Interior Design Trend: Gallery Wall

From Left: Kaleidscopic by Tracey Currington Art, Painted Poolside A2 Print by Anna McKay Artist, Watercolour Gardens - Underwater Flowers by Just South West, Brilliantly Bold by Jane Blackmore Art, Lumen Print Gum Leaf and Lumen Print Daisies by Just South West.

Gallery walls are a great way to add some visual variety to a space and adding artworks to a blank wall can be really fun. They may seem a bit daunting to put together at first but rest assured they are a lot easier than you may think. Gallery walls look fantastic in any room of the house whether it is hallways, dining rooms, kitchens, or even bedrooms, and can be done on a small scale or large scale to suit a space. There is a lot of freedom to make gallery walls personalised for your home and style. We’ve put together some key points to help get you started and inspired to create your own.

Start big with a focal piece

When doing the layout start with the biggest piece of art first. This is the stand-out, largest work that will be the focal point of the gallery wall. It looks great if you place this artwork off-center, it makes for a more interesting layout and draws the eye around the wall rather than straight to the middle. After this you can add your second largest piece of art, then down to the smallest and you’re practically done! Try and keep the spacing relatively consistent between each artwork so they feel like a group.

Gallery Wall Focus Artwork Only Limited New Zealand

From Left: Into The Sounds by Jane Blackmore Art, Lumen Print Gum Leaf by Just South West, Group Of Camels by Aimee Kelly Photography, Ophelia Series - Sinking Ballad by Just South West, By The Ocean Limited Edition Print by Bianca Laing and Yayoi Kusama by Marcov.

Mix up the style of artwork

Don’t feel like you need to keep to an exact style of art, in fact, it looks best if you don’t. Mix up your gallery wall with photography, paintings, prints, and sculptural pieces, and a variety of artwork shapes and sizes. Not everything needs to have straight edges or be framed, even circular pieces, long rectangular pieces, or textile art can go into your gallery wall. Make sure the works do have some sort of visual element that speaks to each other, often this is a colour. Get creative, it is a great opportunity to choose individual pieces that are different enough that they all get their moment to shine on the gallery wall.

Gallery Wall Variety Of Artworks Only Limited NZ

From Left: Venice by Aimee Kelly Photography, Handmade Print - Floral Feature 2 by Ally-Jane McDonald, Makeriti Berry Picker by Marcov and Time Moves Slow by Lou Taylor.

Choose a variety of frames

You don’t want the gallery wall to feel too matchy-matchy so it looks good to change up your frame colours and styles. If you are worried it could look a bit chaotic then stick to black, white and a pop of gold, for example, this will give you variety but still look cohesive. Another great tip is when in doubt float mount, smaller pieces especially like polaroids or tiny prints are instantly elevated with this framing style. Framing can be expensive, if the artworks are standard sizes try looking at The Warehouse, Briscoes, and Spotlight for affordable frames (just be sure depending on the location of your gallery wall if the glass is UV filtering to protect from sun damage). If you need a custom frame places like Factory Frames online is a super affordable solution and ship New Zealand wide.

Gallery Wall Variety of Frames Only Limited New Zealand From Left: Reflexion (Original) by Erika Josa, Mila Limited Edition Print by Bianca Laing, Peony - White by Just South West, In Bloom A2 Print by Anna McKay Artist and Original - A Lovers Breath By Ellie Compton Pieces.

A cohesive colour palette

Colour is entirely personal preference depending on what look you want to achieve. If you want the gallery wall to feel more serene you could use calming blues and greens with white for a bedroom for example. Or if you want to make a bold statement in the hallway way go for more vibrant tones like reds, pinks, and oranges. Don’t feel like all the colours have to match perfectly, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, as long as they have an element that ties them together then they will look great! You can even consider painting the wall behind the artworks, a deep charcoal wall for example really makes the artworks pop, a chic option for a study.

Gallery Wall Colour Palette Only Limited New Zealand

From Left: Holy - 5 of 20 Limited Edition Art Print by The Curious Illustrator, Bloom Linocut Print by Inky Daze, Girl at the Beach by Oil and Film and Ophelia Series - Wildflower by Just South West.

Make it personal

Anything can be art, make it your own. You could add polaroids, old family photos, record covers, and even an ultrasound to your gallery wall. Don’t feel like everything has to be super expensive either, there are a lot of affordable art options out there and up-and-coming artists who have original works and prints that are priced really well. Digital prints are a great affordable way to go as well as thrifted vintage artworks.