Creating a photo wall in your home is a really creative way to add personality, heritage, and family to spark your interior to life.
We love nothing more than helping our clients to create a home they love to live in. Part of this process is ensuring that their home reflects their personality, lifestyle, and family.
On many occasions, our clients have captured memories of their families over the years that they love and would like displayed somewhere in the house.
There does however, come a point where there are too many photo frames and not enough surfaces! There are only so many frames you can have displayed on console tables, side tables, and bookshelves before the spaces become overcrowded and claustrophobic.
A really creative way of overcoming this within your home is to create a photo wall or a gallery wall! Today we are sharing the steps we like to take to create these and some fun and creative alternatives!
1. Choosing Your Photographs
The first thing to focus on is the photographs themselves. We always recommend selecting the absolute best and narrow down if possible. Sometimes this isn’t possible, and that’s okay! We’ll find a home for them.
It’s also a really good idea to have a variety of sizes. If most of your photos are small (5” x 7”) then we would consider having some of them enlarged or printed at a larger size. Photo walls with a variety of sized frames and photographs look more natural and creative than lots of little ones.
2. Choosing Your Frames
Similarly to choosing your photographs, you’ll also want to consider what style and color of picture frames you’d like to use. If you prefer a more curated and “put together” look for your home, choosing frames of similar style and color will help you to keep your photo wall looking cohesive in itself and with the rest of your home too.
If you’re more adventurous and love pops of color in your home, choosing funkier and colorful frames will add a really fun aspect to any wall!
We have gathered some of our favorites below.
We love this set of photo frames because of the variety of sizes it provides! And also the gorgeous frame detailing itself. This is perfect for creating a minimalist style photo wall in your home. (Also available in White, Pine and Mahogany)
This beautiful antiqued style frame adds a subtle element of color to any photo wall. Pair this with white frames to keep the wall light, or make it pop amongst a collection of dark wooden frames.
We love this rattan and wooden frame because of the texture it can add to any space or photo wall! It’s great for displaying alone or alongside plain wooden or monochrome frames. (We also love the Boho and seaside vibes!)
Another set of frames we are loving is this marble bricks design. Very subtle in its coloring, when paired with black or chrome frames these will really shine through as statement pieces! A great addition to your photo wall creation.
If you’re looking for subtle interest for your photo wall, this set of three champagne-colored frames will do just that! The texture on them will help to add warmth and interest to any display.
We love this set of 5 pastel-colored photo frames because they add a lot of fun to a space. Perfect for children’s bedrooms, bathrooms, or anywhere you’d like to add some light color too!
3. Other Wall Fixtures to Consider
If the traditional route of hanging photographs in frames isn’t for you, there are many other creative ways you can add interest to your bare walls. Consider a staggered shelving display or 3D wall art. They are modern, fun and really different that people won’t expect from your space.
This three dimensional set of photo frames is a super fun way of creating a photo wall for your home! The light natural wood color provides a lovely neutral base so it doesn’t feel overwhelming on the wall.
We love this circular photo wall arrangement because of the three-dimensional qualities. It keeps all the photographs within one area to display them in a controlled way. Perfect if you struggle to keep frames hung straight! It is also available in Black, Gray and Charcoal colors.
We love this pre-made photo wall because of the letter board in the middle. This makes it encouraging to update the photos every so often, after a holiday or birthday for example. Perfect for getting the kids involved!
Another really creative option is this wall decor photo arrangement, hung with clips for up to 30 pictures. This is great fun for kids, particularly for their bedrooms, your office space, or kitchen where you can also pin up important pieces of information.
4. Choosing Your Wall
This is a step that people often struggle with – because there can be so many walls to choose from! If choosing which wall in your home should be used to create a photo wall, we have listed our favorite places below:
- A long hallway
- The staircase wall (photos displayed moving up through the house)
- A landing or corridor (above a console table looks great)
- Dining room wall (as a substitute for artwork)
- Small rooms, such are your downstairs bathroom if there is a spare small wall
- Study or library wall
When designing this hallway, we created a gallery wall with frames that complimented the new wainscoting. The gallery wall was designed so that the family could easily add photos and it can grow with the family as they make memories.
You can be really creative with all of these areas. You could create a photo wall in almost any room of the house! But we believe that it’s the rooms you can be more creative and daring with the design (such as a dark, moody atmosphere of a downstairs bathroom or the staircase wall leading upwards) and can really add that extra bit of interest and quirkiness to the spaces.
5. Arranging Your Photographs and Frames
Next, you’ll want to decide how you’d like your photo wall arranged before you drill any holes or hammer nails in!
To do this, we highly recommend that you take a scrap piece of paper and start creating rough sketches of your wall. Play around with the sizes of frames (depending on the ones you have chosen) and also experiment with the arrangement. Create as many different scenarios or options as you like. You can even layout the photographs and frames on the floor or large table to help.
6. Alternative Ideas
The idea of hanging a large amount of frames – and getting them ALL straight! – can cause some tension for some of us. I myself always notice when a piece of art or frame is ever-so-slightly off, so I wanted to share with you some ideas if this is the case for you too.
You can still create a fun and creative photo wall, but instead of hanging the frames directly to the wall, consider installing a ledge shelf instead where you can layer different sized frames and prints that way. This is equally as creative as the photo wall because you can have fun in layering up different photos.
Creating a fun photo wall with ledge shelves is a modern way to display photo frames that you can always switch in and out! We love this set of two shelves as they’re easy to hang and are a versatile display for any space.
We are loving this set of light gray wood grain shelves because they will easily blend into your interior and not feel too bold, whilst still providing an opportunity to add your family photos. They have a front lip protector so your items displayed are safely displayed on them.
If you’re looking for something simple and minimal but can create a big impact, this set of long floating ledge shelves is perfect for this! We love how they have displayed a number of different photo frames here and created a layered effect.
After following the steps above, you’ll be ready to get the DIY tools out and get to work! Have you created a photo wall in your home? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!