"x50") over a sideboard with varying sized/shaped pictures arranged quasi-symmetrically on each side and a carved horizontal panel centered above the mirror. It works well - has a symmetry without being overly controlled looking.
Thanks! Also consider the glass used in these frames. there is the option of using glass that is less reflective. That will make your art be more clearly visible, especially when your gallery wall is near a bright window. It is more expensive, but totally worth it.
The reminder about considering mood and relation to other elements in the room is invaluable. I've had success in creating gallery walls and now I know why!
Love the way Nick illustrates the point he's making as in a visual clue - this is good; this, not so much ✅❌ It's really helpful. I personally am so over a gallery wall, I find them too busy and do you really look at each item properly ever? In lots of cases, I think choose one, maybe two items, place them beautifully to relate to a piece of furniture or the layout of the room and it will have much more impact. Less is more sometimes, right? And Nick's point about make it personal is key.
Your advice is spot on and helps this novice to avoid making disastrous mistakes because decorating doesn't come naturally to me. Your candor, your frankness is refreshing. A person that is confident in what they advise does not need to mince words. Besides all of that you are very handsome. Thank you.
You are the definitive voice of reason for the design community! Thank you for what you do, it really helps. Also, that photo example of framed album art gave me a fantastic idea on how to bring my husband into the design choices so it can be for the both of us! He doesn't care about design, but he's VERY passionate about music. Thank you a million times! 💓
I'm finally creating one. We live in a small house so I'm going to collect everything from the walls from the rest of the house and make one wall. It's a part of the decluttering of our house. 😍
I think you have to ask yourself "what story does this wall tell?" A bunch of squiggly lines framed on a wall in the latest trendy color might look really professional and grown-up but it says nothing. Sure, those individual pieces might be really artsy but then they would be better on their own, spread around the house. It's much more meaningful if the wall tells the story or the interests of the inhabitant's life. Pictures of all the places you went to, maybe a sunset wall with sunsets of all the places you traveled to, your own art if that's something you make, pictures of all the dogs you've had, pictures of your kids growing up, or all the crazy adventures you have been on. A lot of the gallery walls you see in retail catalogs or Pinterest look good in terms of colors and design but if you copy that at home, it's going to make your life seem empty.
We have a fairly small, but well lit corridor upstairs going from bathroom to master bed and kids' room. Nothing in it, but wood flooring and white walls, so I painted a light grey rectangle on one of walls (painted about 30 cm from bottom, ceiling and sides) and within it I placed different sized white frames with my kids' drawings. It came together nicely, had designated area, made my kids proud to have their work displayed and puts a smile on my face as I walk past. It is not a gallery wall for guests, but for us.
I finally put up a gallery wall of my own paintings. I love the more formal look, so I used the same frames and mats and spaced everything exactly 4 inches from each other on the tops, bottoms, and sides. I had a nice large wall to work with. I used a long level, a t-square and a chalk pencil to map everything out.
We moved into a new house about 4 years ago and the front room has really high ceilings. I did a gallery wall on the large wall over the piano and I love it!!! I did plan it out before putting it up. It came together great! I have gotten so nice compliments and they are all personal pieces of art. They all have a story to go with them. And each of my kids have some framed art too 🤗. The 4 years we have been in the house I have never grown tired of it.
Love the idea of marking the shapes on the wall before final hanging. As an artist, I constantly have to apply editing and your tips just made it all easier. Thank you!!
I helped my parents redecorate their house and did a gallery wall in the living room. Most of the frames are 5 by 7 rectangles, but they are different colors (but tie into the living room colors). Also, the photos is a family tree. Grandma and grandpa at the top, a photo of the extended family. Then my immediate family, then their families. It looks good
Oh my lord, YES! Thank you for this video...those cluttered photo collections covering a wall drive me nuts. Scale, composition and variation are everything. FANTASTIC video ❤️
I have a gallery wall in a corner behind my grand piano. It gives it such a "salon" look. Many of my pieces were collected from thrift shops, which I highly recommend if you are willing to be patient.
My favorite piece is a framed print I bought at a thrift store. It's beautiful & I love it so much! Every time I look at it I feel so happy, and I can't explain why lol.
Hi Nick. You are the best at explaining design principles. I've learned so much from you and appreciate your no nonsense delivery and your sense of humour. Would love to see you take viewers' photos of their spaces and offer suggestions on how to improve them. I think we could all learn from this process. Excellent channel.
I prefer one beautiful image - or maybe 3, lined up and similar in size - to a gallery wall. I just find it more peaceful to look at one image at a time. But also, I can see how difficult gallery walls are to do well and how they would appeal to many people. Your guidance is helpful for anyone who is planning such a wall.
Whew! Sigh of relief, I think I've done pretty well, based on these guidelines! I feel like I am fairly skilled at creating gallery walls now, I've done many, and at least in my opinion, they look very nice. I seem to have a knack for choosing the right pieces and arranging them well. I also like to lay out everything on the floor to get a visual of how the actual pieces will look in the arrangement I have in mind. Then use the pieces of brown paper taped on the wall to get the alignment correct, and you can put your hangers, nails, or whatever over the paper and tear the paper away when you are done for easy hanging!
I am SO excited for this video!!! It’s already been saved onto my “how to” list!!! I have been struggling for almost 2 years on how to layout a gallery wall. The template cutouts is a brilliant idea that I need to use!!! Thank you so much Nick!!!! This is amazing!!!!
Nick, I am perched on the edge of an almost complete gutting of my little townhouse. I have seen some of the other completed townhouses here and after watching many of your videos, I don’t think I want to put anything on them! New drapes, proper lighting, going to be protective of those clean walls!
Lol I clicked on the video because I love the "don't" option in the thumbnail, I think the super cluttered look is so fun and unique. But these were actually really great tips
Perfect timing! I’ve been repurposing frames for old family pictures. We formed a Facebook group and invited all the relatives we could find so we could share old photos. I now have beautiful family pictures from the 1800’s on up. The only changes I made to them was the I printed most in sepia tones since that was what many of them were anyway. I have dozens framed but haven’t worked up the courage to start hanging yet.
