When we first moved, over two years ago now, and I found out I would have my own office I knew I wanted a gallery wall. First of all because I just think they look ridiculously cool, but also because I wanted something creative and fun in my office - and something that would inspire me.
The whole theme of my office is to try and lift me up and make me happy, and yet keep me calm - hence the colour scheme of yellow and grey. And I love the colour scheme and how it's all coming along. It's not quite finished yet but it's getting there. At the beginning of this year I was adamant that we do my office, and this included the gallery wall. So how did I organise it, plan it and create it? I've done a full video going through each print and why I picked them which you can below, but in this post I really want to focus on the planning, lessons learnt and any tips I picked up along the way.
PLANNING
So first things first - where did I want the gallery wall to be in my office? I had two options - one was the wall behind my computer, the other was the triangular-shaped wall behind my computer. I ended up going for the triangular wall simply because it gave me more space and it would make it more of a feature. Also, I knew the wall behind it was going to be yellow and the triangular wall would be grey - so it's help to pull all the colours of the room together.
Once I'd decided on that, I measured the wall - well, Adam measured the wall for me. I then put a scaled version of the wall onto a Powerpoint slide. I then also worked out the same scale for different print sizes of A3, A4 and A5.
Tip One: When you get the sizes for your prints, use the measurements of the frames rather than the prints. Will save you issues later on!
I already had a couple of prints so I got screenshots of those from the websites, and put them on the wall - just somewhere randomly to begin with. I then took blank print sizes and had a plan around with the layout on the wall template.
Tip Two: It actually works better to choose the prints you want before you play with the overall layout. I did it the other way around and then changed it a lot later in the process.
THEME & CHOOSING PRINTS
I would always say have a theme for your gallery wall, otherwise, it can be really overwhelming when looking at the massive range of prints available now. For me I wanted my wall to make me happy - so it had to be full of inspiring quotes or memories that made me happy. So I already knew by the time I looked at specific prints what I wanted. So I would then google more specific things like "London landscape prints", or "margarita print" etc. Also - make sure you know your colour scheme. As my room was yellow, grey with gold metals I wanted the prints to reflect that.
Also, look for deals. I got a lot of my prints from Desenio during one of their promotions - they do a lot, so make sure you shop around. Etsy is also a great resource because they tend to be more affordable than other sites like Not on the High Street - which I found to be quite pricey compared to others.
I found a few I liked, so would take screenshots and put them into my template and then played around to see what looked best, what didn't work and where things should go.
Tip Three: sleep on this before ordering anything. I came back the following day and decided I didn't like some of the prints I'd chosen and didn't really like the layout. I changed it multiple times before I finally ordered prints.
Once you've decided on your prints, you can then order your frames. I have all the same frames for all of my prints so it's all uniform.
Tip Four: make sure you order the frames as the exact size of the print, otherwise you will have issues like me! I had to do make shift mounts behind some of the prints as I just ordered all A3, A4 and A5.
ASSEMBLY
Once all the prints and frames had arrived, I spent a good while putting them all together as there were quite a few to do! Once I had done that, I measured out a space on the floor that was the same as the wall and then lay the frames out as per my original plan. When it was all laid out I found some pieces didn't work, and also I swapped some prints around because of how all the colours worked together and the style worked.
I also didn't put it up straight away, after that I went away and came back again after a bit - probably moved maybe one more thing around and I was then happy. Adam also gave his input and it was good to get a fresh pair of eyes on it.
Tip Five: less is more - if you're not sure on part of the template than leave it off to begin with, it's easier to add on than take off, fill holes and repaint. I had 3 A5 prints I had planned to put on but wasn't sure so we left them off when we put it all up and they've just never gone up!
Then came the assembly - which was Adam's job. He started in the top right corner and did all the top row first, and then started back on the second "row". I know he found it tricky making sure all the gaps were relatively even but I think he did a really good job. It may just take a bit of trial and error to work out what works best for you - but a pencil and a level will be your best friends. He also used a post it to try and work out spacing between which apparently worked well if you lined it up with the hook on the back. Will take his word for it!
Overall, I'm really pleased with the outcome. I love the wall and it does exactly what I wanted - cheers me up and motivates me when its needed. I have linked all the prints I got on the video here so check it out!
What would you put on your gallery wall?
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