If These Walls Could Talk: Ideas to Inspire Your Gallery Wall

- Categories : Living Room

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Featured item: Wall art

The way you style your home is always going to be a statement about you. But nothing fulfils the maxim of ‘show, don’t tell’ quite like a gallery wall. What better way to use a blank wall than as a personal or family canvas? A place to showcase the things you love, the styles and forms that inspire you, the memories, passions and quirks that colour your life.

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Gallery walls have come a long way beyond the original concept of floor-to-ceiling collections of fine art capturing the trends of the time. From walls of living plants, to story walls, to mixed media and typography inspired designs, the possibilities are endless, with gallery walls now the creative highlight of many a contemporary home space. Fortunately, there are no set rules to prescribe what you can and can’t do, and you don’t need an interior designer to bring your ideas to life. You only need to be inspired.

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To get your imagination out of lockdown, we’ve rounded up a few of our favourite gallery wall concepts below. But first, here are some guidelines to help you get your gallery off the ground, and prevent you climbing the walls in the process!

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Featured Range: Décor

Getting started with your gallery wall project – where, what, how?

Where?

Probably the most popular option is to create a gallery wall that doubles as an accent wall for a living area, an entrance hall, or perhaps a master bedroom. But you don’t have to go big or go home (after all, you’re already home).

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A gallery wall can be any size and shape, and work in just about any space – stretch it across your passageway, let it ride up your staircase, squeeze it into a cosy corner nook, let it do its thing in the mud room, soothe the little ones in the nursery, or bring you inspiration in your home office. The space you choose will help determine what you want your wall to say, as well as the layout and style that will gel best with the space and its existing elements, so it’s a good place to start. 

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What?

Next, you can start thinking about what you’d like to feature. We’ll get to some inspiring concepts and specific ideas below. But the main thing to remember is, this is totally up to your personal tastes and creativity. You may lean towards something more traditionally art-focused or abstract, or you may want a more personalised wall that features photos and other personal elements. Or you could totally combine the two. After all, the lines between art and life are blurry at best! And that’s a good thing.

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You don’t need a whole art collection or stash of framed photos to create your gallery. You can start with as little as three pieces, or an interesting centrepiece with some related smaller elements that you can build around it. 

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How?

The main ‘secret’ to an effective and interesting gallery wall is unity in diversity. In other words, you want an overall sense of cohesiveness, but not boring uniformity. The best gallery walls create visual interest by playing with contrast - whether in sizes, colours, textures, or mixed media - while ensuring that the overall effect is tied together by a unifying concept, theme or motif, which could be something as simple as a repeated colour accent. 

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Even if you want a more traditional gallery wall, try including one or two surprise pieces to break the monotony – you’ll find yourself (and your visitors) all the more drawn in.  

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When it comes to layout, there are a large variety of formats to choose from for your display. It depends a lot on your theme and style. Precise grid layouts can be very effective for a series of closely related artworks, while you might want a more irregular layout for a personalised or multimedia wall.

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As a general rule, larger wall spaces will want one or two larger scale pieces to anchor the display, while a smaller space will be dwarfed by a piece that’s too big, so it’s best to stick with small to medium size elements if you want to get the gallery wall look in your bathroom nook!

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As you’re thinking about your gallery layout and style, don’t forget to read the room. Make sure the style of your gallery wall is going to mesh with the existing décor, unless you want to do a complete overhaul! And remember that your gallery wall can also incorporate existing elements like furniture and existing surfaces - not every part of your gallery has to be up on the wall! Now that you’ve got a sense of where to start, here are some inspired concepts to help take your ideas to the next level. 

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Floor-to-Ceiling

Got a collection of art or old photographs gathering dust in the basement?  Why not take a cue from the original gallery walls of 17th Century France and let rip with a full floor to ceiling display? It makes for an excellent accent wall (no painting or wallpapering required!) and it’ll give the illusion of higher ceilings. Play with your arrangement to create balance – placing larger pieces nearer the bottom will help anchor the display.

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Mixed Media

Creating a Mixed Media wall is an awesome way to bring together a variety of elements that speak to a particular theme, highlight the things you love in life, or tell some kind of story. Just imagine – all those items you’ve collected from travels and holidays could finally find a happy resting place on your wall rather than getting lost in a drawer somewhere.  If you’ve got lots of different media intermixed with framed art or photos, stick to quite similar style and colour frames to help tie the overall look together. 

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Shelf Life

A floating shelf gallery offers a more laidback look for your display, with the freedom to keep experimenting without the hassle of picture mounts or worrying about getting the layout perfect on the first try.  To create a more dynamic and relaxed look, use different size frames with both portrait and landscape orientation, and let some of the pieces overlap. You could also add a decorative or personal object here and there – smaller elements placed in front of your pictures will work well to add depth and contrast. 

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Kids’ Art

Who says your kids can’t be part of creating your home décor? They’re bound to try drawing on the walls at some point anyway, so why not give their art its own official place of honour? (Though we aren’t making any guarantees it’ll prevent further unplanned ‘wall art’). Stick it in a frame, and it’ll take on a whole new artistic gleam. It’s a great way to create a feature wall in your kids’ room that they’ll be super proud of. Or better yet, you could put it on full public display in the living room, mix in a few pieces of modern art, and see if your guests can tell which ones were painted by the 5-year-old! 

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Featured item: Clocks

Time’s a Ticking

If you often feel overwhelmed by the thought of how fast time seems to pass…then this idea may not be for you. But a gallery wall made up of an array of stylish clocks definitely makes for an impactful display. Of course, it’s also great for keeping track if your friends and family are spread over different time zones across the world! 

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Collectibles & Objects of Interest

Art can truly take any form, and no one can tell you your great grandma’s stash of crazy hats doesn’t qualify as a show-worthy collection! Or how about that set of bone china you inherited that’s been doing time in the attic? Let your gallery wall be the saviour of all your collections and memorabilia in danger of living out their mortal days in obscurity. Old magazines, comic books, postcards, letters, objects you’ve collected LP and CD collections – here’s looking at you (again)!

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Featured item: Wooden Wall Décor- Set of 4

Of course, if you don’t have a collection already, you could start one for a gallery featuring some less traditional art mediums – think wood, metal or recycled materials, for example.

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Featured item: Gallery of mirrors

Mirrors, Mirrors, on the Wall                              

Is your home the fairest of them all? Why not show it off to even better effect with a gallery wall of mirrors? Not only is this a unique and stylish way to take a bare wall from drab to fab, but it’ll drastically improve the lighting and spatial dynamics of your chosen room. Plus every time you and your loved ones walk past your mirror gallery, you’ll be reminded exactly who your beautiful home is all about.

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Featured item: Clocks

Looking for more inspiration? Take a browse through Cielo’s stunning selection of wall art, canvas art, metal wall art, wood art, recycled paper art, and a stylish array of clocks to inspire your favourite space. 

Cielo - Inspiring Spaces