Been watching your videos and I love love love your focus on real-life design. Chairs need to be functional, real people need storage, etc. And I love how you discuss how to take those real-life needs and make them beautiful through design. Thank you! :)
Thanks for this video! I’m curating some great pieces to hopefully make a gallery wall but choosing frames & arranging them leaves so much room for error. This was very helpful.
I usually don’t like the dark wall thing but the one in your dining area works. I like how it contrasts with the kitchen giving it a real sense of separation and the way it looks from the white-walled sitting room. It also looks like it’s in a corner giving your eating area a sense of intimacy. The color and glow of the ceiling fixture warms up the space and plays nicely against the warm kitchen cabinetry and the warm woods in the living room. 👍🏾
Not a fan in general. I prefer a larger statement piece. I have seen some gallery walls that really work, but I still default to a single piece. The most I will go to is a multi-piece artwork, like a triptych. But this is just me :)
I agree, it’s a trend for a while. Planing to design your home should not be following a trend. Rather think about something timeless. For me it’s a oil paintings.
Oof disagree totally, gallery walls aren’t new, and that tri art thing I do not like at all. Not a trend, you either have an eye for it or you don’t. All cool either way. I love the interest it brings.
Super timely! I'm about to work on our interior decor (I guess you could call it a "gallery" wall) in our new home, and I am suuuuuper happy to avoid some of the mistakes you've mentioned!!!
When in a college apt- 4 boys 2 bedrooms (cheap and crowded), my son and his roomies bought every homely, framed family photos from thrift stores they could find and made an entire gallery of their "family" photos. Oddly enough, it looked great with all the buck toothed aunties and plump guys in fedoras. They had carefully planned the space. Your point worked even with those images.
I have several linen tea towels from museums featuring famous cat art and several Toulouse Lautrec famous pieces also in linen tea towel form. I thumb tag them on the wall to be my gallery wall.
I have a small home with 8 foot tall walls with a heat vent on most walls so I prefer one large piece or more often I prefer a blank wall over the cluttered feel of a gallery wall that IMO would not work for me. I agree most people have no good sense of scale or space. If I had a nickel for every room I've seen with art above a sofa starting about 4 feet above the sofa......ugh! Yes! Consider the whole wall not just the individual pieces. And I agree with the tip about making your wall personal and not just printing off the latest online art. Great tips!
Our house (1870, Germany) has 6.5 foot walls with exposed dark beams making it look even smaller. As nice as it is to clean cobwebs, most of our walls are blank because it would be even more cramped with art.
We have a gallery wall that goes up our stairs that is a collection of family photos through the years. My husband took the time to measure everything and I love the way it turned out. Not too busy but not too bare. We used the same size frames from our wedding as our "baseline" and then expanded out from there with different sizes, textures, and layouts. We planned it out with newspaper stencils of the frames before we hung a single nail.
My partner insists on keeping his framed degree displayed. It was there when I moved in, lol. The wall it's on is perfect for a small gallery wall. He really wants to keep the degree up there. These tips have given me some ideas on how to incorporate and connect this to other art pieces. Well...I hope 😬
I wish I had discovered this video earlier since I have been putting off my gallery wall for 2 years due to lack of confidence in how to do it. I am now truly inspired to act. I can do this!
@@sarahm1447 if anyone walked into your house and started pulling your pictures off your wall in disgust: they are really no friend of yours! Go for it I say- it’s your house and your life. I’m kind of curious now!
Excellent advice, but I'm thinking the element of instinct re gallery walls is more important than rules - like so much visual composition, you either have an eye for it or you don't.
That's what I was thinking. Nick said, "Don't just wing it," but the most successful gallery walls have been made by people who DID just wing it. However, they had a knack for design and those principles were subconsciously being implemented.
Yes, this! If you have items you love and want to display just go for it. These videos seem to get a lot of responses about wanting to but being afraid. Of what? Of the judgey people you think you're decorating for? Of not being perfect? Because if it's personal there's no fear.
Great timing for this video! I’ve just spent an hour planning out my gallery wall for a wall in my new flat. I’m only guilty of one of the “don’ts”; I’m using mostly generic art. 😆 However, I’ve chosen each print carefully to work well together and with my colour scheme, as well as my personality, and I’ve stayed far away from anything I’ve seen elsewhere a million times. In the future I would love to incorporate some more personal pieces. For now I only have 3 “original” pieces out of 13 total (it’s a BIG wall). Ah well, I love every single piece and in the end that’s what matters most. Thanks for another great video! ☺️
Wow!! I finished scaling my wall with brown tape and my eye kept helping me to change things to give good space while focusing on a balance of the whole wall. I did this not knowing I would see this video. I went with my gut and if it did not feel right, I changed things. It is not too high and reasonably pleasing to the eye. I have poster frames where I can update the wall by changing the art. I have macrame with wooden framed quotes and added small floating shelves as fillers, etc etc. I do not have everything up but have the tape holding the spaces.. as I find the right pieces. Looking forward to your bo ho video.
I’m now dismally worried that I lack an aesthetic sense. There were several walls that when they appeared on screen I thought “Well, Nick’s going to criticise *that* one!”.However then he’d laud it as a good example. Oh well, I will just have to keep learning…thank you Nick for commencing my education. I’ve saved the vid as a reference
I love Art on my walls and I worked for years as a carpenter in a museum. I created some geometrical rules for me, when it comes to positioning, especially distance between pieces. For example: I want the whole composition follow an imaginary line that corelates to the furniture beneath it. I take two vertical and a horizontal piece. Hang the first vertical piece, take the upper right corner and use that hight as the hight of the lower left corner of the vertical frame. The upper right corner of the vertical piece is the hight of the lower left corner of the second vertical frame. Distance the pieces as far away from each other that this isnt too obvious, but the eyes can still make the connection. Then „blur“ that line with smaller pictures around that main line and losely try to follow the rule of thirds for distance here. Works even better, when you consider colour grading for accents. Bonus points, if you integrate the colour and shape of the frames in this concept. I went so far as taking closeness of the theme of the pictures in relation to the theme of the wall into consideration, but thats some overly autistic shit.
Thanks for the tutorial. Curating the art in my home is always a challenge. Happy thanksgiving-I hope you’re eating delicious food with people you love.
This is so timely and helpful! I am curating family photos for a gallery wall and never thought about texture. I will now add a rosemailed plate made for my inlaws to celebrate their anniversary, made in Norway by a family member and maybe a few other treasures that tell our story. I really hadn't considered anything other than family photos until I watched this video.
“It just looks plain and boring because that’s what it is, just plain and boring.” Hahaha I always press the Like button before I even start watching because your vids are guaranteed to be informative, instructive and just entertaining!! ❤️❤️❤️
I have a huge collection of original screen prints and paintings from other artists, as well as myself, that I dream of putting into a gallery wall, but I've always been so nervous about doing such because of how many poorly executed gallery walls I've seen. This video was really helpful in getting past that fear, though! You had some really great tips!
You said "don't use generic art" but then a lot of the "do" walls had art that looked incredibly bland and generic 😅 For example in the wall in the room with the piano and brass lamp, most of the prints look incredibly bland. One is literally 3 blobs of grey, framed. I'm guessing it was a catalogue photo?
I just found you, Nick, and I think it was a greater power who did that. I need about every bit of advice you give! I’ve been wanting to do something with some vintage postcards from my small town (black and white, 1900 era) and this collage concept has me interested. I’m always worried that a collage won’t stay perfectly even and will start to look sloppy when one frame tilts a bit.
Hi Nick, I really appreciate the helpful tips. I have inherited many of my mother's paintings and tile as well as many very old family photos that hung so beautifully in my family home. Our family home was much larger with ample wall space to do everything justice. My Palm Desert home doesn't have nearly the wall space necessary however, I do have vaulted ceilings. The conundrum is how not to overcrowd, not to hang too high, and not to hang these cherished items too close together, etc. Oh, how I wish you could pop in to lend a hand! 🙏 Overwhelmed!
100% SO important to consider the pieces as one large work! The spaces between the works is key to consider, but remember that this is also it's own work and we need to think about the relationship between the artworks in terms of their meaning, and their spacial connections!
I have two gallery walls and I love them. I like the look of a big piece in the middle with smaller ones around. And I like doing that central frame with a colored frame and then all the rest black. The focal point in the gallery wall feels nice to me.
This was super helpful. I’ve had all of the pieces I want to hang for like a year at this point, but they’re still all on the floor, leaning against the wall. Maybe now I’ll actually get them up on the wall.
So helpful, thank you! I also really appreciate how you curate your recommendations to more of your own videos, for those of us wanting to learn more in a particular vein.
Can you please do a video of different ways to display family photos while still keeping a modern non suburban mom vibe? Also a video about how to bring your home design come together - is it a faux pas to have a different theme for each room etc?
Thanks for sharing your views on how to setup a gallery tastefully.🤗 I love putting up photos of my kids, their weddings,my grandchildren and deceased great grandparents and great great grandparents😍🥰❤. Its my favourite spot in the 2nd lounge...I can sit there watch TV and gaze up at family and get joy and comfort from it. My husband hates it. Calls it my creepy place. Luckily he has his own lounge room or should say theatre room and has his creepy truck, 4WD and western memorabilia displayed untastefully in there to my thinking. So what I am saying is everyone to their own. I've shown him your ideas and guidelines and super surprisingly his gallery display has been tweaked and updated and looks almost as good as mine! Now its a work of art not a mess of junk.
Thanks for the tips! I wanted to use my own art and turn my hallway into a sort of gallery space, so this video was helpful and gives me things to think about while I decide what I want to showcase from my work.
I once saw this post where this girl found her dad's old engineering notes, and they were so pretty in great handwriting and diagrams so she put them in 4 frames and put them on a wall and I think that made such an awesome wall
I’m going to make a gallery wall that’s made up exclusively of “Live Laugh Love” art.
That would make me die, cry, and hate
😁😁😁
In a hundred years that's gonna be a thing. "Look honey, I found ANOTHER Live Laugh Love -picture at the thrift store! Isn't that the darndest thing?"
Thanks, satan
😆
I know many of you have struggled with gallery walls, so I hope this video helps! Also, happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian folks! (yes it's earlier than American Thanksgiving...) 🦃🇨🇦
I move in my new condo 1 year ago and didn’t do my galerie wall in the living room...why?....I have the pieces...just needed your video to kick me in the B...ha ha ha ! Thanks
I am considering a gallery wall for above my home office space and been collecting some cool postcards from every place I travel to. But I am afraid since they are all from different colors they may be too funky!
Happy Thanksgiving Canada!
@@SensiblyTina ^^^^^^^ YES!!!!!!! Same in my house. I had a contractor almost refuse to do a front porch enclosure for me because I have a mosaic Welcome sign done on mannequin legs. And when he came inside and saw more mannequins done in glass he got all prissy on me like I was heathen. Hahahaha Life can be fun even in these crazy days. Keep it that way. And I too pray every time I hear a siren for not only the possible person injured but for the deputies safety in handling whatever problem they come upon. Tina I wish we were neighbors.
Wait, are you Canadian too? ❤
I've learnt that I'm very sentimental with items in my home and i like to have a connection or a story connected. Gallery walls of generic or art thats just up to fill a space doesn't speak to me at all. I'd rather an empty wall before a crowded wall of stuff. To me, it another extension of comodification.
Thanks for this informative video.
One more tip...
When placing all the paper cutouts on the wall to visualize all the art, carefully measure where the hanging hardware will go first, and nail them into the wall through the papers. That way you can tear off the papers and hang the art in the exact space the first time, without making additional holes, and messing up your wall.
🤔🤗
Omg! Great idea!!
I haven't hung my gallery wall, but I measured the space and all my art pieces, created an Excel spreadsheet where 1 box = 1 inch, and then made boxes the size of the art and moved then around until they looked good. Now I just have to stop being scared and put it up lol.
Go for it! I admire your preparation!
That's a smart way to plan!
Haha im exactly in the same place. Good to know im not the only one
That is genius!!
I feel you! Have you done it? It’s taken multiple years for some of my ideas to get implemented 🙁
Most people seem to have no concept about scale when it comes to hanging art or photographs. This is never more obvious than when looking at homes for sale online.
Very true! It seems to really trip people up.
Ha-ha! You remind me of ads for art back in the late 70's and early 80's that offered "sofa-sized paintings". That's one way to get the scale right but fail miserably on the art itself, which was horrible.
I've been searching for a house online, and it seems to be popular now to actually stencil word art all over the walls of your house. At odd heights.
With cringe-worthy sayings.
I always think "that's gonna take a few coats of primer to cover it up". Ugh.
Nick, I am a professional carpenter that has had many occasions now to hang pictures for clients. Of course the technical skills of aligning many objects of differing dimensions according to eye level or sometimes top or bottom alignment of frames is within my skillset. What I appreciated so much about your video is on the composition of walls which is purely aesthetic and artistic. Many clients don't know how to express their ideas and may need help with their composition which can be very personal and subjective. As I said, I am a technical person and sometimes this creates a disconnect between what the clients want and what information I need to implement their vision. Your video gave me many tools and discussion points to bring up with potential clients in order to satisfy their gallery wall desires. Thank you for your exceptionally well-spoken and detailed presentation.
My favorite gallery wall that I’ve ever seen was a bunch of different old black and white photos of different shapes and sizes. All pictures of different people and places. I asked him who they were and he said “I have no idea, I bought them all at thrift stores because I liked the frames” 😂 This guys just had bunch of photos of other people’s family and it was amazing *chefs kiss*
I love that!!!!!
Love it..
Well we talk about we are all brothers and sisters in this world and one way or another. So I think that is a great idea. Plus being funky it's just a great idea. It's like when you go into some restaurants like Chuy's. And it has all these photos of Hispanic people in these frames and of course you don't know any of them. But the photographs are so striking and beautiful. Way to go
Sounds pretty Mrs. Peregrine's Home to me!
My favorite gallery wall belongs to my SiL.. its a mix of cross stitch, needle point, and embroidery pieces she thrifted from barn sales and yard sales over the years with a few pieces mixed in made by my mom back in the 70s, and some skulls. It's super eclectic, but it works! I'm currently curating a gallery wall of my own that will be all art made by myself or family & friends. It'll be on the wall in my office so the whole point is about it being what brings me joy, a sense of calm, and makes me feel loved.
Oh! Another favorite gallery wall of mine is at my extended family's cabin. It was built in the 1800s and every generation of the 3 families who have owned the property have added to it. The cabin is remote and its hard and expensive to bring new stuff/update stuff... so the cabin has items that belonged to the original family that built it and every generation/family since including things like life jackets, kitchenware, bed linens, furniture, board games & puzzles, etc but my favorite is most definitely the family picture gallery wall in the upstairs hallway. All of them are dated with and labeled with who is in the photo. It's a time capsule for the property. My extended family had the place corn blasted and the logs resealed to restore the place, but they put the gallery wall back, exactly as it was and have only added to it. The cabin will be passed to their boys and eventually their grandchildren so I imagine the gallery wall is safe for another 100yrs at least.
Dishonorable mention to those peel and stick wall decals that look like a Family Tree or Disneyland Castle with open spots for 5x7” frames. They’re a little too “live laugh love” for me 😅
These are so tacky.
Oh lord yes!!!
I literally laughed out loud reading this! I completely forgot about those monstrosities
ROFL 😅😅😅😅😅
This made me crack up 🤣
Hey Nick! You should consider a video series where your viewers send you pics/videos of their own homes and you rate our interior design skills, give us pointers, maybe even do a little light roasting. I'm really proud of my new space and I think you'd like it!
Oh I’m sorry, but that sounds horrifying! 😱 The peril of telling the (gawd-awful) truth. Poor Nick!
The problem is that a lof of your interior design depends on your funds. You can be super rich and have no taste, sure. But if you do have a taste, it's so much easier to create sth beauthiful with a lot of money. I'm also proud of my new space, but in some places I had to go for a compromise. E.g. if I wanted to spend more, I would have the kitchen, hallway furniture and wardrobes custom-made. It would definitely look better. Why I'm saying that is: although I love your idea, I think it can be difficult to deliver value with such an assessment without knowing what funds/ stores sb has access to.
This is a great idea! You have helped me so much already, but sometimes I get stuck and wish you could figure out my decor dilemma for me. 👧🏻🌸
I would love this!! I finally invested in some decorations for my home office which initially consisted of only white walls (the horror). Now they are bold with personality, but I want to see what Nick thinks of them!
Ooooooh!!!! Love this idea!
I am literally sitting in my new living room staring fearfully at my blank walls. Thank you for the video and the perfect timing, Nick!
Today is wall painting day, so not only are my walls blank, they're multicolored! (At the moment. I'm taking a break right now.)
Get a big roll of brown craft paper and play with shapes, sizes, and arrangements until it feels right. Blue gum is your friend.
Thank you! I thought about starting with a shelf so I can rearrange things for a while until I am sure which art pieces work together.
@@jeanvignesBrilliant!
Great tips, thank you! I completely agree about not using generic art. I have a gallery wall in my home office where every piece was purchased directly from an artist I love through Etsy, or their own artist website... places like that. And the wall makes me happy when I look at it because I love every piece and I know I supported independent artists in the process.
this is definitely the way to go - no boring mass produced/dental office "art" but real art by working artists that you love.
The 2nd "gallery wall" picture🤣💔 calling it minimal was so kind, bless you😭✋🏽
Yeah it was a bit much! 😂
😂
I did an entire gallery staircase but only of gold mirrors (different sizes and shapes) and it looks spectacular! Everyone is obsessed. It was insanely expensive because I used antique and vintage mirrors.
I personally love the eclectic style of finding new pieces and sticking them wherever you want. I don't know what this says about me... but I actually loved the examples you showed at 1:27, 1:34. 3:01 wouldn't be my cup of tea, but I still appreciate whoever did it for their individualism.
The other thing is, I think they DID plan that gallery wall out some. The colors in the images DO go together if you look closely. Plus, I actually liked their kitchen area too.
Me toooooo!
I think your comments about MOOD of the space is super important. Let's be brutally frank for a minute: if your gallery wall is 12 photographs of your most beloved family members who have died? The mood is not going to be right for a cheerful yellow breakfast nook! If a young person in your family has disclosed to you that Grandpa Sylvester abused her as a child? Don't expect her to sleep in a guest bedroom with a gallery wall that heavily features Grandpa Sylvester! I love the idea of paintings, framed art prints, mirrors, and small shelves of objets d'art on a gallery wall, but family photos can be tricky. Think it through!
I personally don’t prefer gallery walls, but your tips here definitely help make them look a lot less overwhelming for me
Love all his tips, makes sense!
I have two gallery walls in my house. One is our “travel wall” going up our stairs. It’s all photos or small paintings from places we’ve been. No matching frames, mattes etc.and very random. We love it. The other one is in our den and it’s all wildlife photos or paintings. Love that one too.
Cynthia, It sounds good. Could you show us your gallery walls, please ? Thank you in advance.
@@noeliashepherd5146 Hi, I would but I have no idea how to do that. Sorry
I like that idea for my postcards and ohotos
I am doing a travel wall up my staircase today. I hope I am as thrilling as you are. I am super excited to look at my beautiful photos and art.
Before I moved into my first apartment with my now ex boyfriend I made pieces for a gallery wall in the kitchen. I got an old cookbook and cut out pictures of food and recipes. Found 6 or 7 small and medium frames that were wood or gold (all used). It was so fun to make and looked so cute.
The first time I did a gallery wall, I found it useful to start with a large imaginary rectangle and hang everything within it. The tops of the frames are in line, continue down the sides, then get to arranging the space between items. I don’t strictly adhere to that, but it was a good place to start. Before I stumbled upon that tip, nothing was getting hung!
Here's one tip I once read about gallery walls that I thought was very useful and that I successfully implemented myself, back when I had wall space for this kind of things: using lines and their intersections to organise the different elements of the gallery. You can for example make a cross with a long vertical line and a long horizontal one where the intersection is the centre of the gallery wall and every element is placed from the centre to the borders in the 4 spaces that the lines have created. Or have that centre of "gravity" be a top corner of the wall (which I did and it looked surprisingly great without much effort). Or have one long horizontal line at the top of wall and the elements go downwards from there. And so on. Thinking of it in terms of lines / centres of gravity makes the whole process easier and helps keep a good balance.
I just realized I inherently did this. Just saw the pieces on a mental grid. I did a paper mock up on it first though.before hammering away.
A great way to apply this one in a gallery wall is with the golden ratio.
Isn't this called a French Hang?
I do this and lay the frames on the floor first until I find an arrangement I like.
I love gallery walls but have this overwhelming need for symmetry.
Omgosh yes vintage album covers! So cool.
I love framed album covers. I did this in one of my children’s rooms. My mom sent me old kids albums I loved from my childhood. They were well worn and scratched so not the best for actually playing. I purchased simple frames from Ikea and hung them up. Not only do all of my kids absolutely love them, they make me smile every time I see them. Vintage albums in simple frames make symmetry a breeze.
We have other albums up as well in other areas. Most signed by the artist. As music lovers it works perfectly for us mixed with unique pieces of art and photography.
I take forever to decorate but it’s only because I want to make it personal and unique to our family. Plus I always have the internal battle between wanting symmetry with wanting something more eclectic.
I have been planning out a gallery wall for family photographs and I am so grateful Nick released this video. I was hoping he would toss a bit of his knowledge our way. I know what I want but I also know how easy it is to mess it up. His advice was so helpful. I finally feel like I can proceed.
I just helped my son hang an arrangement of old album covers in his new apartment. The eclectic mix of musical artists and the graphic art specifically done for their albums make for a striking display!
I have a vertical simply framed mirror (about 22"x50") over a sideboard with varying sized/shaped pictures arranged quasi-symmetrically on each side and a carved horizontal panel centered above the mirror. It works well - has a symmetry without being overly controlled looking.
@@johnvonundzu2170 yes! I ve been thinking about a long mirror over my couch in a similar set up.
Thanks! Also consider the glass used in these frames. there is the option of using glass that is less reflective. That will make your art be more clearly visible, especially when your gallery wall is near a bright window. It is more expensive, but totally worth it.
Great tip! I wouldn’t have thought of that.
The reminder about considering mood and relation to other elements in the room is invaluable. I've had success in creating gallery walls and now I know why!
I'm always sad when the video ends. I love your videos.
Love the way Nick illustrates the point he's making as in a visual clue - this is good; this, not so much ✅❌ It's really helpful. I personally am so over a gallery wall, I find them too busy and do you really look at each item properly ever? In lots of cases, I think choose one, maybe two items, place them beautifully to relate to a piece of furniture or the layout of the room and it will have much more impact. Less is more sometimes, right? And Nick's point about make it personal is key.
Who would ever thought I would be binge watching Nick Lewis! I've learned so much. Thanks
Your advice is spot on and helps this novice to avoid making disastrous mistakes because decorating doesn't come naturally to me.
Your candor, your frankness is refreshing. A person that is confident in what they advise does not need to mince words.
Besides all of that you are very handsome. Thank you.
You are the definitive voice of reason for the design community! Thank you for what you do, it really helps. Also, that photo example of framed album art gave me a fantastic idea on how to bring my husband into the design choices so it can be for the both of us! He doesn't care about design, but he's VERY passionate about music. Thank you a million times! 💓
I'm finally creating one. We live in a small house so I'm going to collect everything from the walls from the rest of the house and make one wall. It's a part of the decluttering of our house. 😍
I think you have to ask yourself "what story does this wall tell?" A bunch of squiggly lines framed on a wall in the latest trendy color might look really professional and grown-up but it says nothing. Sure, those individual pieces might be really artsy but then they would be better on their own, spread around the house. It's much more meaningful if the wall tells the story or the interests of the inhabitant's life. Pictures of all the places you went to, maybe a sunset wall with sunsets of all the places you traveled to, your own art if that's something you make, pictures of all the dogs you've had, pictures of your kids growing up, or all the crazy adventures you have been on. A lot of the gallery walls you see in retail catalogs or Pinterest look good in terms of colors and design but if you copy that at home, it's going to make your life seem empty.
We have a fairly small, but well lit corridor upstairs going from bathroom to master bed and kids' room. Nothing in it, but wood flooring and white walls, so I painted a light grey rectangle on one of walls (painted about 30 cm from bottom, ceiling and sides) and within it I placed different sized white frames with my kids' drawings. It came together nicely, had designated area, made my kids proud to have their work displayed and puts a smile on my face as I walk past. It is not a gallery wall for guests, but for us.
That is a wonderful idea! I think guests would find it charming too.
I finally put up a gallery wall of my own paintings. I love the more formal look, so I used the same frames and mats and spaced everything exactly 4 inches from each other on the tops, bottoms, and sides. I had a nice large wall to work with. I used a long level, a t-square and a chalk pencil to map everything out.
I have struggled with gallery walls for 2 years.. Thank you for sharing♥
Hopefully the video was helpful!
It should be a bit of a struggle. You're probably doing just fine - it's the people unaware of the problem that have the worst walls.
We moved into a new house about 4 years ago and the front room has really high ceilings. I did a gallery wall on the large wall over the piano and I love it!!! I did plan it out before putting it up. It came together great! I have gotten so nice compliments and they are all personal pieces of art. They all have a story to go with them. And each of my kids have some framed art too 🤗. The 4 years we have been in the house I have never grown tired of it.
Love the idea of marking the shapes on the wall before final hanging. As an artist, I constantly have to apply editing and your tips just made it all easier. Thank you!!
I helped my parents redecorate their house and did a gallery wall in the living room. Most of the frames are 5 by 7 rectangles, but they are different colors (but tie into the living room colors). Also, the photos is a family tree. Grandma and grandpa at the top, a photo of the extended family. Then my immediate family, then their families. It looks good
I’m sure your parents love it too.
Oh my lord, YES! Thank you for this video...those cluttered photo collections covering a wall drive me nuts. Scale, composition and variation are everything. FANTASTIC video ❤️
I have a gallery wall in a corner behind my grand piano. It gives it such a "salon" look. Many of my pieces were collected from thrift shops, which I highly recommend if you are willing to be patient.
Agree! Patience in collecting is key.
How gorgeous! I will love to see it!!!! Thrifting is a must!!!
My favorite piece is a framed print I bought at a thrift store. It's beautiful & I love it so much! Every time I look at it I feel so happy, and I can't explain why lol.
Nailed it! No pun intended. It drives me insane when I see pictures that have been slapped everywhere with no real intent.
Hi Nick. You are the best at explaining design principles. I've learned so much from you and appreciate your no nonsense delivery and your sense of humour. Would love to see you take viewers' photos of their spaces and offer suggestions on how to improve them. I think we could all learn from this process. Excellent channel.
Planning it all out using paper outlines for the frames and painter's tape is such a smart idea. I'm definitely going to use it.
I prefer one beautiful image - or maybe 3, lined up and similar in size - to a gallery wall. I just find it more peaceful to look at one image at a time. But also, I can see how difficult gallery walls are to do well and how they would appeal to many people. Your guidance is helpful for anyone who is planning such a wall.
Also! If you’re doing a more formal gallery, a ruler and level tool will be your best friend. A crooked frame will be super obvious 😩
Whew! Sigh of relief, I think I've done pretty well, based on these guidelines! I feel like I am fairly skilled at creating gallery walls now, I've done many, and at least in my opinion, they look very nice. I seem to have a knack for choosing the right pieces and arranging them well. I also like to lay out everything on the floor to get a visual of how the actual pieces will look in the arrangement I have in mind. Then use the pieces of brown paper taped on the wall to get the alignment correct, and you can put your hangers, nails, or whatever over the paper and tear the paper away when you are done for easy hanging!
I am SO excited for this video!!! It’s already been saved onto my “how to” list!!! I have been struggling for almost 2 years on how to layout a gallery wall. The template cutouts is a brilliant idea that I need to use!!! Thank you so much Nick!!!! This is amazing!!!!
Also, try layout on the floor if you have room.
Nick, I am perched on the edge of an almost complete gutting of my little townhouse. I have seen some of the other completed townhouses here and after watching many of your videos, I don’t think I want to put anything on them! New drapes, proper lighting, going to be protective of those clean walls!
ALWAYS on point. You're a classy intelligent yet humble designer and your recommendations are grounded and 💯 spot on in my opinion ❤
Don’t have one, don’t want one, but i certainly appreciate your attention to detail and organization, “mapping it out” is genius. Thanks. Monica
Lol I clicked on the video because I love the "don't" option in the thumbnail, I think the super cluttered look is so fun and unique. But these were actually really great tips
3M Command Velcro strips are really good to get the alignment/adjustments right, and stop each piece from hanging skewed ever time. Top tip.
Perfect timing! I’ve been repurposing frames for old family pictures. We formed a Facebook group and invited all the relatives we could find so we could share old photos. I now have beautiful family pictures from the 1800’s on up. The only changes I made to them was the I printed most in sepia tones since that was what many of them were anyway. I have dozens framed but haven’t worked up the courage to start hanging yet.
Been watching your videos and I love love love your focus on real-life design. Chairs need to be functional, real people need storage, etc. And I love how you discuss how to take those real-life needs and make them beautiful through design. Thank you! :)
Thanks for this video! I’m curating some great pieces to hopefully make a gallery wall but choosing frames & arranging them leaves so much room for error. This was very helpful.
Awesome! Happy to help!
I usually don’t like the dark wall thing but the one in your dining area works. I like how it contrasts with the kitchen giving it a real sense of separation and the way it looks from the white-walled sitting room. It also looks like it’s in a corner giving your eating area a sense of intimacy. The color and glow of the ceiling fixture warms up the space and plays nicely against the warm kitchen cabinetry and the warm woods in the living room. 👍🏾
Not a fan in general. I prefer a larger statement piece. I have seen some gallery walls that really work, but I still default to a single piece. The most I will go to is a multi-piece artwork, like a triptych. But this is just me :)
I could not agree more .
I agree. Gallery walls give me anxiety for some reason. I also prefer statement pieces or some blank space lol
I agree, it’s a trend for a while.
Planing to design your home should not be following a trend. Rather think about something timeless. For me it’s a oil paintings.
Oof disagree totally, gallery walls aren’t new, and that tri art thing I do not like at all. Not a trend, you either have an eye for it or you don’t. All cool either way. I love the interest it brings.
Super timely! I'm about to work on our interior decor (I guess you could call it a "gallery" wall) in our new home, and I am suuuuuper happy to avoid some of the mistakes you've mentioned!!!
My tip: DON'T create a gallery wall using 153 colour photographs of family and friends.
Family photos do NOT belong on the wall. It is NOT artwork. Try framing them instead.
Ten thumbs up!
When in a college apt- 4 boys 2 bedrooms (cheap and crowded), my son and his roomies bought every homely, framed family photos from thrift stores they could find and made an entire gallery of their "family" photos. Oddly enough, it looked great with all the buck toothed aunties and plump guys in fedoras. They had carefully planned the space. Your point worked even with those images.
I have several linen tea towels from museums featuring famous cat art and several Toulouse Lautrec famous pieces also in linen tea towel form. I thumb tag them on the wall to be my gallery wall.
I love this idea!
My mom did something similar years ago with menus. That was when restaurants were so unique & their menus were art.
I have a small home with 8 foot tall walls with a heat vent on most walls so I prefer one large piece or more often I prefer a blank wall over the cluttered feel of a gallery wall that IMO would not work for me. I agree most people have no good sense of scale or space. If I had a nickel for every room I've seen with art above a sofa starting about 4 feet above the sofa......ugh! Yes! Consider the whole wall not just the individual pieces. And I agree with the tip about making your wall personal and not just printing off the latest online art. Great tips!
Our house (1870, Germany) has 6.5 foot walls with exposed dark beams making it look even smaller. As nice as it is to clean cobwebs, most of our walls are blank because it would be even more cramped with art.
We have a gallery wall that goes up our stairs that is a collection of family photos through the years. My husband took the time to measure everything and I love the way it turned out. Not too busy but not too bare.
We used the same size frames from our wedding as our "baseline" and then expanded out from there with different sizes, textures, and layouts. We planned it out with newspaper stencils of the frames before we hung a single nail.
This video is perfect. I am planning a gallery wall right now. After watching this video I have some new ideas about what I can incorporate.
My partner insists on keeping his framed degree displayed. It was there when I moved in, lol. The wall it's on is perfect for a small gallery wall. He really wants to keep the degree up there. These tips have given me some ideas on how to incorporate and connect this to other art pieces. Well...I hope 😬
I wish I had discovered this video earlier since I have been putting off my gallery wall for 2 years due to lack of confidence in how to do it. I am now truly inspired to act. I can do this!
This was perfect, I'm planning a kids art gallery wall in our School corner
I think it's hilarious that some of the "bad" examples looked very cool to me. He would definitely think my place was too busy, lol
I thought the one bathroom was actually pretty cool. You could tell it was intentionally done and a bit quirky.
Agree! I love nick and I get what he's saying here, but he can pry my busy gallery wall out of my cold, dead hands 😂
@@sarahm1447 if anyone walked into your house and started pulling your pictures off your wall in disgust: they are really no friend of yours! Go for it I say- it’s your house and your life. I’m kind of curious now!
Cool idea,
One can print out pictures of different Gallery walls from the internet to decorate the wall with.
Even better, do it in a room filled with small scale miniatures of Overdone Aesthetiqué and Impractical Furniture!
Excellent advice, but I'm thinking the element of instinct re gallery walls is more important than rules - like so much visual composition, you either have an eye for it or you don't.
That's what I was thinking. Nick said, "Don't just wing it," but the most successful gallery walls have been made by people who DID just wing it. However, they had a knack for design and those principles were subconsciously being implemented.
Yes, this! If you have items you love and want to display just go for it. These videos seem to get a lot of responses about wanting to but being afraid. Of what? Of the judgey people you think you're decorating for? Of not being perfect? Because if it's personal there's no fear.
That’s what I did. I just started hammering. 😂
Great timing for this video! I’ve just spent an hour planning out my gallery wall for a wall in my new flat. I’m only guilty of one of the “don’ts”; I’m using mostly generic art. 😆 However, I’ve chosen each print carefully to work well together and with my colour scheme, as well as my personality, and I’ve stayed far away from anything I’ve seen elsewhere a million times. In the future I would love to incorporate some more personal pieces. For now I only have 3 “original” pieces out of 13 total (it’s a BIG wall). Ah well, I love every single piece and in the end that’s what matters most. Thanks for another great video! ☺️
We called my parents gallery wall the Wall of Shame!
Oh no! Picture!
😂
Wow!! I finished scaling my wall with brown tape and my eye kept helping me to change things to give good space while focusing on a balance of the whole wall.
I did this not knowing I would see this video. I went with my gut and if it did not feel right, I changed things. It is not too high and reasonably pleasing to the eye. I have poster frames where I can update the wall by changing the art.
I have macrame with wooden framed quotes and added small floating shelves as fillers, etc etc.
I do not have everything up but have the tape holding the spaces.. as I find the right pieces.
Looking forward to your bo ho video.
I’m now dismally worried that I lack an aesthetic sense. There were several walls that when they appeared on screen I thought “Well, Nick’s going to criticise *that* one!”.However then he’d laud it as a good example. Oh well, I will just have to keep learning…thank you Nick for commencing my education. I’ve saved the vid as a reference
Same! 🤣
Thanks! I had NO idea where to start. EXCELLENT! THANK YOU!!❤
I love Art on my walls and I worked for years as a carpenter in a museum.
I created some geometrical rules for me, when it comes to positioning, especially distance between pieces.
For example:
I want the whole composition follow an imaginary line that corelates to the furniture beneath it.
I take two vertical and a horizontal piece.
Hang the first vertical piece, take the upper right corner and use that hight as the hight of the lower left corner of the vertical frame. The upper right corner of the vertical piece is the hight of the lower left corner of the second vertical frame.
Distance the pieces as far away from each other that this isnt too obvious, but the eyes can still make the connection.
Then „blur“ that line with smaller pictures around that main line and losely try to follow the rule of thirds for distance here.
Works even better, when you consider colour grading for accents. Bonus points, if you integrate the colour and shape of the frames in this concept.
I went so far as taking closeness of the theme of the pictures in relation to the theme of the wall into consideration, but thats some overly autistic shit.
Nick- you make this tough decorating easy to understand.
Thanks for the tutorial. Curating the art in my home is always a challenge. Happy thanksgiving-I hope you’re eating delicious food with people you love.
I’m glad I watched this. When I have at least 2 inches of space in between frames, I had to take out two frames, and it looks a lot more cohesive!
This is so timely and helpful! I am curating family photos for a gallery wall and never thought about texture. I will now add a rosemailed plate made for my inlaws to celebrate their anniversary, made in Norway by a family member and maybe a few other treasures that tell our story. I really hadn't considered anything other than family photos until I watched this video.
Hi, I really appreciate the way you explain with "do's and don'ts" images. Its easier to understand for me. Thanks!
“It just looks plain and boring because that’s what it is, just plain and boring.” Hahaha I always press the Like button before I even start watching because your vids are guaranteed to be informative, instructive and just entertaining!! ❤️❤️❤️
I have a huge collection of original screen prints and paintings from other artists, as well as myself, that I dream of putting into a gallery wall, but I've always been so nervous about doing such because of how many poorly executed gallery walls I've seen. This video was really helpful in getting past that fear, though! You had some really great tips!
Great tips. Thank you. I’m planning a gallery wall above my sofa so this video is timely. 👍
Glad it was helpful!
You said "don't use generic art" but then a lot of the "do" walls had art that looked incredibly bland and generic 😅
For example in the wall in the room with the piano and brass lamp, most of the prints look incredibly bland. One is literally 3 blobs of grey, framed. I'm guessing it was a catalogue photo?
I just found you, Nick, and I think it was a greater power who did that. I need about every bit of advice you give! I’ve been wanting to do something with some vintage postcards from my small town (black and white, 1900 era) and this collage concept has me interested. I’m always worried that a collage won’t stay perfectly even and will start to look sloppy when one frame tilts a bit.
Hi Nick, I really appreciate the helpful tips. I have inherited many of my mother's paintings and tile as well as many very old family photos that hung so beautifully in my family home. Our family home was much larger with ample wall space to do everything justice. My Palm Desert home doesn't have nearly the wall space necessary however, I do have vaulted ceilings. The conundrum is how not to overcrowd, not to hang too high, and not to hang these cherished items too close together, etc. Oh, how I wish you could pop in to lend a hand! 🙏 Overwhelmed!
100% SO important to consider the pieces as one large work! The spaces between the works is key to consider, but remember that this is also it's own work and we need to think about the relationship between the artworks in terms of their meaning, and their spacial connections!
I have two gallery walls and I love them. I like the look of a big piece in the middle with smaller ones around. And I like doing that central frame with a colored frame and then all the rest black. The focal point in the gallery wall feels nice to me.
we did outs after Christmas one year and so we used the old wrapping paper as templates. It worked out great and was a pretty good hack
Dear Nick, hello from Croatia! Your videos are so inspiring, funny and very useful, so thank you so much for making them that way! All the best!
Great commentary on how to display. Thanks for the great video!
This was super helpful. I’ve had all of the pieces I want to hang for like a year at this point, but they’re still all on the floor, leaning against the wall. Maybe now I’ll actually get them up on the wall.
So helpful, thank you! I also really appreciate how you curate your recommendations to more of your own videos, for those of us wanting to learn more in a particular vein.
Can you please do a video of different ways to display family photos while still keeping a modern non suburban mom vibe? Also a video about how to bring your home design come together - is it a faux pas to have a different theme for each room etc?
Thanks for sharing your views on how to setup a gallery tastefully.🤗 I love putting up photos of my kids, their weddings,my grandchildren and deceased great grandparents and great great grandparents😍🥰❤. Its my favourite spot in the 2nd lounge...I can sit there watch TV and gaze up at family and get joy and comfort from it. My husband hates it. Calls it my creepy place. Luckily he has his own lounge room or should say theatre room and has his creepy truck, 4WD and western memorabilia displayed untastefully in there to my thinking. So what I am saying is everyone to their own. I've shown him your ideas and guidelines and super surprisingly his gallery display has been tweaked and updated and looks almost as good as mine! Now its a work of art not a mess of junk.
Excellent visual examples! Love the “Do’s and Don’ts.” Great information and tips.
Variety is SO SO important in gallery walls.
Loved your ideas. My gallery wall has been building, I didn’t plan it out. I kinda like it but after hearing your tips I should probably tweak it.
Thanks for the tips! I wanted to use my own art and turn my hallway into a sort of gallery space, so this video was helpful and gives me things to think about while I decide what I want to showcase from my work.